Championship Without a Gate

Thirty-five to forty minutes south of downtown, the Delta flattens and the casinos glitter at the edge of vision. Turn toward Champions Lane instead. Mark McCumber, a Tour player who knew how a championship hole should argue, laid 7,210 yards of public golf across rolling Zoysia and Champion Bermuda. Six sets of tees. Water used as strategy, not as decoration. Landing areas generous enough that a visiting handicap is not humiliated on the first tee, then tightened when the round grows up. Collared shirts. No denim. The dress code is the club’s way of saying the course is still a course. Slope sits in the high 120s. The tips are a full day’s work. The forward markers are a handsome walk.

This is resort golf without the membership vote. Indoor clay tennis exists for the partner who did not bring sticks. A pro shop and a practice ground complete the morning. Service is the public-course kind that still expects you to know which tee is yours. Book online. Walk if you prefer the ground. Ride if the Delta heat has already decided.

Season follows the same Mid-South clock as Mirimichi: April, May, October, November. Summer first light. Winter on the clear days when the wind is the only difficulty. The surrounding country is cotton and highway and the odd casino buffet. You did not come for the buffet. You came because a championship routing thirty minutes from Memphis did not ask whether your name was on a board.

The interior is functional and proud: shop, grill, the cleanliness of a facility that knows traveling golfers compare notes. Amenities are the round itself, the range, the chance to play 7,200 yards on a Wednesday without calling a member.

The grace is access to real championship golf. The graceful limitation is the neighborhood of the casinos and a Golf Digest panel that has never loved it as it loves a private ranch. Come for the golf. Leave the casino for someone else’s evening. Choose Mirimichi if you wanted waterfalls. Choose Tunica if you wanted McCumber length and a shorter drive than Pickwick.

Citywide Spotlight awards Tunica National a Golf Diamond because it is the most complete public championship day due south of the city. A municipal nine will be prettier in the trees. It will not stretch you to 7,200. That is the amenity of Champions Lane: the tee shot has somewhere to go, and you were allowed to hit it.