Golf Courses Near Monroe, LA

Monroe, located 100 miles to the east of Shreveport, is the largest city in Northeast Louisiana and also the region’s cultural capital. The premier golf course in Monroe is the private Bayou DeSiard Country Club, a course originally designed by Perry Maxwell in 1948. Squire Creek Country Club, a lavish Tom Fazio private layout widely considered the best course in Louisiana, is 25 miles east of town. When making tee times, your two best options in Monroe are Frenchman’s Bend Golf and Country Club, a flat, tree-lined course with an island green and a narrow back nine with houses on both sides of several fairways, and Chennault Park Golf Course, an attractive, flat, treelined muni that debuted in 1975 but has been redesigned twice since. The city also operates Johnny Myers Golf Course (aka MUNY), a spartan 1925-vintage, 9-hole course in Forsythe Park that does not take tee times.

Located on the banks of the Ouachita River, Monroe is named in honor of the arrival of the “James Monroe”—it was the first steamboat to visit the river settlement and it spurred its early growth. Nowadays, Monroe boasts a number of notable museums. Topping the list is the Biedenharn Museum & Garden, a house museum that includes smaller museums devoted to Coca-Cola memorabilia, a bible collection, and botanical gardens. Housed in a remnant of what was the largest aviation navigation school in the U.S. during World War II, the Chennault Aviation Museum features restored military aircraft and exhibits highlighting the Flying Tigers aviators and Delta Air Lines. Delta, which got its start in Monroe as a crop dusting company, was headquartered here until it moved to Atlanta in 1941. Monroe also has a very good art museum and a zoo. Downtown Monroe extends to the banks of the Ouachita and offers an array of shops, restaurants, and bars. One of the bars, Flying Tiger Brewery, is Northeast Louisiana’s first full-scale brewery.