Mention Vicksburg, Mississippi and you’re more than likely to generate a response on events that took place over 150-years ago.
Vicksburg is famous as the site of the Civil War battle that was fiercely fought in 1863 around the city and along the stunning cliff tops overlooking the great Mississippi River.
A little-known fact also is that in March 1894 Joseph A. Biedenharn, a local confectioner, bottled Coca-Cola for a first occasion and they say the rest is history.
Vicksburg National Military Park
The Biedenharn Candy Co where Coca-Cola was first bottled in 1894.
The city of Vicksburg is located about 230 miles north of New Orleans and lies on the Mississippi River in the State of Mississippi and with the State of Louisiana on the western bank of the river.
During the Civil War, the city surrendered during the Siege of Vicksburg, after which the Union Army gained control of the entire river.
The 47-day siege was intended to starve the city into submission. Its location atop a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi River proved otherwise impregnable to assault by federal troops. The surrender of Vicksburg by Confederate General John C. Pemberton on July 4, 1863, together with the defeat of General Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg the day before, historically marked the high water for the Confederacy and turning point in the Civil War in the Union’s favour.
USS Cairo on show within the Vicksburg Nationa; Military Park
The USS Cairo in its full glory.
However, the Siege of Vicksburg didn’t end there as in 1964 a unique discovery was made just to the north of Vicksburg and that was locating the long forgotten USS Cairo an ironclad gunboat lying in sediment at the bottom of the Yazoo River.
The USS Cairo had been launched in January 1862 but less than a year later it was sent to a murky death having become the first ship in the history of the world to be sunk by a line of man-operated mines that took the shape of five gallon glass demijohn’s filled with explosives and in those days they were termed torpedoes.
It’s all very fascinating and no trip to Vicksburg can be made without visiting the Vicksburg Military Park and also inspecting the time warp that is the USS Cairo that is on display within the park.
A photo overhead showing the Vicksburg CC and the Vicksburg Military Park now split by the I-20
There’s no sunken ironclad gun boats to be found playing golf at the Vicksburg Country Club and, if anything, the only trouble is Durken Creek that cuts and winds its way not only through the golf club but also the military park.
Indeed, the creek comes into play first just off the tee at the fourth but makes its presence felt in tackling the fifth and lying within wedge distance of the uphill green, but if you have safely negotiated the fourth and fifth then Durken Creek comes very much back into play at the 12th, twice on the par four 13th, 15th, 16th and 17th holes.
Vicksburg Country Club off the back or white tees the course is a par 72 measuring 6,059 yards and boasting three par fives at the ninth, 11th and 15th holes while there is 10 pars four, the longest being the 431-yard fourth hole and the shortest the 270-yard sixth.
Vicksburg CC – Card of the course
Pat Buhrmann – The Head Professional at Vicksburg Country Club and ready to extend you a warm welcome to the club
That leaves five par threes with the 12th playing the longest at 227-yards and the shortest but my no means the easiest, the 123-yard closing hole.
Vicksburg’s No. 1 index hole is the 402-yard par four 13th, a classic dog-left left where the green is guarded by the creek while the No. 18 index is the 171-yard par three 17th.
Stately trees define most of the fairways while there is many placed in position around the greens to make if that much more testing if you’re on the wrong side of the fairway.
John Van Kleek who in 1929 laid out the Vicksburg CC
The course was designed in 1929 by John Van Kleek, an American no doubt with Dutch heritage, who had graduated from Cornell University in 1912 after receiving his Masters in Landscape Design the following year.
While that period in golf design was famous for the likes of Donald Ross and A W Tillinghast, Kleek was just as sought after leaving his thumb print on over 50 courses across the U.S.
Kleek laid out the Albuquerque Country Club which opened in 1914 and joined Wayne Stiles in 1923, becoming a partner the following year. Van Kleek primarily worked in the busy Florida office until 1930 when he left the firm to work for Robert Moses in New York. He designed courses from South America to upstate New York, including private, public and municipal courses.
Vicksburg Country Club … View off the 4th tee (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
View from behind the 5th green and looking back down the fairway. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Vicksburg Country Club – The sun shines over the 5th green. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Among other courses designed by Kleek include the much acclaimed Tarconic GC in Williamstown, Massachusetts, Omaha GC in Omaha, Nebraska and Tarpon Springs, a lovely public course I’ve played located just north of Innisbrook and venue each year for the Valspar Championship.
Kleek, also worked at times with Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen. He passed away in 1967 aged 79 and his biography is contained in The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles along with numerous photographs.
Kleek’s design of Vicksburg was laid out on the southern end of the Vicksburg National Battleground Park with a road at the time that wound through the park and leading to the clubhouse. Today, the course is no longer within the confines of the park and is separated by I-20 that after playing the course took me all the way straight to Augusta National.
Vicksburg Country Club and the view off the 6th tee. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
The view off the 7th tee at the Vicksburg CC. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Vicksburg Country Club – View from the 9th tee and with the clubhouse in the background.
Vicksburg Country Club is an attractive-looking course but, and if I can put it this way, played out over two vastly different elevations.
The opening three holes are found on relatively a flat landscape while at the fourth and fifth holes you hit from elevated tees hitting to fairways well below and with each crossing Durken Creek before hitting into raised greens. The last four opening half holes along with 10th and 11th return to the flater landscape of the first three holes.
The short but testing par three 10th hole at Vicksburg CC. (Image – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Then after leaving the 11th green there is the elevated tee at the par three 12th to a tricky green ahead of making your way to the 402-yard 13th, again an elevated tee and a real local knowledge hole where you hit to a dog-leg left fairway well below the tee. Here with your tee shot you first have to negotiate Durken Creek and then the creek comes into play with your approach shot.
Little wonder in walking off the 13th why it is rated the No. 1 index hole at Vicksburg Country Club.
The 13th hole tee marker at Vicksburg CC . Study it well before tee off.
The view off the 13th to the fairway below. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
The approach shot into the 13th green at Vicksburg CC. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
Kleek designed an ‘L’ shaped dog-leg right hole at the par four 14th playing 377-yards where you have to avoid, at all costs, being right off the tee or likely a lost ball into a ravine-like feature. The hole rises with each step to a green situated to the right of a protective fence.
The par five 15th hole presents you with a sixth elevated tee of the round and a par five test of 455-yards. It is very much a mirror of the fourth and fifth holes that you will see laid out to the left of the 15th.
The 14th hole at Vicksburgh CC & where you need to avoid the right at all costs.
The sun lights up the 15th hole at Vicksburg CC. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
I found the par four 16th to be Vicksburg’s trickest if only as I had never played the course before and I was playing by myself on this occasion.
Once again it is an elevated tee to a fairway below that dog-legs right. I found the fairway but then for a second or two began to wonder where was the green. In fact, it was at right-angles to the fairway perched just high as the tee and requiring a second shot to an unseen green and using the flagstick as your target to the green, and where you can’t be short.
Woh! What a daunting tee shot being a first timer. The 16th hole at the Vicksburg CC. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
The very raised green at the par four, 16th at Vicsburg CC. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
View from behind the 17th greenind the green at Vicksburg CC. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
The par four 17th is the seventh hole at Vicksburg where you play from an elevated tee and the fairway below crosses behind the back on the 13th green on your right and to a tight elevated green. It is a par four at just 362-yards but a real ‘sleeper’ hole that could ruin a good score.
Your round at Vicksburg ends making your way back to area of the course level with the opening few holes and a 123-yard par three playing to 123-yards.
Bernie’s Koala Bear much-travelled headcover somehow manages to find its way to yet another 18th hole tee marker.
18th Hole .. View to the green at Vicksburg CC. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)
It’s a course that is by no means a walkover and does command respect at every turn.
However squeezed in between reporting on the Shell Houston Open and making my way to being present at the Masters, a stop over in Vicksburg was an ideal opportunity to embrace myself in the tragic events of 1863 but also stretch the legs, loosen the shoulders and tackle a most enjoyable golfing challenge.
And thank you to Pat and his team at Vicksburg Country Club for the very warm welcome and hospitality as therein lies the strength of any golf club.
