Mossy Oak Golf Club (West Point, MS on 06/16/18)

After maybe six hours in Memphis we hit the road heading back towards the Mid-Atlantic! We ended up zigzagging our way back and stopped in Mississippi and Alabama on Friday and Saturday nights, respectively.

On Friday night we stayed in northeast Mississippi (West Point) as part of a stay and play package. Our package included a round on both the Mossy Oak and Old Waverly courses and one night in the on-site lodging. All in all it ran each guy in our foursome about $300. Not bad when you consider that Mossy Oak and Old Waverly are two of the top courses in the state.

We started Saturday out at Mossy Oak, which is a recent Gil Hanse creation. In an era when golf courses are closing left and right, Mossy Oak stands out because it is one of a handful of courses to open in recent years. When I hear Gil Hanse’s name I immediately think of the 2016 Olympics because the events showcased his work. I also think of Rustic Canyon in Southern California, which is the only other Hanse course that I’ve played. If you don’t have any experience with a Hanse design then think of the movement in golf course architecture towards minimalism. Those sorts of courses are the ones Hanse designs.

From the reading that I did, Mossy Oak was built on an old dairy farm. The open land is likely what defines Mossy Oak the most! With all the tree-lined courses east of the Mississippi River, Mossy Oak is different and that is something I liked a ton about it. The first tee is right next to the practice area and from there you have a panoramic view of the driving range, putting green, clubhouse and many of the holes at Mossy Oak. You can even make out the expansive bunker guarding the 17th green, way off in the distance. More on that bunker towards the end! The setting, with so few trees, is quite unusual for a course in the south. Except for the perimeter holes, which remind you of your location in the United States, Mossy Oak almost looks like a prairie course or a course that would be found in an area with sandy soil.

Visually, Mossy Oak looks outstanding. Besides sweeping views the natural grass, the hazards and the bunkers make Mossy Oak an eye pleasing course. There turned out to be a lot of good colors at Mossy Oak, and a beautiful, blue sky morning certainly helped with that. Much of the natural grass was starting to glow while the vegetation near some of the small streams was a deep green. The bunkers contrasted nicely against the usual golf course colors.

For me though, besides the visual appeal, Mossy Oak never really excited me. I’m not going to argue with you if you say there are some brilliant, short par-4’s and tons of options on each shot. Actually, I’d agree with you. Still, that intangible “fun factor” was missing from my round at Mossy Oak. Part of that is I probably expected too much from the round since it was the most we paid for a green fee on the trip. Another thing was that we had to take a forecaddie. A final part was that the design was just too modern for my tastes.

I’m not trying to knock the forecaddie, please don’t take it like that! I thought our guy did a great job! I’ve never played with a caddie or forecaddie before, and it turned out to be a distracting experience for me. Part of the fun I get from a new course is trying to figure out where I need to hit the ball and I love trying to read the greens at new courses. The forecaddie thing just seemed to keep me from any rhythm.

Then, like so many modern courses the design just wasn’t my cup of tea. I thought Mossy Oak was overbunkered and that the green complexes tried too hard to test you on an otherwise benign layout. You can really spray it out here! I’ll spare you my bunker rant and just say that I would have liked Mossy Oak more if it had half the bunkers. What’s hilarious is that Hanse put in a couple bunkers just steps from the 14th tee box. These bunkers serve no purpose as no one playing the 13th or the 14th holes are going to find them! Apparently he was adamant about their importance, for some reason. The edges of the greens seemed to repel shots and feed everything into collection areas, which were surrounded by mounds. I’m pretty handy around the greens and managed to hit a variety of shots, but you’ll likely need to go high and low at just the right times to get a short game shot close.

We played the blue tees and from there the course is 71.0/127/6497. When I think about the memorable holes at Mossy Oak, the only two holes that are firmly burned into my mind are the watery, par-3 11th and the sandy, par-5 17th. On the scorecard, the 11th is longest par-3 at Mossy Oak. It tops out at 250 yards from the tips and is 224 yards from the blue tees! I think someone realized those yardages were a bit much because of the long carry over water. Most of the tees were pushed forward on this hole to allow for mid-irons. The 17th is a quirky par-5 that I’ll remember for a long time because of its silly greenside bunker! The holes slides left and there is a massive bunker short and left of the green. I guess technically the bunker isn’t “greenside”, but it was close enough to snag my 3-wood approach. It has to be 15 feet deep and it went on forever. It took me two blasts to get the ball out and I was just swinging at the blue sky, without any idea of where the green was located.

Conditions at Mossy Oak were great, just what you’d expect from a premium course. Tees, fairways, greens, bunkers and the little rough that was out there – all were perfectly conditioned and playing firm and fast! To me Mossy Oak was kind of “meh”, but others in my group enjoyed it much more than I did. If you think there is a chance you’d like the course then I say give it a try.

#1 (398 yard par 4):