The Golf Channel’s Golf Advisor Names The Refuge in Flowood, Mississippi as one of America’s Top “19 Notable Golf Course Renovations for 2019”

Located in suburban Jackson and originally opened in 1998 (as a Roy Case design), The Refuge has been called the “Best Purely Public Course in Mississippi” and considered to be among the top public courses in the Magnolia State. In 2017, the course closed for a total renovation in conjunction with a new $50 million hotel and conference center being built on property adjacent to the course near the Jackson Evers International Airport. One of the most notable pieces of the nearly $2 million renovation to the course includes the creation of two completely new holes and significant changes to several others to create long-needed returning nines. The renovation recently caught the eye of one of the largest sports media outlets on the planet when Golf Advisor, a division of The Golf Channel, named The Refuge one of “19 notable golf course renovations for 2019” in America.

That list includes some recognizable names from coast to coast, including PGA Tour stops, top resorts, older courses by Donald Ross and Seymour Dunn, and a former US Open site.  Courses like Chambers Bay, Kapalua Resort, Sea Island Golf Club, Wynn Golf Course Las Vegas, Barton Creek Resort, and Reynolds Lake Oconee (to name a few) are among the 19 courses that made the 2019 list of public, resort, and semi-private courses.

“It’s a great honor not only for the golf course,” explains Nathan Crace, ASGCA, the golf course architect leading the renovation of The Refuge. “But also for the golf course staff, the contractor, and the City of Flowood that owns the course. There are a lot of great projects on that list. We’re honored to be mentioned alongside them and I know it will be one more highlight to add to the new hotel and conference center.”

Plans for the new 200+ room hotel and attached 50,000 sq ft conference center feature a 9-story hotel tower, world-class spa, several restaurants offering choices from fine dining to casual, a wine cave, cooking school, a pool with a lazy river, and a large event lawn for concerts, outdoor weddings, and other gatherings on the banks of a new 15-acre lake with walking trails and other outdoor activities which the developer calls an “urban resort.” Gone is the old golf clubhouse because the new golf shop will be inside the hotel on the first floor, adjacent to the sprawling hotel lobby. The work on the course was twenty years in the making for Crace, whose firm’s sister company (Watermark Golf Management) has managed the course since 2002.

“I’ve spent a lot of time on-site over the last twenty years and I’ve played the course more times than I can remember,” recalls Crace. “So when they asked about handling the renovation, I knew there were key factors we had to include and how to make them work. We had to create returning nines instead of the nine out, nine back layout of the original design, we had to open up the course and make it more playable, we had to add more tees to stretch the course forward and backward to offer more flexibility, and we had to renovate the greens, tees and bunkers, and expand irrigation.”  The project also included installing new TiffEagle ultradwarf putting surfaces and nearly 5 miles of new 8 ft wide concrete cart paths. “In addition to public play, the course will also be catering to hotel guests. Those resort guests hold a certain expectation they want met on a golf course.  Now we will be able to provide that higher level of conditioning, playability, and service for anyone who wants to play—public or resort.”

When asked how the course was “opened up,” Crace explains that a careful plan was put into place to widen playing corridors—making the course more playable for the average golfer without eliminating the challenge better players look for in a round of golf. To maximize flexibility, he installed the Longleaf Tee System to stretch the course from 4,500 yards at the Family Tees to 7,045 yards from the Championship Tees (previously, the back tees were around 6,500 yards and a number of hidden water hazards and tight landing areas took driver out of play for better players). The plan relocated and re-routed most of those hidden hazards to make the landing areas more receptive and allow everyone to hit driver on every par-4 and par-5.

“Next, we inventoried trees throughout the course,” Crace says. “We began by taking out the invasive tree species, then trees that were dead or dying, and then trees which posed a risk to people either because they were leaning severely or otherwise damaged. After that, we removed a few trees that were close enough to greens or tees to cause turf damage or playability issues. By the time we did that and under-brushed everything that was left, it really opened-up the course. We created great panoramic views across the property, using trees to frame holes instead of crowd them. Now it’s more of a parkland setting instead of a series of 18 myopic bowling alleys surrounded by overgrown trees.”

How bad were the “bowling alleys,” you might ask?  “On some of the holes,” Crace laughs. “The upper canopies of the trees on the left were touching the upper canopies of the trees on the right for the first 50 yards off the tee! We’ve fixed all of that and were able to expose views of cebturies-old white oaks and other specimen trees previously hidden by the overgrowth and now those trees can live longer, healthier lives.”

Crace has toured some members of the media around the course and says all were impressed with the changes. “We had two people from ESPN Radio out here in the fall who had played the course before the renovation,” he explains. “They couldn’t believe it. I had to remind them which hole they were on because it looks so drastically different from before.”

With weather causing delays in the construction of the hotel and conference center and the last few holes in the fall of 2018, Crace says he is hopeful they can open the course for play—if even on a limited capacity—in the fall of 2019 and then have the grand opening in conjunction with the new hotel in 2020.  But he stresses that nothing is set in stone yet and encourages everyone to follow the course on Twitter @refugegolf and online at www.refugerenvoation.com for updates.

“The golf course staff and the contractor have put in a lot of time and effort to get us where we are and I want to thank each of them for their hard work,” Crace says in closing. “Additionally, the City of Flowood’s Mayor and Board of Aldermen should be commended for their vision of the future to tackle a project of this scope so the course will be fitting for a resort style hotel like the one being built. In addition to being the course of choice for local golfers, we want The Refuge to be a destination for golfers and guests from across the country. Not many municipalities have that type of vision and there aren’t many properties in this part of the country that will be able to offer the total package that The Refuge with the new course, hotel, and conference center will offer.”

For more information about Watermark Golf, visit www.watermarkgolf.com/design.  For more information about the American Society of Golf Course Architects, visit www.asgca.org  For more information about The Refuge, visit www.refugegolf.com 

About Watermark Golf

The Watermark Golf Companies are a consortium of Watermark Golf/Nathan Crace Design and Watermark Golf Management — offering clients professional services in golf course architecture, golf course renovation and re-design, master planning, consulting, and club management.