Great Southern Golf ClubGreat Southern is located on the Gulf of Mexico. Designed by Donald Ross, the course features square greens and also was a PGA Tour stop in 1945 when Sam Snead battled Byron Nelson in a 19th hole playoff. While the clubhouse was destoryed by Hurricane Katrina and two greens were reclaimed by the sea - Great Southern has reopened and as of August 2007 has restored those greens and is playing better than ever! Great Southern is the birthplace of Mississippi golf, built in 1908 to give the Yankee tourists something to do when they stepped off the old L&N Railroad besides drink bourbon and lay in the sun. Why not a golf course? 
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The railroad track still runs through the course; you have to look both ways before heading to the tee box on No. 9, and the rumble of the train reverberates through the centuries-old oak trees, twisted and weathered with age. You half expect someone to invite you onto the veranda and offer you a mint julep, complaining about carpetbaggers.The course is an old Donald Ross design and has been through all the turmoil and tumult that weather and politics has thrown at it in the 20th century and beyond. It's survived both World Wars, Hurricanes Camille and Katrina, multiple ownership changes and the USGA. Somehow, they managed to satisfy golf's stern, ruling body and keep Ross' peculiar square greens.The names that have put down divots here are famous and revered: Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Gene Sarazen and Babe Zaharias, and, oh yeah, Woodrow Wilson. The former president played the course every day when he spent his Christmas vacations here. |