After ten hours of driving yesterday I called it quits and stayed in Baton Rouge. A friend of mine has been working in Louisiana for a while now and we try to align our schedules for some food and golf whenever I’m passing through the area. We had a tasty dinner on Friday at City Pork Brasserie & Bar and headed to Copper Mill Golf Club on Saturday morning.

Copper Mill is about twenty minutes north of downtown Baton Rouge and without much traffic it didn’t feel very far out of the way. We teed off at 9:15 AM and had an interesting experience with the other twosome we paired up with. More on that shortly though.

Copper Mill, which opened in 2004, is designed by Max Maxwell and Nathan Crace. I’m not sure of the professional relationship between Maxwell and Crace, but it appears they have worked together on a handful of design projects. Most of their work is in the Deep South and while I follow Crace on Instagram, I haven’t played many of his courses. My experience playing the design was positive so I’ll be on the lookout for other Crace courses on future trips to Florida.

The course is part of Louisiana’s Audubon Golf Trail and on a personal note, it represents the 8th course on the trail I’ve played. Usually the courses on the trail are in solid shape and that was the case here, even with winter conditions this time of year. The tees were mostly full, just sanded. The fairways had good grass coverage and were quite firm. Lies were tight and it was easy to blade shots if I wasn’t careful. The greens also had some sand on them so putts rolled slower than I expected.

We played the black tees which are 73.3/134/6866 and as a medium-length hitter I had my hands full with the lengthy golf holes. The next set of tees up are only 6,190 yards so a combo set of tees would be nice. Besides the distance, the greens have all sorts of sections and angles. There is a 623 yard par-5 on the front nine and then a 654 yard par-5 on the back nine! Those are actually two of the course’s six par-5’s which go with six par-3’s and six par-4’s. For the most part all those long shots worked out fine because Copper Mill doesn’t have much target golf (think large fairways).

The front and back nine here differ quite a bit. The front nine is shorter, doesn’t have any homes nearby and probably has the more pedestrian golf holes. The 2nd, a 185 yard par-3, stands out though. The tee shot needs to carry a natural area and then the green angles from front left to back right, along the hazard. It is one of a collection of holes I found visually intimidating while standing over my shot, only to find out that there is plenty of space.

I thought the back nine was the better nine, even though it has more homes around. The back nine is more traditional Louisiana golf with water in play on seven holes. The 12th through the 14th and then closing holes from the 16th through the 18th are the highlights. The 12th is that 654 yard par-5 while the 13th is a long par-3 over water. The 14th is a wacky par-5 with two forced carries over wetlands and blind landing areas, but it is actually a great birdie chance. The closing stretch includes a driveable par-4 and then an old chimney on the hole after that – possibly part of the old copper mill.

Earlier I mentioned that twosome we paired up with. They were decent guys but one of them flipped out when the starter rolled by on the 14th hole to tell us that we were three holes behind the group in front and to pick it up. My friend and I did what we could to speed us along throughout the round, but unfortunately groups were stacked up behind us. I thought for a minute or two that I was going to have to break up a fight between that dude and the starter! The twosome skipped a hole and our overall pace was right at four hours.

For $50 I have no complaints about Copper Mill. I wouldn’t mind golfing here again when the bermuda is growing and when everything presents better than it did today. Copper Mill isn’t a destination course, but it is an above-average public course that should be a consideration if you are in Baton Rouge.

Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):