Beau Chene vs Tchefuncta for Golf Living

Beau Chene offers 36 holes across two Joe Lee-designed courses (Oak, 1975; Magnolia, 1985). Tchefuncta offers a single 18-hole, par-71 course designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., which opened with nine holes in 1961 and was expanded to its current 18-hole routing in 1969. Beau Chene's footprint is double Tchefuncta's, a real difference for a buyer prioritizing golf variety within one club.

Beau Chene is built around a lakefront setting on Mandeville's west side. Tchefuncta Club Estates sits directly on the Tchefuncte River near Madisonville and includes a private marina with more than 60 covered boat slips -- a genuine boating/waterfront amenity that Beau Chene's lakefront setting does not match in kind. A buyer prioritizing private boat access specifically should weigh Tchefuncta's marina; a buyer prioritizing golf footprint should weigh Beau Chene's 36 holes.

Both communities separate club membership from homeownership, but their governance differs in a way worth understanding. At Beau Chene, the homeowners association (BCHOA) and the country club are and have remained two entirely separate organizations. At Tchefuncta, the community entity itself -- Tchefuncta Club Estates, in which all 600-plus property owners are shareholders with voting rights -- purchased the country club outright in 2021, meaning the community's shareholders collectively own the club as an asset even though individual club membership (400-plus members) remains a separate, smaller, optional, application-based program layered on top of that ownership. This is a real structural distinction, not just a naming difference, and worth understanding before assuming either community works 'the same way.'

Beau Chene is the larger community by a wide margin: roughly 1,550 homes and condominiums across about 1,100 acres, versus Tchefuncta Club Estates' 900 acres and 600-plus property-owner shareholders. Club membership itself is also larger at Tchefuncta relative to its community size is not confirmed either way -- Tchefuncta reports 400-plus club members on its own site (a figure this research uses over a conflicting 500+ figure from earlier discovery-stage sourcing), while a precise current Beau Chene club-membership count was not found in this research.

Neither community requires club membership to buy a home, so the choice comes down to what a buyer wants beyond golf. A buyer prioritizing course variety (36 holes vs. 18), a larger community, and lakefront living has more of that at Beau Chene. A buyer prioritizing private river/marina boating access, a smaller and more intimate club (400+ members), and an unusual community-owns-the-club governance structure has more of that at Tchefuncta. Current fees at both clubs should be confirmed directly -- neither publishes a public rate sheet, and this research did not find confirmed 2026 dues for Tchefuncta at all.