Beau Chene Country Club: Oak Course

The Oak Course at Beau Chene Country Club in Mandeville, Louisiana is a Joe Lee design that opened in 1974. The par-72 layout plays 6,725 yards from its back tees through a mature oak and pine corridor on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. Lee's par-5 15th hole has been recognized for decades as among the best single holes in Louisiana.

Beau Chene Country Club anchors a residential community in Mandeville, Louisiana, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The community was founded in 1972 by New Orleans business partners Morgan Earnest and Lester Kabacoff, who set out to develop a gated enclave organized around 36 holes of golf and a full slate of recreational amenities. The Oak Course was designed by Joe Lee and built beginning in 1974, with the first nine holes opening to play in June 1975. A second eighteen, the Magnolia Course, was completed in 1985, giving Beau Chene a 36-hole footprint that remains the only privately owned 36-hole golf facility in Louisiana.

Joe Lee, a Florida-based architect who apprenticed under Dick Wilson before establishing his own practice, produced a parkland routing at Beau Chene that takes advantage of the gentle north-shore terrain and the property's mature live oak and pine canopy. The club's land contains dozens of substantial live oaks, with the community taking its name from the French phrase for beautiful oak. Lee's Oak Course plays to a par of 72 and measures 6,725 yards from the Blue tees, with a course rating of 72.8 and a slope of 135. The White, Green, and Red sets play to 6,268, 6,003, and 4,755 yards respectively, with the forward tees rated for women at 68.1 and slope 115.

The Oak Course was ranked the number one course in Louisiana by Golf Digest in 1985, and the long par-5 15th hole — the longest hole on the course at approximately 525 yards — has been cited for decades as among the top individual holes in the state. The course has hosted numerous Louisiana Golf Association championships over the years and continues to serve as a regular tournament venue for state competitive golf.

Beau Chene marked its fiftieth anniversary in 2022, with the Louisiana Golf Association recognizing the club's half-century of operation and continuous tournament hosting. The Oak Course remains the focus of member play and high-level events at the facility, preserved largely in the form Joe Lee established in the mid-1970s, while the Magnolia Course provides the second 18 holes on the property.