Okatoma Golf Club

Collins sits in the piney woods of Covington County, deep in south-central Mississippi — a part of the state where the timber industry shaped the land long before anyone thought to route fairways through it. The Okatoma Creek, which gives this course its name, winds through the broader region and lends the area a character that's distinctly rural Mississippi: tall loblolly pines, red clay soil, and a quietness that's increasingly rare on a golf course anywhere.

Without wider documentation of the club's founding, architect, or specific holes, what can be said with confidence is that courses of this type in this corner of Mississippi tend to be deeply community-rooted — the kind of place where members have played the same Saturday morning game for decades and newcomers are welcomed into a rhythm rather than a transaction.

South Mississippi produces modest, honest golf on terrain shaped by the forest rather than by dramatic elevation. If you're driving through Covington County, Okatoma is worth the detour.