Casinos, gargantuan hotels, bright neon signs, stretch limos, flashy showgirls, Celine Dion, world-championship prize fights … a myriad of images come to mind when Las Vegas is the topic. You can add golf to the list as well. Las Vegas was recently named as the top emerging golf destination in the world by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators.
Glitzy golf
High-profile, over-the-top designs are the norm, not the exception, with Las Vegas golf courses. While the star-studded Strip has its share of marquee performers, so does the golf scene with such A-list course architects as Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Tom Fazio and Pete Dye. Lavish, exotic rock and water features; roller-coaster mounding and sculpting; huge, white sand bunkers; thousands of re-planted mature trees; and lush, state-of-the-art turf grass are some of the elements architects have used to make courses unique, memorable and playable.
Marvelous menu
Las Vegas’ sizzling, one-of-a-kind golf menu trumps other golf destinations when it comes to creativity and once-in-a-lifetime golf experiences. If you’re a Jack Nicklaus fan, the Golden Bear-designed Bear’s Best features 18 of his favorite hole designs from more than 200 courses worldwide. Just as you can find Venice or Paris themes on The Strip, you’ll find Scottish-themed golf in Las Vegas at Royal Links Golf Club, where replicas of famous holes from the British Open Championship rotation are featured.
The variety of Las Vegas golf venues includes the 320-acre Lake Las Vegas Resort (photo 1), with three courses, two designed by Jack Nicklaus and one by Tom Weiskopf; Legacy Golf Club, an Arthur Hills design with a hole that features tee boxes shaped in spades, clubs, diamonds and hearts; Rio Secco, a Rees Jones design offering six dramatic canyon holes, six plateau holes and six that wind through wide desert washes and ancient riverbeds; and Angel Park (photo 2), a 36-hole complex of Arnold Palmer-designed golf.
For a course directly on The Strip near the biggest casino hotels, Bali Hai (photo 3) offers convenience and phenomenal golf.
High rollers only
If you’re looking for the ultimate in trophy-golf courses, Las Vegas has three ultra-luxury venues offering one-of-a-kind golf experiences. The Cascata Golf Club, Shadow Creek Golf Club and Wynn Golf Club feature golf escapism in opulent settings with greens fees that hover around $500.
Cascata, exclusively for customers of Harrahs six resorts in Las Vegas, is a wonderland of waterfalls, canyons and verdant, green fairways designed by Rees Jones. The course is named after a 418-ft. waterfall that flows down a mountain through the clubhouse.
Shadow Creek, open to guests of MGM properties, is a magnificent testament to creativity and earth-moving equipment. Designer Tom Fazio fashioned a traditional Carolina parkland course out of flat, desert terrain with dense wood forests so thick that no hole can be seen from another. More than 20,000 fully mature trees, mostly pines and cottonwoods more than 30 ft. tall, were transplanted to create a Pinehurst ambience just outside of Las Vegas.
The newest member of the trio is Wynn Golf Club, open to Wynn Hotel guests with limited outside play, is located on The Strip on the site of the former Desert Inn golf course. Much like Shadow Creek, designer Fazio re-planted thousands of North Carolina trees. Dominated by waterfalls, streams, forest and dramatic elevation changes, golfers at the Wynn will find it difficult to believe The Strip is a couple of long tees shots away.
No matter where you play golf in Las Vegas, be prepared for sticker-shock greens fees. That said, no other place on the planet has as many different golf experiences as Las Vegas.
Things to Know
High Season: November-May
Value Season: June-August
Green Fees: Resort $90-$500; Public $45-$205
Airport: McCarran International Airport
Off-Course Activities: Casino gaming, big-name entertainment shows, The Strip, Fremont Street, Lake Mead
Information: 877-847-4858, www.visitlasvegas.com
Photos courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau.