Golf in Monroe/West Monroe Louisiana

In Louisiana, you can hit the links at the site of an 1812 battlefield or an old plantation home. Here, golf courses seem a natural part of the landscape. And for good reason: The courses of Louisiana's Audubon Golf Trail—the innovative collection of 18 top-notch courses, covering all five regions of the state—are all members of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, which promotes ecologically sound land management and the conservation of natural resources.

Established in 2001, the Audubon Golf Trail includes courses designed by Hal Sutton, David Toms and Pete Dye. Dye's latest creation, TPC of Louisiana at Fairfield, which opened in 2004, hosts the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which is an annual draw for golf's heavyweights.

And while the Audubon Golf Trail provides a splendid sample of golf in Louisiana, there are numerous other beautiful and challenging courses statewide. Be sure to swing by.

Two giant names of American business are deeply ingrained in the history of Monroe, and its neighbor across the Ouachita River, West Monroe: Delta Air Lines got its start here in 1926 as a crop dusting service, and Coca-Cola opened its first bottling plant here. Today, those legacies provide unique attractions for visitors. Biedenharn Home and Gardens, the estate of that first Coke bottler, is open to the public as a museum and sculpture garden. The Chennault Aviation and Military Museum of Louisiana has exhibits on Delta Air Lines, the local World War II flight school at Selman Field and the volunteer combat unit called the Flying Tigers commanded by one-time Monroe resident, General Chennault. The 1,800-acre, cypress-studded waters and trails of Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge puts sportsmen's paradise at Monroe's doorstep, while a trip to the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo offers up-close encounters with animals from around the world.