SAUCIER, Miss. – Golf architect Tom Fazio is a heavyweight in the private club world. His designs pepper the Golfweek’s Best list of top private courses across the U.S., with dozens of such facilities among the top modern courses in the country.
Wade Hampton Club in North Carolina, Congaree in South Carolina, Estancia in Arizona — those and more than 50 others rank highly, and they’re all private. His courses tend to be part of clubs that excel in catering to their memberships’ every whim.
Fazio also has excelled in building courses for another segment of golf: casinos. Fazio either designed or collaborated on seven of the top 50 casino courses in the U.S. Best of all, these highly ranked layouts are open to the public, albeit sometimes only to guests staying at the affiliated casino resort.
Fazio’s Shadow Creek in Las Vegas has topped the Golfweek’s Best rankings of casino courses in the U.S. for years. The over-the-top desert layout in North Las Vegas is a testament to what might be accomplished when money is no issue, and the layout’s $1,000-plus green fee is aligned with that. The amount of play at Shadow Creek is also limited — stay at the MGM, take a limo to the course, be treated like a star.
But there’s another way to experience the best of Fazio casino golf that shouldn’t be missed, and it’s much more attainable.
No. 18 at Fallen Oak in Mississippi (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Fallen Oak near Biloxi, Mississippi, is a much more natural layout than Shadow Creek. And the course – operated in conjunction with MGM’s Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, a AAA Four Diamond award winner — might offer the best opportunity for public golfers to experience a top Fazio layout and all the first-rate trappings that generally come with it. Fallen Oak is No. 2 on the Golfweek’s Best list of top casino courses in the U.S.
From the gated entrance and long drive past live oaks and ponds to the stately clubhouse, all the way to the personalized lockers and frozen watermelon served at the turn on a hot day, Fallen Oak makes a public-access player feel like a member of an elite club. The service is second to none in the public-access golf world.
Director of golf Mark Powell makes sure of it.
“We want it to feel special, that, ‘Hey, I’m at a great golf course,’ ” said the longtime PGA of America pro who took the helm at Fallen Oak in 2021. “We want to be there every step of the way. We want everyone on staff to know your name.”
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