Tunica National - Hole #18

Getting To Know: Tunica National Golf & Tennis

An Insightful Interview With Matt Cooper, Director of Marketing

By Brian Weis

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Matt Cooper who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Tunica National is one of the mid-South's newest golf facilities. Located just outside Tunica, Mississippi, the Golf and Tennis complex features a challenging, 7,210-yard, par 72 championship layout designed by PGA Tour Player and architect Mark McCumber. The links-style course stretches across hundreds of acres of rolling terrain with strategically-placed water hazards and bunkers balanced with generous landing areas, all of which make Tunica National a course perfect for players of all levels of skill.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
Simply put, the conditions are unmatched. Tee to green you will feel like you are playing a resort course that would typically cost over $100 a round.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
Find the "bail out" zone before every tee shot. A lot of the tee shots can be intimidating at first glance but there is always a fairly large safe spot to miss it if you do your research.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
We are a Golf Digest 4 star rated course, we have won the Mississippi Business Journal's Reader's Choice Award for Favorite Golf Course, and have hosted numerous state level championships, NCAA Conference Championships, and high-end celebrity charity events.

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
Probably number 18, our finishing hole. It is a long tough par 4 with water all up the left side. It is a beautiful setting as the approach leads right back over more water and a challenging waste bunker to our clubhouse.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
My favorite hole is the par 4 number 5. It is a shortish par 4 that in certain wind conditions you can hit driver and try to knock it right up by the green. It is a very risky shot but if you pull it off it will leave you with a much easier approach than if you had laid back off the tee. A classic example of a great, short, risk reward par 4.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
Definitely one of our well known bartender Kathy's margaritas.

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
Russell Knox of the PGA TOUR shot a 62 in a Hooters Tour event here in 2010 only to back it up the following day with another course record 61. Stacey Lewis of LPGA fame holds the female course record shooting 67 in the SEC Championships back when she won as an Arkansas Razorback in 2005.

Back Tee Stats
Par: 72
Yardage: 7204
Slope: 126
Rating: 73.2

More Information
Tunica National Golf & Tennis
1 Champions Lane
Tunica Resorts, MS, 38664
662-357-0777
www.tunicanational.com

Revised: 12/23/2014 - Article Viewed 32,124 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.