Champions Tour Evidence of Mississippi “Golf Coast” Fully Recovered From Katrina
Two New Courses Since Katrina’s Impact, Golf Tourism Growing and the PGA Champions Tour, This Coastal Resort Destination With 11 Casinos & 60 Miles of Gulf of Mexico Coast Is Back As a Golf Mecca
Biloxi, MS: When Katrina handed the Mississippi Gulf Coast the largest catastrophic event in US history, all area golf course shut down for weeks, months and some for a year. But while people are more important than a game in those days following this event, golf courses proved to be key members of the community and their faculties were used to distribute water, organize and feed first responders and were places of refuge. Also, just days after impact when most in the golf industry questioned their future, golfers could be found sneaking on closed courses with sailboats and couches in the fairways to play a quick nine. Despite the reality of the situation, locals went to golf to get away from the daily grind of recovery and those here to help in the recovery found golf a refuge of normalcy in chaos. While we in golf always have felt our game was special, those of us on the coast that experienced this event now realized it was true. Golf is not just a game here, it’s a way of life and the people of the coast have loved this game for over 100 years. Golf was introduced here by the railroad who hired Tom Bendelow, the Johnny Appleseed of Golf, in 1902 to build 2 courses to get Chicago travelers on their trains. The area boasted 7 courses in the 20’s making it a golf Mecca in those early days of the game was nicknamed the “Golf Coast in 1926. The area hosted many events in the early years with a partnership with the Western Golf Association and the fact that Olympia Fields in Chicago head pro was also the Biloxi C.C. head pro. It hosted PGA Tour events in the 40’s and golf played a huge role in the areas development as a tourism destination and Golf will play a huge role in the areas growth in the future.
The industry didn’t sit and wait for help even though tens of thousands of trees were toppled on area courses and clubhouses’ were leveled. It began to rebuild almost instantly and instinctively and made plans to improve greens, tees and clubhouses. Most courses are better as a result of this investment and those that lost clubhouses have new state of the art ones now. Incredibly, it welcomed golf tourism visitor’s months after the storm. Today, just shy of five years after, this region is back on the world stage with the Champions Tour Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic and is back to the vibrant coastal golf get away it was pre-Katrina – maybe better than it was before. It now has 2 new courses since then, one being the Tom Fazio designed host of the Champions Tour and the other The Preserve by Jerry Pate who, ironically, will be playing in the Champions Tour event here. The state has about 1 million golf visitors that spent an estimated $593.5 million in the state yearly pursuing their passion and the coast is the largest golf tourism destination in the state.
For more info go to www.GolfCoast.com or call 866-383-GOLF. For MS Gulf Resort Classic Champions Tour info go to www.golfcoast.com/champions/. For a FREE Golf Package Quote go to www.GolfCoast.com/plan-your-trip.
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