Las Vegas Golf Guide

I picked up the December issue of Golf Digest at the airport for something to read flying back from Thanksgiving. Toward the back they have a feature on Las Vegas golf; in their words a ‘complete guide to the most entertaining – and, at times, most vexing – golf destination in America’. What follows is nine pages of incomplete, disjointed features that occasionally touch on golfing in Las Vegas.

Highlighted are the ‘par mate’ female caddies at Royal Links, the swimming pool at Red Rock Casino, a bachelor party golf trip that spent $5000 per man (cause you gotta have bottle service when you’re out clubbin’, etc.), a casino host at Trop that deals with high rollers, and the dichotomy of Shadow Creek vs. North Las Vegas Golf Course. Oh, and Butch Harmon recommends Rio Secco or Cascata (shocking); if you’re going to play a third, try Bali Hai. It wraps up with a list of the Top 25 Courses within an hour of the strip. Included are privates Southern Highlands, South Shore, TPC Summerlin, Dragon Ridge, Las Vegas CC, Spanish Trail CC, Anthem CC, Red Rock CC, and Canyon Gate. Of course Shadow Creek, Cascata, and Wynn are on the list as well, so half of the list is courses that the average tourist isn’t likely to touch.

As someone that has golfed in Vegas a fair amount the last few years I was rather amused. If I had read this before I had ever taken a golf excursion to Vegas, I don’t think I would have found this to be remotely helpful. Anybody else see this? Am I being too harsh?

Settle in. We're all in for a long ride. I can remember the days when I'd get excited to read a LV golf review I'd come across, only to wonder where the writer got his info. It seems that very few of these are written by people like Ken that not only know what they're talking about, but have actually been to and played the courses. So mant times I saw that I knew more about these courses than the writer. Then sometimes the article will tout a review of LV finest courses, only to list those that Billy Walters owns and hasn't been able to convert into some sort of commercial development. Most that read spend more time talking about casino/hotels and restaurants than golf. Still I read, hoping to find one of the gems.

Don't sell LVGC short. You can't see the gates to Siegfried and Roy's place from Shadow Creek or Cascata!

Good Luck!
Ric at Joes

That was Matty G's piece, no?

That's not my idea of a Vegas (or anywhere) golf junket, but what's wrong with writing a golf travel piece that plays off the stereotype of Vegas? If you want to know about Vegas golf, however, give me a call or flip over to my bud Travelin' Joe Passov at GOLF Magazine.

Including private courses in any public-serving publication is self-serving and a waste of editorial space, IF it is a service article. Nothing wrong with doing a gypsy-in-the-palace piece, however. There'd be no Robb Report, for instance, without dream pieces. I have no qualms with doing something on Shadow because that is price-limiting, not the golf equivalent of separate but equal. Doing so to the exclusion of GREAT plays at far less coin -- Coyote Springs, Primm, Paiute, Boulder Creek, etc. (sorry, I don't have the article in front of me so I'm not sure what was in there) -- just shows ignorance. God, some of those private clubs listed above are FAR from the best in Vegas, but so is Bali Hai and most of the golf-writing community can't give that place enough cyberhummers.

Thanks, Ric.

Eh, it’s not a big deal - something to spark some discussion on here. The golf board has been pretty dead lately. Besides, I always enjoy a good rant.

I just thought it was strange to bill it as a complete Vegas golfing guide. And to be fair, I understand that the writers don’t generally supply the headlines. What golf it touched on just seemed to lack any depth. For example, the bachelor party played Paiute and Coyote Springs - good choices. Here’s the entire summary of Coyote Springs: ‘On Day 2 they drove an hour north to Mesquite, for 36 holes at Coyote Springs. “The course is nice, but they ran out of sandwiches” [bachelor party attendee] says.’ That’s it. If I’d never played there & read that, there’s little chance I would have chosen to play what in reality is one of the nicest courses in the area. (Or if I did, I might have spent hours driving around Mesquite looking for it.) When you come across something like this where you feel like you have some level of knowledge, I think it generally tends to be a disappointing read. Maybe the editing process butchered a more in depth synopsis.

Looking at it a little more closely, the top courses list was from a poll of ‘more than 1,000 avid golfers who create our rankings’. So somewhat akin to polls that end up putting Applebee’s (to pick on one generic chain) among the top 10 eateries in town. Regardless, including the privates was a misstep in my opinion.

Write a letter to the editor. Those "golf" features never are golf features. But, yes, there could be something substantive to 'em. I see it as an ed hole wasted. Always have. Not sure we can blame Matty though.

For those that know even just a bit about LV golf, these articles pose no real problem. I feel sorry for the uninformed. It's a bit like the casino/flight packages advertised in the Sunday travel section back in the early ninties. They'd list packages bottom to top. One Sunday I saw a place I didn't know called the Klondike. I thought it might be one of the smaller places renamed. On my next trip we were heading north on LV Blvd and I finally noticed the Klondike. All I could think about was some poor couple in the midwest about to book their first trip ti LV, only to end up at the Klondike for three wonderfull nights! At least these days we have the internet for some solid research. Back then there wasn't much as not many were online and the info was nothing like today.

Good Luck!
Ric at Joes