Gulf Hills Golf Club

Ocean Springs sits on the Gulf Coast just east of Biloxi, a town with a distinct creative character — it was home to Walter Anderson, one of the South's most celebrated artists, and the community has long carried an independent, unhurried spirit that sets it apart from the casino corridor to its west. Gulf Hills Golf Club lives in that same tradition, occupying a stretch of Mississippi's coastal terrain where the land rolls more than visitors expect, pine trees frame the fairways, and the humid air off the Sound gives the course a lush, distinctly Southern feel through most of the year.

Gulf Hills has been part of the local golf landscape for decades, and courses like it — rooted in community rather than resort spectacle — tend to develop a loyal following of members and regulars who know every bounce and break. That kind of familiarity breeds genuine affection for a layout, and 18 holes in this corner of the Coast offer something the bigger, brasher properties nearby rarely can: a round that actually feels like the place it's in.

For visiting golfers, Ocean Springs rewards the curious. The town's walkable downtown, art galleries, and waterfront are worth the detour on their own, and pairing them with a round at Gulf Hills makes for the kind of low-key Gulf Coast day that stays with you longer than a tournament-replica track ever would.