Biloxi, Mississippi has two new golf courses born after Hurricane Katrina, or partly anyway.

The Preserve was designed by Jerry Pate and Fallen Oak was laid out by Tom Fazio. The two have co-designed courses before, and their friendly rivalry has been stoked by the fact their courses opened at roughly the same time.

The Preserve was close to opening when Katrina hit, and it landed a solid blow to the course and its pristine surroundings, two miles north of Interstate-10. It lost thousands of trees and part of the course was flooded.

The storm delayed the Bermuda grass grow-in process, and the club is replacing the downed trees with transplants from Florida. It opened this past July, and the excellent clubhouse opened just two weeks ago.

The Preserve is a beautiful course, surrounded by an 1,800-acre nature preserve. Service is excellent, even at a time when other Biloxi-area clubs are operating a bare-bones operation to make ends meet. They perform the unusual step of placing tarps over their Tid-Dwarf greens on frost days, which keeps them in immaculate shape.

Green fees are in the $90-$100 range, but that includes free range balls, yardage books and water, both in your cooler and on-course coolers. That’s a little high for the Biloxi area, but worth the money.

Look for the full review coming soon. As for Fallen Oak, I’m playing that course today.

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