Golf in Ruston 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.

Peach orchards surrounding Ruston come into fragrant bloom in early spring but, the crop so closely associated with the city takes a starring role, throughout the year, in everything from farm-fresh ice cream to the Louisiana Peach Festival, the area's biggest event. Louisiana Tech University and nearby Grambling State University are integral parts of the community, with college sports, art galleries and year-round programming for locals and visitors. Louisiana Tech's Idea Place is an interactive children's museum and Grambling recently added an exhibit honoring the late college football icon Eddie Robinson, who coached the school's team for 57 years. Ruston's historic district provides 18 blocks of evidence for the potential of a rejuvenated downtown. A vintage movie theater has been transformed as the 600-seat Dixie Center for the Arts, while in Ruston's Memorial Park, the Louisiana Military Museum has artifacts and displays from the Spanish American War through modern conflicts.