For years, the pitch for a home inside West Point's golf community was simple: buy the house, get the golf. Mossy Oak was open to the public on a daily-fee basis, so even a buyer who wasn't chasing a wall-to-wall club membership could justify a purchase around the ninth fairway. That pitch no longer holds. Both courses changed hands in 2024, and access now works differently than it did when a lot of the homes currently listed inside the gates were first built.
If you're far enough along in your search that you're comparing floor plans at Garden Court Villas or pricing out a lot on Azalea Cove, the ownership change matters more than the granite countertops. It changes what you're actually buying.
What Changed in 2024
Old Waverly Golf Club was founded in 1988 by George Bryan, with the course designed by U.S. Open champion Jerry Pate and Bob Cupp. Mossy Oak, the Gil Hanse design across the street, opened in 2016 as the Bryan family's second course. For most of that history, the two properties operated on different access models: Old Waverly stayed private, while Mossy Oak welcomed outside players who booked a tee time.
That changed in 2024, when a new ownership group called Golf Clubs of Mississippi LLC bought both properties. Jerry Pate returned as chairman of the new group, joined by the Bryan family and a small circle of investors. The deal brought Old Waverly and Mossy Oak under one ownership structure, and it made both courses private. The daily-fee arrangement that used to let non-members play Mossy Oak is gone.
That single fact is the one a lot of buyers miss, because nothing about the neighborhood's curb appeal signals it. The homes look the same. The HOA paperwork you'd review at closing won't spell it out either, since club membership and property ownership are handled as two separate relationships with two separate entities. A title search confirms who owns the lot. It won't tell you whether you can play the course next to it.
The Course in the Photos Isn't the One in Older Listing Comps
There's a second wrinkle tied to the same ownership change, and it affects pricing more directly than the membership question does.
Mossy Oak closed for renovations starting in January 2025 so the new ownership group could rebuild it, reopening after what the club itself described as a yearlong closure. The scope wasn't cosmetic: complete reconstruction of every bunker, a lengthened course, greens re-grassed with TifEagle turf, and rebuilt cart paths throughout. The course reopened on October 13, 2025, with Pate himself overseeing most of the work through the year. Local coverage from The Dispatch at the time of the sale noted the new ownership group planned to invest millions of dollars in the properties, and the reopening scope bears that out.
Why This Matters for Pricing
If you're pulling comparable sales to justify an offer on a home inside the community, any closing that happened before October 2025 reflects a neighborhood with one of its two golf courses shut down for renovation. That's a meaningfully different amenity package than what exists today. A buyer using a 2024 or early-2025 sale as a comp is pricing against a course that, at the time, didn't have a fully finished bunker system or a functioning cart path network. The freshly reopened Mossy Oak is the amenity you'd actually be buying into now, and it's less than a year old as a finished product. Treat pre-reopening comps with caution and weight anything that closed after October 2025 more heavily.
What's Actually For Sale Inside the Gates
The product mix on the ground is more varied than a single "golf community home" listing suggests. Based on current inventory descriptions from the property, buyers considering this footprint are typically choosing between a handful of distinct formats.
| Product type | What it is |
|---|---|
| Stone Bridge Townhomes | New-construction luxury townhomes with garages, overlooking the tenth fairway and Lake Waverly |
| Waverly Court Condos | Three-bedroom, two-bath condos near the tenth green with lake views |
| Scotland Yard Condos | Condominiums behind the tenth green and eleventh tees, styled after the game's Scottish roots |
| Garden Court Villas | Single-level two and three-bedroom villas near the tenth tee, a short walk to the clubhouse |
| Azalea Cove homesites | Homes and remaining lots sited around Lake Azalea, near the course's starting hole |
These aren't interchangeable. A townhome under construction carries different financing and inspection considerations than a resale condo or a raw homesite. If your search has been treating "a place inside Old Waverly" as one category, it's worth narrowing that down before you get deep into financing conversations, since a construction loan and a resale mortgage move through underwriting differently.
The Question the Paperwork Won't Answer
Here's the practical friction. Membership terms, initiation costs, and whether access is tied to the deed or handled as a separate club agreement aren't published pricing you can pull up online. The club's real estate arm lists a Director of Lodging and Real Estate as the point of contact for exactly this kind of question, which tells you something about how the process works here: it's a phone call and a conversation, not a fixed line item you can diligence from a listing sheet.
That's a different process than buyers are used to with a standard subdivision HOA, where dues and rules are usually spelled out in recorded covenants anyone can pull from the county. Before you write an offer on anything inside this community, get the current membership structure in writing directly from the club, not from the seller's disclosure or your own assumptions about how it used to work. Ask specifically whether access transfers with the property, whether there's a separate initiation fee due at closing, and whether that fee has changed since the 2024 ownership transition. None of that is guesswork you should be doing on your own.
If You're Buying as an Investment
Not every buyer here is planning to live in the house year-round. Several of the on-property cottages can be enrolled in the club's rental program, which lets an owner generate income against the carrying costs of a second home or investment property. If cash flow is part of your reason for buying inside the gates, ask how that program is structured now under the new ownership, since the rental terms are administered by the club rather than baked into the property's title. A rental arrangement that made sense under the old ownership isn't guaranteed to carry forward unchanged.
Before You Write an Offer
A short list to work through with your agent and lender before you get to contract:
- Confirm current membership terms and costs directly with the club's real estate office, in writing
- Ask whether access is tied to the deed or handled as a separate agreement
- Weight any comp that closed before October 2025 with caution, since Mossy Oak was closed for renovation during that period
- If you're considering the rental program, get the current terms rather than assuming they match what a previous owner had
- Match your loan type to the actual product: new construction, resale condo, and raw homesite each carry different underwriting paths
A Few Common Questions
Do I have to join the club to buy a home at Old Waverly or Mossy Oak? Property ownership and club membership are separate relationships with separate entities. Confirm current terms directly with the club before assuming access comes automatically with the purchase.
Does the 2025 renovation affect what I should expect to pay? It affects what you should expect other buyers paid. Sales that closed before the October 2025 reopening reflect a property with one course shut down for a year of construction. Weight those comps accordingly.
Can I rent out a home I buy inside the community? Some properties can be enrolled in the club's rental program to help offset ownership costs. Get the current program terms from the club directly rather than relying on what a previous owner may have had.
If you're weighing a purchase inside West Point's golf community, or trying to figure out how this submarket compares to the rest of town, Delta-Gulf Real Estate Corporation can walk you through the current numbers and help you ask the right questions before you're under contract. Explore Our Properties to see what's available right now.
