Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 Casino Courses in the United States. This list focuses on courses owned and/or operated by or in conjunction with casinos, with data pulled from Golfweek‘s massive database of course rankings.
The hundreds of members of Golfweek‘s course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final rating for each that is then used to compile the Golfweek’s Best course rankings.
Listed with each course below is its average rating, location, designer(s) and whether the course is modern (m, built in or after 1960) or classic (c, built before 1960).
From the gated entrance to the 18th green, Fallen Oak rolls out the welcome mat in Mississippi.
SAUCIER, Miss. – Golf architect Tom Fazio is a heavyweight in the private club world. His designs pepper the Golfweek’s Best list of top private courses across the U.S., with dozens of such facilities among the top modern courses in the country.
Wade Hampton Club in North Carolina, Congaree in South Carolina, Estancia in Arizona — those and more than 50 others rank highly, and they’re all private. His courses tend to be part of clubs that excel in catering to their memberships’ every whim.
Fazio also has excelled in building courses for another segment of golf: casinos. Fazio either designed or collaborated on seven of the top 50 casino courses in the U.S. Best of all, these highly ranked layouts are open to the public, albeit sometimes only to guests staying at the affiliated casino resort.
Fazio’s Shadow Creek in Las Vegas has topped the Golfweek’s Best rankings of casino courses in the U.S. for years. The over-the-top desert layout in North Las Vegas is a testament to what might be accomplished when money is no issue, and the layout’s $1,000-plus green fee is aligned with that. The amount of play at Shadow Creek is also limited — stay at the MGM, take a limo to the course, be treated like a star.
But there’s another way to experience the best of Fazio casino golf that shouldn’t be missed, and it’s much more attainable.
No. 18 at Fallen Oak in Mississippi (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Fallen Oak near Biloxi, Mississippi, is a much more natural layout than Shadow Creek. And the course – operated in conjunction with MGM’s Beau Rivage Resort & Casino, a AAA Four Diamond award winner — might offer the best opportunity for public golfers to experience a top Fazio layout and all the first-rate trappings that generally come with it. Fallen Oak is No. 2 on the Golfweek’s Best list of top casino courses in the U.S.
From the gated entrance and long drive past live oaks and ponds to the stately clubhouse, all the way to the personalized lockers and frozen watermelon served at the turn on a hot day, Fallen Oak makes a public-access player feel like a member of an elite club. The service is second to none in the public-access golf world.
Director of golf Mark Powell makes sure of it.
“We want it to feel special, that, ‘Hey, I’m at a great golf course,’ ” said the longtime PGA of America pro who took the helm at Fallen Oak in 2021. “We want to be there every step of the way. We want everyone on staff to know your name.”
No. 17 at Fallen Oak in Mississippi (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Guests of the Beau Rivage gain access to all this on a course that’s never crowded, hosting just 14,000 or so rounds a year. Counting the several weeks a year Fallen Oak is closed for maintenance – a luxury most public-access layouts can’t afford — it works out to about 40 players a day.
Go ahead, stretch out. Enjoy the quiet. It’s rare these days.
Fazio’s layout at Fallen Oak opened in 2006, and for a decade it hosted the PGA Tour Champions event in Mississippi. And unlike the heavily manufactured Shadow Creek, Fallen Oak sits on a tremendous Southern site that seems entirely natural for golf. Aside from its high ranking among casino courses, Fallen Oak is the top-rated public-access course in Mississippi. The green fee tops out at $275 — you could play four rounds at Fallen Oak for not much more than one round at Shadow Creek — and the resort runs stay-and-play specials.
Fallen Oak’s rolling terrain is dotted with wetlands and specimen trees, some of which were relocated during construction. Conditioning is top notch, equal to elite private clubs even in the heat of a Mississippi summer. The greens have plenty of motion without ever crossing a line into too-difficult territory.
Best of all: the bunkering.
Many resort courses slash bunkers across their countrysides, threatening players of all levels and distance. Fallen Oak, by contrast, offers restrained bunkering, one well-placed trap often serving the job. Fallen Oak underwent a major bunker renovation in 2014 in which numerous traps were removed, and the remaining bunkers were given a face-lift again in 2022.
No. 3 at Fallen Oak in Mississippi (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Many holes feature only one fairway bunker. No. 2 is a long par 4, and there is just one fairway bunker on the left side – the hole doesn’t need any more protection. It’s similar at Nos. 4 and 9 on the front side. No. 11 has no fairway traps, and the rest of the back nine is similarly restrained. The ground moves enough through the wide corridors to provide challenge without every stray shot splashing into sand.
Same goes around most of the greens. Play a round at Fallen Oak and you’ll face more chips and pitches than bunker splash-outs. The entire layout, since the bunker renovations, shows a lovely level of understatement married to an extremely comfortable Gulf Coast motif. The terrain and the trees, the ponds and the greens are free to shine without too much sand in your face. You can always head to the beach if you want more sand.
“The first re-do they did, I tell ya, I was really impressed,” said Powell, who was working at another Mississippi club at the time. “I had played here before, back in the early days, and that was always kind of a knock on the course, too many bunkers. After the re-do, when I saw the course, I said this is even better. It’s awesome.”
The par-72 layout can be stretched beyond 7,500 yards, but from the proper tees it’s a treat of attempted shotmaking into smooth putting surfaces. Good shots are rewarded, and the roll-offs around several greens require strategic approaches to the proper sides of the hole. There’s not a thoughtless approach on the 510-acre property, and at the same time there’s not one that’s unattainable.
The Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi (Courtesy of The Beau Rivage)
It’s a perfect attribute to the Beau Rivage, which is packed with highly rated dining and other curated experiences besides the golf. A word of advice: Plan your visit during baseball season, and take in a Biloxi Shuckers minor-league game at MGM Park across the street from the casino resort. It’s an intimate ballpark that provides a great break from the gaming tables.
The golf club is open to any guests of the Beau Rivage, with Powell and his staff hosting frequent special events for VIPs of the casino. Put in enough time at the tables and you might be invited to play in a sponsored tournament for casino credit that can run into the thousands of dollars. The club also has a small membership of invited casino regulars, and Powell hosts all kinds of interesting events for them, too.
“We just want to make it fun for everybody,” Powell said. “We’ve got member tournaments, a great club championship, all kinds of games during the week.
“We’re constantly looking to do every little thing we can to improve the guest experience. Sometimes a little thing goes a long way.”
Sound like a public-access private club? That’s the idea, executed perfectly.
Yordenis Ugas stopped Mike Dallas in the 7th round of a welterweight bout, thus improving his chances of getting a title shot this year.
Welterweight contender Yordenis Ugas has been the odd man out among the elite welterweights aligned with Premier Boxing Champions. On Saturday night at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, he took a step toward correcting that.
The 33-year-old Cuban came out at the opening bell with unusual aggression and never looked back, eventually stopping Mike Dallas Jr. in Round 7.
A slick counterpuncher by nature, Ugas might have been trying to channel the spirit of a certain basketball player. Written on his trunks were the words “Mamba Mentality,” his was of honoring the late Kobe Bryant.
The stoppage came at the end of seventh round, after Dallas’ corner decided their charge had taken enough punishment.
Ugas (25-4, 12 KOs), who lives and trains in Miami, pressed the action all night, as he tagged Dallas with numerous overhand rights and clubbing body shots. In the opening round alone, Ugas staggered Dallas a few times, including at the end, with a left hook-right hand-left hook combination.
Dallas (23-4-2, 11 KOs), once a promising name in the sport before he fell violently to Lucas Matthysse, had a few strong moments as he flitted around the ring and tried to connect on potshot right hands. They were too few and far between, however, to give him a winning chance. It was a survival game for Dallas, who began breathing heavily from the mouth by Round 4.
Ironically, Dallas had his best offensive stretch in the last round – Round 7 – landing a few straight rights, but he petered out with a minute remaining. Ugas stormed back to steal the round with a series of unanswered blows.
Ugas has won two consecutive fights since his highly disputed points loss to then-titleholder Shawn Porter in March 2019. Porter would go on to face Errol Spence Jr. in a unification bout that September, losing a split decision.
While Ugas has expressed an interest in a rematch with Porter, his priorities are to win a title, which means, at least in the foreseeable future, bouts with either Spence or Manny Pacquiao. (Boxing politics will most likely prevent him from facing the Top Rank-promoted welterweight titleholder Terence Crawford.)
Ugas was originally supposed to face undefeated welterweight Alexander Besputin, but negotiations were scrubbed after Besputin, who allegedly tested positive for PED in his previous bout, reportedly suffered an injury.
Michel Rivera stopped rugged veteran Fidel Maldonado Jr. in the final round on the undercard of the Yordenis Ugas-Mike Dallas Jr. card.
On a card featuring many highly regarded prospects, Michel Rivera turned in the most complete — and promising, — performance.
The 21-year-old Dominican lightweight stopped rugged veteran Fidel Maldonado Jr. in the 10th and final round on the undercard of the Yordenis Ugas-Mike Dallas Jr. card at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Rivera (18-0, 12 KOs), whose poise belies his youth, landed the cleaner, harder shots throughout the fight even though he was a tad too economical with his punches at times. His jab was nearly nonexistent, but his straight right and body punching were on point, and apparently more than enough on this night.
Early on, the shifty Maldonado (27-6-1, 20 KOs) had some success outworking Rivera, but as the rounds went on, Rivera began to tag Maldonado with eye-catching right hands.
Rivera turned it up late in Round 8, landing two straight hard rights that briefly buckled Maldonado. It appeared the fight would go the distance, but in Round 10, Rivera connected on right hand that downed Maldonado for the first time in the night. He got up on wobbly legs only for Rivera to unload a flurry, forcing the referee to stop the bout.
***
Boxing has an early candidate for Round of the Year.
Rising prospect Raymond Guajardo was supposed to have an easy time against journeyman Clay Collard, but Collard didn’t get the memo. Collard dropped Guajardo twice in a hellacious Round 1, before stopping Guajardo in the next round behind a deluge of power punches.
“It was a war,” Collard (6-2-3, 2 KOs) said in a matter-of-fact tone. “We’re in there battling. I love it. It’s something that I love to do.”
Guajardo (5-1, 4 KOs) came out of his corner at the opening bell, gunning for a quick knockout. But Collard remained composed, stayed in the pocket and, a minute into the round, he countered with a hard left hook that immediately decked Guajardo. Collard then let his hands go, landing clean lefts and rights to Guajardo’s exposed chin, dropping him again with a straight right.
As Collard looked to finish the prospect off, the southpaw Guajardo countered with a right hook, followed by a left that put Collard down. It was a flash knockdown, however, as Collard would go on to hurt Guajardo some more, punctuating an unforgettable round with a series of clean, straight rights and two hooks.
In Round 2, Collard continued to batter his opponent with clubbing combinations, as blood continued to pour out of Guajardo’s nose. Collard landed a right to the body that caused Guajardo to nearly bowl over.With Guajardo on the ropes, Collard began teeing off, snapping back Guajardo’s head with several straight rights before the referee intervened.
The stoppage came at 1:42 of Round 2.
It may be the last time Collard enters a boxing ring. He said he plans to fight for the mixed-martial-arts outfit, Professional Fighters League, citing more lucrative opportunities.
Rising prospect Omar Juarez dominated a game Angel Martinez Hernandez over eight rounds, including scoring a knockdown, en route to a unanimous decision win.
The judges’ scores were 80-71, 80-71, 79-72 for Juarez, who hails from Brownsville, Texas.
With a minute remaining in Round 7, Juarez, 20, dropped Martinez hard with a left hook. Martinez would regroup to hear the final bell.
Eighteen-year-old prospect Jesus Ramos (12-0, 11KOs) had no trouble breaking down Ramal Amanov (16-2, 5 KOs), stopping the veteran inside six rounds of an eight-round welterweight bout. The southpaw Ramos was too skilled and too quick for Amanov, whose corner decided to throw in the towel at the end of Round 6.
Cruiserweight Deon Nicholson didn’t maintain his perfect knockout streak, but he remains unbeaten, outpointing Earl Newman over 10 rounds. Nicholson (13-0, 12 KOs) nearly pulled off an early stoppage in Round 1, when he had Newman (10-3-1, 7 KOs) dangerously dazed. Newman, however, would not only survive, but go on to give Nicholson a decent challenge.
The judges had it unanimously for Nicholson with scorecards of 97-93, 96-94, 96-94.
