Six Mississippi Courses Honored on Golfweek’s “Best Casino Courses” List

(JACKSON, Miss.) – The Mississippi Development Authority (www.visitmississippi.org/golf.aspx) announces six Mississippi golf courses have been named to Golfweek’s annual “Best Casino Courses” list.

The courses – along with their affiliated casino resorts and rankings – are:
* No. 2: Fallen Oak (Beau Rivage Resort & Casino)
* No. 27: The Preserve Golf Club (Palace Casino Resort)
* No. 30: Grand Bear Golf Course (Grand Biloxi Casino Hotel & Spa)
* No. 33: Dancing Rabbit Golf Club, Azaleas Course (Pearl River Resort)
* No. 40: Dancing Rabbit Golf Club, Oaks Course (Pearl River Resort)
* No. 50: The Bridges Golf Course at Hollywood Casino (Hollywood Casino)

One of two states with more than five courses on the list, Mississippi ranked behind only Arizona (eight) and ahead of Nevada and California in claiming the most top-50 spots.

“The Magnolia State is the perfect destination for golf and gaming, with a variety of courses designed by today’s leading architects, great weather year-round and a surplus of exciting casinos,” says Mississippi Tourism Director Malcolm White.  “We are honored to have Golfweek recognize so many of our courses on its annual list.”

Fallen Oak, an amenity of Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, once again ranked second, behind its sister course and fellow MGM Resorts International property Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas. The Tom Fazio design is open exclusively to guests of the resort and annually hosts the PGA Champions TOUR’s Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic in March.

The Preserve Golf Club, an amenity of Palace Casino Resort in Biloxi, was designed by U.S. Open Champion Jerry Pate and is set on a nature preserve with cypress swamps and marshy wetlands.

Grand Casino Biloxi’s amenity course, Grand Bear, is a 7,200-yard Jack Nicklaus Signature course that meanders through cypress wetlands and the red-clay banks of the Big Biloxi and Little Biloxi Rivers.

A collaboration of Tom Fazio and Jerry Pate, Dancing Rabbit’s Azaleas and Oaks courses at Pearl River Resort are owned and operated by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.  The courses sit among ancient pines and utilize the natural landscape’s gently rolling hills and valleys.

On the banks of Bay of St. Louis lies the only Arnold Palmer Signature Course in Mississippi: The Bridges Golf Club at Hollywood Casino.  Making its debut on the annual list, the course features 600 acres of moss-draped live oaks, magnolias, saltwater marsh and pines.

Stay-and-play package deals are available on the Visit Mississippi website.

For more information: www.visitmississippi.org/golf.aspx  or call toll-free 1.866.801.8551.