The Great Southern GC, Mississippi Reborn & Rebounds From Hurricane Katrina.

The destruction Hurricane Harvey  caused to golf courses in Houston and now the onslaught of Hurricane Irma immediately rekindled memories of a visit earlier this year to a golf course in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Bizarrely, it is exactly 12 years ago Hurricane Katrina wreaked havoc to the east of Texas slamming into the Gulf Coast submerging New Orleans and causing death and unbelievable destruction all the way to Florida.

While the clean-up and rebuilding after ‘Harvey’  continues (September 8th, 2017) golfers all along the Gulf Coast, including the members of the Great Southern Golf Course remember vividly the effects of ‘Katrina’ that not only destroyed the coure with stunning views over the Gulf but obliterated the wonderful Arcadian-style clubhouse.

The Great Southern course was designed by legendary Donald Ross and was opened in 1908 and is recognised as Mississippi’s oldest golf course.

The land on which the course is located was once owned by Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, whose home Beauvoir, is located east of the golf course in Biloxi. The original nine-hole course sported oyster shell tee boxes and sand greens. Several years later the greens were converted to grass.

In 1910 a clubhouse was built by Bert Jones in an old English-gable style and the course became known as the Great Southern Golf and Country Club.  Sadly, at the age of 32, Bert Jones died on Christmas Day in 1910 shortly after the clubhouse was completed.

In 1913 Woodrow Wilson, President of the United Stales, spent his Christmas holidays on the Coast playing the course everyday except Sunday and was photographed in front of the existing clubhouse swinging a club. He stated that it was one of the finest and most beautiful courses that he had ever played.

Land north of the L & N Railroad was acquired in 1921 by the owners, the Stewart family of Gulfport, to make room for an additional nine holes. By 1922 they were completed, following the original designs inspired by Donald Ross.

The great Walter Hagen (2nd from right) at Great Southern.

The course soon became known nationwide, attracting such golfing greats as Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Jock Hutchinson and Henry Cotton.

Championship golf came to Great Southern and in 1944 Harold “Jug” McFadden won the Gulf Coast invitational and a year later Sam Sneed defeated Byron Nelson, and who won a record 11 times in 1945, on the nineteenth hole of a sudden death playoff on hole No. 1. It was Snead’s second of also six victories that year on the PGA Tour and his prize was a share of the $6,000 in war bonds.

The courese attracted other greats of the game including Byron Nelson, Walter Hagen, Ben Hogan and England great Henry Cotton.

Photo of Augusta National founder Bobby Jones and unidentiied person beside him in the clubhouse at Great Southern

A milestone ended in 1962 and another chapter began when Mrs. Joe W. Brown purchased the course from Charles H. Stewart for $1,000,000. The Stewart family had operated the course for 54 years.

The course became known as the Broadwater Sea Course and a part of the Broadwater Hotel Resort which was purchased by the President Casino in the early 1990’s.

The President Casino owned and operated the course until 1993 when the course was purchased by members and local residents who reclaimed the essence of the original name, and called it the Great Southern Golf Club.

A wonderful view from the Great Southern GC over teh Gulf Coast.

Looking down the 18th hole at the Great Southern GC – Mississippi’s oldest golc club.

In November of 1964, the club hosted the Mary Mills Gulf Coast Invitational, which was a sanctioned tournament by the LPGA. The tournament was won by Hall of Famer Micki Wright, and the purse of $16,000.00 was the largest at that time for a LPGA event. Mary Mills, perhaps the club’s most famous member and a Gulfport woman playing on her home course, had won the Ladies U. S. Open the previous year in 1963 in the first televised LPGA tournament.

In 1999 Brian Curly renovated the course, being careful not to alter one of the Donald Ross trademarks — square-faced greens.

But then no-one expected the wrath of ‘Katrina’.

The destruction Hurricane Katrina caused to the Great Southern GC clubhouse.

The destruction caused to the course by Hurricane Katrina

With the clubhouse washed away Great Southern, and for the next eight years, operated out of a trailer.

However, in May, 2012 Great Southern, and with just six members, was ladden with debt and on the verge of shutting down.

“Essentially they were going to shut it down in May 2012 and we were about one hour away from foreclosure,” said Mike Ryan, one of the ‘rescue’ investors.

The group set to work to rebuild the clubhouse, and costing $US 15m, and importantly restore the golf course to as near as possible to the orignial Ross design.

The rebuilt Great Southern clubhouse. (Photo – www.golfbytourmiss.com)

A very colourful painting of the clubhouse within the Great Southern GC clubhouse.

But what ‘Katrina’ destroyed investors and dedicated members and Gulf Port citizens rebuilt and restored.

The new 4,800 square foot clubhouse opened in July 2013 and offers a modern Pro Shop, the 1908 Bar and Grill, and ball room and meeting spaces. The club’s website says the design captures the architectural themes of the original clubhouse and is built on the same site, surrounded by ancient, majestic oaks, palms, and magnolias; and overlooking the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.

The Club invested over $1 million in 2013-14 to restore the clubhouse and golf course to top playing condition.

Scorecard of the Great Southern GC

In the modern era, PGA tour professional Michael Allen, another one of Mississippi’s famous golfing prodigies said this in 2014:  “I love to walk the great Southern Golf course in Gulfport, Mississippi. It’s like going back in time playing the course where the former ‘greats’ competed.

“The Great Southern is a golfing jewel on the Gulf Coast. It is also a great ‘warm’up’ for me for playing in the annual PGA Mississippi Gulf Coast Resort Classic.”  (Champions Tour event at Biloxi and won this year by Spain’s Miguel Angel Jimenez).



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