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I had played golf
in Florida, Arizona, Myrtle Beach, and California,
but never in the "Deep South" -- until summer
1997 when I took a 12-day trip to play 11 courses
in Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia. Now, all I can
say is, "I wish I was in Dixie."
I
flew to Jackson, Mississippi, in late July. For the
most part, golf's infrastructure in Mississippi lags
behind that of Alabama and Georgia. Predominantly
agrarian and rural, the state has had trouble competing
for business and tourist dollars with its more urbanized
and economically robust neighbors. Since the first
one opened in 1992, the casinos have helped dramatically.
But state leaders know that Mississippi must entice
visitors with more than gaming, a few southern mansions
in Natchez and a Civil War museum in Vicksburg.
One
casino has built a golf club -- a first-class golf
club.
The
first stop on my tour, Dancing Rabbit Golf Club, is
arguably the best course in Mississippi. It is located
in Philadelphia, in the red clay hills region of Mississippi
on the Choctaw Indian Reservation next to the Silverstar
Resort and Casino. The casino, the only land-based
gaming operation in the state, was built after the
tribal council legalized gambling about the same time
the state did. The resort includes a 500-room deluxe
hotel and a Las Vegas-style casino that attracts big
name entertainment and 3 1/2 million visitors a year.
Casino revenues finance the golf operation.
Dancing
Rabbit, named after the final treaty with the U.S.
government ceding land back to the Choctaws, is a
good walk decidedly unspoiled. The site features a
mature hardwood forest on rolling land that was left
undeveloped by generations of Choctaws.
On
his first walk-through, course co-designer Tom Fazio
commented that the place looked like it was made for
a golf course. The aim of Fazio, who collaborated
with former Open champion Jerry Pate, was to make
the course look like it had been there for a long
time. Despite only being opened in summer '97, it
does.
At
just over 7100 yards, the course features 13 elevated
greens and almost as many elevated tees. More than
a few approaches require carries over crests and hollows.
Yet, typical of Fazio designs, Dancing Rabbit is an
honest, fair test of golf.
Dancing
Rabbit has been landscaped beautifully with azaleas
and dogwoods. An extrawide curbed concrete cartpath
permits two carts to pass while protecting the turf.
And an underground air ventilation system protects
the bent-grass greens in a hot-humid climate that
is normally hostile to bent grass. Congressional's
superintendent Paul Latshaw toured the course that
spring before the Open at Congressional and, according
to William Richardson, the tribe's director of economic
development, "He [Latshaw] told my superintendent
that he wished his greens were as good as these."
The
golf club, including the picture postcard clubhouse
with two wraparound verandas and guest suites on the
third floor, was Richardson's idea. He knew the club
would make a good fit with the tribe's other enterprises
but he also envisioned a private golf club that would
rank among the best in the country. Play is restricted
to the 300 members and their guests and resort guests
on golf packages.
Richardson
visited some the country's better golf clubs to learn
all he could
about developing his club. He knew his plan would
go nowhere without Chief Phillip Martin's approval,
so he took the tribal leader to Annandale, the Nicklaus
course in Jackson and the site of the Deposit Guaranty
Classic. "I showed Chief Martin the 4th hole,"
said Richardson. "He looked around and said,
'It's nice. How much does a course like this cost?'
I told him anywhere from $3 million to $10 million.
'Ok,' he said, 'but if we do it, it must be the best.'
Of course, I agreed." Estimates of Dancing Rabbit's
cost range from $12 to $18 million.
Pate,
according to Richardson, has been promoting the club
as the next
Augusta National. If Dancing Rabbit achieves that
lofty stature, it will have
to compete with Dancing Rabbit #2, also a Fazio-Pate
collaboration, which is near completion right next
door. Richardson says it promises to be even more
spectacular. Opening is scheduled for Spring 1999.
For more information and reservations, call 1-800-922-9988.
Editor's
Notes:
- Dancing Rabbit Golf Course was rated #71 in Golf
& Travel magazine's 1999 "America's Top 100
Modern Courses".
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