Ohio Golf Journal March 2020

Biloxi The Gulf Hills Hotel and Conference Center in Biloxi, Mississippi, offers another step back in time and still follows a strict adherence to southern hospitality. Gulf Hills first opened during prohibition and had an interesting beginning. The hotel was built in 1927 by a development company from Chicago and was funded by mob money to be a hideout for the infamous Al Capone. It also helped that the hotel’s back door was on a convenient waterway from the Gulf, which made it easy to transfer illegal hooch from boats onto nearby railroad cars for shipment north. Point Clear was a strategic Confederate fort on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay during the Civil War. To honor its heritage the hotel staff fire a canon shot every afternoon as a salute to its military history. The hotel sits on the beach and early evening strolls are made perfect with a stunning sunset over Mobile Bay. The Lakewood Club at the Grand Hotel is another of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail facilities. They have two 18- hole, Perry Maxwell designed championship courses, The Dogwood and the Azalea. The Dogwood Course will host the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur in September. Watch this video with the Director of Golf at the Lakewood Club, Niall Fraser. He has been involved with the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, since the very beginning and was involved in the construction.