Old Waverly Golf Club

The Old Waverly course opened in 1988 to a Jerry Pate/Bob Cupp design and has aged into one of the most respected inland courses in the Deep South, regularly ranked among Mississippi's top courses. Its defining championship moment came June 3-6, 1999, when it hosted the 54th U.S. Women's Open: Juli Inkster, in her 20th attempt at the title, closed at 16-under 272 (a scoring record at the time), five strokes clear of runner-up Sherri Turner, becoming the oldest U.S. Women's Open champion since 1955 and the first American winner in five years -- part of a run that included two of her seven career major titles. Mississippi State University's golf programs and the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame have continued to treat Old Waverly as a second home for Inkster in the years since.

Old Waverly is a private club, not a public or resort-guest course: its own membership page lists Resident, Non-Resident, Social, Corporate, Military, and Junior categories, consistent with a conventional application/fee-based private club rather than an equity club with a capped ownership stake. What this research pass could not confirm from public sources is the specific mechanics that matter most to a homebuyer: whether purchasing a homesite, cottage, villa, or condo in the Old Waverly community includes club membership, requires it as a condition of purchase, or merely makes a buyer eligible to apply like any other prospective member. Treat this as an open, unresolved question -- proximity to the course does not, on the evidence gathered here, automatically equal club access.

Old Waverly's residential product is genuinely built into the club rather than merely adjacent to it: Azalea Cove homesites sit around the south bank of Lake Azalea near the first hole, Garden Court offers two- and three-bedroom single-level villas beyond the tenth tee, and Scotland Yard condominiums sit behind the tenth green and eleventh tee. Custom homesites with course views and fully furnished lakefront cottages round out the inventory, and owners can enroll properties in an Old Waverly rental program. Listings are rarely on the market and described by the club and third-party brokers as in high demand.

West Point sits in Clay County in Mississippi's Golden Triangle region, roughly midway between Columbus and Starkville and a short drive from Mississippi State University. Old Waverly's sister course, Mossy Oak Golf Club, is directly across the street, and the two properties are commonly marketed and played together as a single golf-travel destination.