Featured Getaway
Natchez Golf Club
Best Bargain in Golf in Historic Civil War Natchez, Mississippi
$ 10 and $ 16 green fees and magnificent antebellum homes. Part 2 of 3
Words and photos by Alan Hoskins, feature writer
Built on a 200-foot bluff, historic Natchez offers countless views of the Mississippi River.
For Civil War history buffs, few cities in the South loomed larger than Natchez, MS. But for golfers, there’ s no better deal in the whole U. S. than the one offered at the 110-year-old Natchez Golf Club at Duncan Park. Even with an increase in green fees this spring, senior golfers can play for $ 10 instead of $ 9; adults can play for $ 16 instead of $ 14 paid in 2025. Carts are an additional $ 18.
Southern hospitality at its best as General Manager Greg Brookings, and his beloved companion,“ Poppy” welcome golfers to the Natchez Golf Club.
“ The City of Natchez Aldermen believed, as a courtesy to taxpayers, recreation should be economical,” says Greg Brookings, who grew up playing at Duncan Park and has overseen its management for the past 30 years. Today, he hosts the 54-hole Norman Puckett Junior Championship, a world ranking event.“ Best municipal course in Mississippi, by far,” he declared.
So, what do you get for your $ 10 or $ 16? A delightful and charming 18 holes and a step back into Civil War history. It can be honestly said that our group of golf writers was amazed by the quality and care of this par-71 course that journeys through a garden-like, hardwood forest of flowering Dogwoods, Azaleas, Crepe Myrtles, towering Long Leaf Pine trees, and Oaks draped in Spanish Moss.
You also get two distinctive 9-hole courses. The historical front nine established by Seymour Dunn in 1916 is just plain charming, with gentle topography that challenges but rewards accurate drives and precise short irons. The back nine, built by Brian Ault in 1993, features rolling terrain, undulating Bermuda greens, and 150-year-old pines that rise 200 feet high.“ My one regret is that we lost so many trees that would be over 200 years old now,” says Brookings.
For the past 30 years, Brookings has been the major mover in the management and advancement of what started as a“ dirt farm.” A graduate of LSU with a major in botany, he renamed the course Natchez Golf Club at Duncan Park 10 years ago as a community gesture. The epitome of Mississippi’ s famed southern hospitality, Brookings and his dog“ Poppy” frequently whisk about the course, welcoming patrons and often sharing stories of the course’ s historic past.
“ Part of this course was a cotton field, and during the Civil War, the Union Army set up tents on the course,” says Brookings.“ Even today, we sometimes find cannon balls, belt buckles, bullets, and other relics.” History will also show that golfing legends such as Walter Hagen, Sam Snead, and Babe Zaharias played the course in the 1920s and 30s, and that General Ulysses Grant stayed at Rosalie House.
In the decades preceding the Civil War, Natchez was a bastion for segregation, and it wasn’ t until about 1967 that blacks were permitted to play golf at Duncan Park.“ Nothing like that anymore,” says Brookings.“ As a child, I grew up playing with black kids. A lot of transformation, all for the good.”
Located on a bluff 200 feet above the Mississippi River, Natchez is about 85 miles north of Baton Rouge, LA, and 90 miles from the state capital of Jackson. The oldest city in the state and one of the most important European settlements in the Mississippi River Valley, Natchez was founded by the French in 1716. Later ruled by the Spanish and British, it served as Mississippi’ s first capital until 1822.
Taking advantage of slave labor and prolific cotton and sugarcane fields, both southern and northern planters flocked to Natchez, which quickly became a principal port from which cotton and sugar were shipped both downriver to New Orleans and upriver to northern cities. It was also infamously one of the South’ s largest slave markets.
With the immense wealth garnered by the high demand for cotton came huge, majestic mansions that reflected the elegance of the wealthy. Fortunately, they still stand today, thanks to wise actions by city leaders on September 13, 1862. Union armies on the move, ravaging and destroying Confederate cities, city leaders abruptly surrendered, thus saving the probable destruction and ravaging of the mansions and other historic buildings that would later befall Port Gibson and Vicksburg.
16 JULY 2026 TEE TIMES GOLF GUIDE