Oak Harbor Golf Club

Oak Harbor Golf Club: This locally popular and challenging golf course is located across the eastern end of Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, in the residential community of Slidell. Here you'll find a well-laid out and testing course where small lakes, ponds and canals ensure water threatens on just about every hole.

The slightly more tree-lined front-nine can get a little noisy with I-10 in close proximity to one or two holes. A quieter back-nine is played in a seemingly more open setting, with housing generally tucked out of the way across the canals.

Plenty of dune-like mounding gives clear definition to the good-width fairways, while also creating a linksy feel to many parts of the course. Tucked into the mounds is an array of stylish bunkering, which further adds to the challenges of Oak Harbor. Many of the excellent quality, large and sloping greens are flanked by water and demand well executed approach shots.

Make the most of the "dry" par-3 13th and (relatively dry) par-4 14th holes. Like the front-nine loop, the closing stretch of back-nine holes are accompanied by water from every tee to every green, at least on one side of the hole.

Mainly exuding an open, linksy feel, Oak Harbor expansively weaves its way through this residential community, with an excellent variety of golf holes to test your game (and perhaps from time to time your ball-fishing skills as well).