Mississippi’s Old Waverly GC and Mossy Oak GC Featured on Traveling Golfer TV Show

(PHILADELPHIA, Pa.) — Gaining access to one of the great private golf clubs in America is no easy task. Often it takes intricate, inside connections.

The February episode of the Traveling Golfer television show unlocks the key to gaining access to one of America’s most memorable and acclaimed championship courses – Old Waverly Golf Club in West Point, Mississippi – as well as its sister club, Mossy Oak Golf Club.

Old Waverly was founded in 1988 after an inspired joint design effort by U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate and golf course architect Bob Cupp. It has hosted the 1999 U.S. Women’s Open, the 2006 U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur and the 2019 U.S. Women’s Amateur. The course has stood as a shining example of championship golf and southern hospitality from its inception.

In 2016 the golf experience was heightened with the opening, across the street, of Mossy Oak GC. Designed by acclaimed architect Gil Hanse, Mossy Oak was created as a daily fee complement to Old Waverly.
 The Traveling Golfer - West Point, Mississippi. Old Waverly and Mossy Oak

Over the years, a cluster of upscale villas and lodges have been constructed on the property and made available for rental by golf groups. Securing a stay-and-play package opens the opportunity for guests to play at Old Waverly, as well as Mossy Oak.

“My father built the first 9-hole golf course in West Point in 1958,” explains George Bryan, the founder of Old Waverly. “I worked on a tractor, disking the fairways, so I guess it was in my blood. Later, I put together a group of investors who were interested in golf and it quickly became evident that they wanted to do something special at Old Waverly.

“Mossy Oak, the second course, came about from our trips to Scotland,” continues Bryan, whose Scottish heritage is reflected throughout the Old Waverly clubhouse. "We fell in love with the country and decided to build sort of a links course on the rolling property we had.”

The net result is an out-of-the-way golf destination that is unlike many of the golf resorts that are popular with traveling golfers.

“The moment I set foot on the property, I knew I had entered a very special golf environment,” explained show host Tony Leodora. “There is a majesty to the property yet, at the same time, an overwhelming friendliness to everything about it. It is true proof of the term – Southern Hospitality.”

That atmosphere became very apparent during the shooting of this latest episode of the Traveling Golfer.

An interesting sidelight to the show are the interviews with nationally acclaimed teaching professionals V.J. Trolio and Tim Yelverton.

Trolio, a Top 100 Teacher, has been entrenched at Old Waverly since 2002 and provides some of the history of the instructional program, as well as the club’s association with the Mississippi State University golf team. Yelverton, a putting expert, unlocks some of his techniques as well as taking viewers inside the secret of The Putting Arc, a widely used putting trainer that was invented at Old Waverly by Trolio, member Dave Hamilton and his son Joey Hamilton.

The February episode of The Traveling Golfer airs as a scheduled weekly feature show on NBC Sports and NBC Sports + throughout four markets in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions. NBC Sports airings are 10:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. Sundays, 11:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and 11 a.m. on Thursdays. NBC Sports + airs the show at 8 p.m. Mondays and Fridays. In addition, the show airs nationally, every day, on the new Fun Roads Network (funroads.tv/schedule) – in the San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City and Wichita markets. It also will air a number of times in the Month of February on “Rivertalk” on HTC-4 in Myrtle Beach.

The show also airs on the Traveling Golfer network of websites ... including The Golf Director Network and The Myrtle Beach Golf Channel (see full list of sites on travelinggolfervideo.com).

As part of every Traveling Golfer show there is the additional feature, "Tech Talk", hosted by Tour Edge Golf experts, such as President Dave Glod. With years of experience as a club maker, Glod presents an inside look at the research and development of high-quality golf equipment.

Responding to golfers' never-ending demands to learn more about interesting golf courses and golf resorts across the country and around the world, well-traveled host Tony Leodora created the Traveling Golfer so he could take viewers on video trips to some of the most exciting golf locations. For the fourth time in five years, the show was honored as the No. 1 Golf Television Show in America in the prestigious International Network of Golf awards, presented at the PGA Merchandise Show in January of 2020.

The Traveling Golfer is a series of monthly shows hosted by Leodora, who has 19 years of experience in televised golf. The featured destination stays on the website for one month, before being replaced by a new show. Alternate shows also air in a two-month rotation. All old shows are archived for continued viewing on the YouTube Network and on the home website, www.travelinggolfervideo.com.