The Bluffs Golf Course, Louisiana
The 17th at The Bluffs is one of the trickiest par threes you’ll play.
In every good narrative arc there is rising action, a climax, and a resolution. Not every narrative ends on a positive note, and I am sad to say this story does not have a happy ending. Well, not yet anyway.
The story of how I got to The Bluffs Golf Course in St. Francisville, Louisiana is simple enough. My then-fiancé and I were on the road back home after a visit with our great friends Luke and Allie in Destin, Florida. We resided in Texas at the time, and this was during the height of COVID. We ended up finding a cheap $40 tee time at The Bluffs, a 1988 design just north of Baton Rouge. The course was a few minutes short of the halfway mark, and so it made for a nice place to stretch our legs and kill a few hours. During my research, I had discovered that the course consistently appeared on many “Best of Louisiana” lists, securing top five status in the state according to Golf Digest, GolfWeek, and Top100GolfCourses.com. In fact, GD rated it 15 years as the 80th best public golf course in the United States. I couldn’t believe how cheap the rates were given its acumen. Something had to give, right?
The Pelican State is known more for its French influence and bayous, but there are a few noteworthy golf courses. TPC Louisiana, which hosts the PGA Tour’s only sanctioned team event, the Zurich Classic, is outside of New Orleans. Squire Creek, just outside of Ruston (a town name familiar to those who read my recent mystery novel, Losing Lee), is a private offering consistently rated as the best course in the state.
Getting to The Bluffs can be tricky if you’re coming from the west. The road is winding and confusing, but the result is more than worth it. I am relatively unfamiliar with what would be considered the “Deep South”, but the road into The Bluffs felt very much like the Deep South. Cypresses, magnolias, and live oaks along the trail hammer home that point.
The 7005-yard Arnold Palmer design has a fun routing and is one of those courses you can play a million different ways. The tangly Bermuda rough is not fun to play out of, and a few of the greens are thinner and can be frustrating. There are many water hazards and the creek along the first and 18th is beautiful. Sandy hills help add to The Bluffs’ aesthetic appeal. The par threes, which we’ll get into, are the course’s crown jewels.
The ninth hole boasts an impressive design. It is a challenging 500-yard par five that strategically places tall, tall trees in the middle of the hole, presenting two distinct fairway options to the left and right. On my second shot, standing 230 yards away left of the fairway, I hit one of the greatest shots of my life, a four iron that landed on the right side of the green and bounced left, coming to rest about six inches from the pin. To this day, it’s the closest I’ve ever come to an albatross. Even a few years later, I can still remember every millisecond of that golf shot. It was the easiest tap-in eagle ever. It was also seconds before we experienced a torrential downpour and had to wait a bit before proceeding to the back nine.
The 17th must be one of the very best golf holes in the state of Louisiana. The headline photo of this post features me teeing off on the 231-yard par three. As you can see, there is not a lot of room to miss the green between the penal bunkers, water hazard on the right, and the abyss to the left. I bailed out left and missed a 10-footer for par. A bogey seems like an acceptable punishment here. The par three 13th is another exceptional golf hole guarded by a water hazard on the right. It plays a bit like the penultimate hole but has a completely different look and lacks the downhill elevation change. The 18th is an interesting, sandy 526-yard par five that plays uphill; hitting two shots, no matter how solid, won’t get you to the putting surface unless you are a long driver. Finishing your round by playing a hole with a view up to the clubhouse always adds an enjoyable touch to your golfing experience. I’d be interested to hear in the comment section about other golf courses with this trait.
A fun tidbit from this round was that my now-wife shot her all-time best round here. I’ve used the score as proof for why we need to stop on every road trip to play golf. She loves the sport, but her enthusiasm doesn’t quite match my level of obsession.
The worst part of The Bluffs is the mediocre conditioning. When I played in 2020, the tee boxes and bunkers were absolutely in need of some TLC. The greens were in decent shape but there were a ton of brown patches in the rough. Being a Northerner, I am not sure if that had to do with the overexposure of summer heat or the lack of maintenance. Also, a few of the holes are flat out dull. I will give The Bluffs a little credit where credit is due: even though this is technically a residential course, the houses don’t come into play due to those massive trees.
A year after my now-wife and I played The Bluffs, the course closed. We were sad to hear this, for we really enjoyed the solitude and layout and had hoped to play again someday. It really was a wonderful day in the forests of St. Francisville.
However, there is hope. According to online sources, a Baton Rouge area real estate agent purchased the property for $4.5 million last year and is working to reopen the golf course in the next year. He aims to make The Bluffs a private club and is currently renovating the property. I really hope the plans come to fruition because this land is perfect for golf. The Bluffs is deserving of a second shot.
(Please note that there won’t be a blog post in two weeks, as we’re gearing up for the launch of my newest children’s book, Jude is Rude. Preorder your copy now! Rest assured, the next golf post will be scheduled for December 20th.)