Golf Course Review: Shell Landing Golf Club

This Golf Course Review of Shell Landing Golf Club partly feels long overdue. Shell Landing is a golf course I absolutely love, but unfortunately have not visited in nearly 10 years. In the video, I say 3 plus years, but I was thinking I played a golf tournament there in early 2022. I was corrected by a friend who reminded me that event was cancelled and we never went. I should have been here much sooner than this.

Shell Landing is one of the best golf courses along the entire Gulf Coast from Tallahassee to Houston. It was ranked as the 9th best course in all of Mississippi. I personally think it should be higher, but I have not played every course in the state. I would, however, personally rank it as the 4th best I have ever played in the state and possibly the best along the MS coast. Shell Landing definitely has some of the best views of any course in the area.

Shell Landing is also the only Davis Love III-designed golf course in the entire state of Mississippi. His designs are great. I have played a few others, and I have loved each of them. One of the things that Davis Love does best is incorporating the natural landscape, making it seem like the course designed itself. One of my personal favorite aspects of his designs is the great mix of holes that require strategic play. Some holes force you to lay up off the tee, while others let you hit it as far as you like. There is always a balance of long and short holes, and you will usually hit 4 different clubs on the par 3 holes.

As for our day at Shell Landing, on Nov 9th, 2025, I somewhat knew what to expect. However, only 1 other out of the 8 of us had ever been to Shell Landing before, and were in for a real treat. Upon arriving, the staff was great. This started at the bag drop and continued throughout the day in the golf shop, with the starter, and the beverage cart, who makes an appearance in our review video.

Shell Landing is partnered with IP Casino Resort Spa. Whether they have anything to say about course improvements, from the outside looking in, it would appear that the partnership has helped Shell Landing become a consistent, elite golf course. They have removed trees and underbrush to improve sunlight in many areas, dating back to 2012. In 2021, they redesigned bunkers and removed 60% of the sand on the course. Most recently, they have removed 15 acres of Bermuda grass and planted Little Blue Stem, a type of ornamental bush (bottom right corner of the first picture above), around the course in the spring of this year. With plans to remove another 10 acres of Bermuda grass and plant more Little Blue Stem in the Spring of 2026.

The clubhouse is nice, but nothing really special. It is situated on a hill with the front elevation at ground level and the back with a beautiful patio with stairs. I honestly do not know if the club has a full locker room and showers, but it has all the amenities you need for a golf club. Full bar and grill, and a fully stocked golf shop. The location isn't bad either. There is a practice putting green next to the clubhouse for convenience, and the view off the back patio is pretty nice. Even though it mostly looks at trees, you can still see number 9 green from one side.

The practice facilities are great as well. In addition to the practice putting green by the clubhouse, there is a full range and a very large chipping and putting green just across the street from the clubhouse. You can either walk across the street or drive a golf cart through a tunnel to get there. The range is also conveniently near the first tee, making a warm-up routine flow well from the clubhouse to the driving range, to chip and putt, then head to tee off.

The conditions of the practice facilities were well-maintained. Although the driving range itself looked a bit chewed up from lots of golfers, there was still plenty of turf left to hit balls from. I was informed that Shell Landing recently had a lot of play and a few tournaments, so some wear on driving range conditions is expected. There were no signs of wear on any of the practice greens, and they gave us a true feel of what to expect on the golf course.

The only minor issue the entire day was from golfers too lazy to rake bunkers. One bunker I was in had several footprints. Four of them, with my ball in one, were only a few feet away from a rake. You can see me deal with this in the review video. Another bunker, both Jay and I were later in, I counted 37 footprints in the entire bunker with 3 rakes surrounding that bunker. We could tell in many bunkers around the course that maintenance had raked all the bunkers that morning, and the footprints were coming from golfers ahead of us that day.

(A few images from the Shell Landing Yardage Book)

The overall layout and routing of Shell Landing is wonderful and a bit surprising with some of the elevation changes. Being south of I-10, it is not something you regularly expect in the area, especially for a golf course that is surrounded by a lot of marsh areas, but that is also what makes Shell Landing great and allows for some great views.

Overall Conditions: 4.5 out ot 5

Tee Boxes: 4.5 out of 5

There was virtually nothing wrong with the tee boxes except for unfilled divots. All had quality turf cut to the same height as the fairways, and were very level. The only minor thing, and something I mention at many golf courses, is that the tee markers were spread too far apart on many holes. They were also inconsistent in the width they were placed. Some holes were the recommended 6 yards apart, with others at 10 yards apart or further. Most were placed in a good direction, helping guide you, but a few were aimed off-line, pointing toward the rough or trees. This is a minor thing for most golfers, but I think it is something more golf courses need to be aware of. Especially when a golfer has not played the golf course before, tee markers help them know the direction of the hole and where to hit it. On a golf course like Shell Landing that has doglegs and a few nearly blind tee shots, if the course guides you in the wrong direction without knowing, you could be in for a long ball search kind of day. Overall thought the teeing areas were great and very well maintained.

Fariways: 4 out of 5

The fairways were virtually perfect. They looked phenomenal with plush, carpet-like grass. The cut height was ideal. They were low and tight, where the ball would just perch up on top of the grass. They were not "tour" tight, but they were close to it, playing firm and fast yet not too firm where you had to play for a lot of roll out. The only bad thing about the fairways was the amount of unfilled divots. As I mentioned earlier, they did get a lot of play recently with some tournaments, so it was expected to see some. However, there were a few areas where it looked like every golfer the entire week before we arrived never touched a sand bottle. This was especially the case on hole nine, which was playing cart path only. No matter what golf course, when a hole is cart path only, golfers almost never bring a sand bottle with them to the fairway. The odds of landing in a divot are very high, so it never affected playability. It only looked bad in a few high-traffic areas of a few short holes, where so many divots didn't have at least sand in them.

Greens: 5 out of 5

The greens are the best I have played all year. They were consistent from hole to hole. They were smooth and quick. Firm yet receptive, and looked amazing as well. The greens were tour quality yet a good speed for everyday play. A few of the others struggled with the speed due to the undulation, but I absolutely loved it. Uphill putts you could be firm with, while downhill putts you had to be cautious with.

See The Greens and Play Better With the Tifosi Golf Enliven Lens

After this round at Shell Landing, I am making it a point to play there at least three times a year or more going forward. It is only 90 minutes from New Orleans and well worth the drive. If they have a full locker room with showers, it would allow me to clean up after a round. Something I like to do so I can feel refreshed before driving home, especially on days when the sun, wind, or sweating can wear you out. If they offered an out-of-area membership rate for anyone living outside 75 miles, I would consider it just to force myself to play here more. I already make sure to play Grand Bear three times a year, so I really should make more of an effort to play all the Mississippi Coast courses more often.

I also want to add that Shell Landing is probably the best value of all the courses in the area. At a weekend rate of just $100, it is cheaper with a better layout than most courses in the area. To put that into perspective, the closest course to Shell Landing is The Preserve, with a rate of $225 per golfer for the same Sunday at 11 am. Grand Bear is around $140, Windance is around $120, and The Bridges is around $100. Fallen Oak, you have to stay at The Beau Rivage, and it's around $250 or more. If Shell Landing had a slightly bigger clubhouse like Grand Bear with full locker rooms and showers that looked out over 9 & 18 greens, it would be the best overall golf property along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

I look forward to getting back soon. Hopefully, one more time this year. Thank you to Shell Landing and their GM for the wonderful hospitality. Also, I think the review video ended up being one of the best ones of any review so far, and that includes the time the camera battery issue I had to deal with, or times I forgot to turn on the microphone.