The golf course at LeFleur’s Bluff State Park remains closed.
“We continue to mow and maintain the tee boxes,” said Larry Pugh, deputy director of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, which manages the course.
“We have drainage issues to fix related to flooding. The course goes under water every spring.”
Plans for Otter Creek Golf Park at LeFleur’s Bluff State Park were announced in April but funding did not come about.
Otter Creek Golf Course, with design influence from Robert Trent Jones II, world-renowned golf architect, and Nathan Crace, Mississippi based golf architect, was to feature a 10-hole, par-3, walkable course with holes ranging from 70-150 yards, a state-of-the-art driving range, 18-hole putting course, separate putting green, a new clubhouse, and will be accessible for nighttime play.
Gov. Tate Reeves nixed the project as part of line-item vetoes in a state infrastructure bill. “What the government should not be in the business of, right now or at any other time, is spending taxpayer dollars on building more golf courses and upgrading private pools when there are far more appropriate ways to use this money,” he said.
The golf course at LeFleur’s Bluff closed in the fall of 2019 for winterizing and has not reopened since.
In 2018, the most recent year for which data is available about it, the nine-hole golf course lost $66,000. Expenses for the course totaled $197,000, while revenues generated were $130,801.
Use of the course had dwindled year to year. Between Jan. 1 and Oct. 15, 2019, 7,396 rounds of golf were played there, an average of 704 a month.
By comparison, an average of 741 rounds of golf were played each month in calendar year 2018, while an average of 732 rounds were played each month in 2017, according to the department’s numbers.
The Refuge in Flowood, which is about 5.5 miles from LeFleur’s Bluff, reopened to the public in 2021 after being closed for more than two years.
The city of Flowood sank a little more than $2 million into the course to rework it so it has a more playable layout with three new holes and returning nines.
The daily-fee/resort course underwent an 18-hole course renovation under the direction of golf course architect, Nathan Crace, which included a new irrigation system, tree removal, new cart paths and re-grassing.
The result is a more open course that is routed through stands of towering pines and centuries-old oaks, while preserving the natural habitat and wildlife found throughout the property.
