Well, I’m back from my annual Las Vegas trip. This year a friend joined me for part of the trip to play some golf. So we golfed – a lot. I usually like reading through others trip reports, so I'll post a summary of mine.
It was kind of an odd trip in some ways. The weather was unusual. My putter was miserable, as was my driver at times. A summary of the golf follows. (Warning – this is long, we played a lot of golf.)
7/12 – Rio Secco ($80 - Twilight; Score – 85)
Nice course with some spectacular views of the valley. Especially love the 3rd & 11th holes here, and the former closing holes 7 through 9 (they reversed the nines several years ago) are solid. The run of holes from 11 thru 16 is the highlight, which explains shifting them to the back, but the rather bland back-to-back par 5 finishing holes make for a strange finish. Homes on the course are in abundance, but most are set back a good distance. Most of them are interesting to gawk at anyway - the ‘compound’ that sits above the left side of 14 in particular. I’ve heard this belongs to the founder of e-bay, but I'm not certain. Clouds & a brutal dusty wind blew in during the back nine, making it a much more difficult round.
Birdied Holes: #15 Putts: 33
Conditioning (B-): Some bare patches in the fairways, greens a bit sandy & slow, nothing terrible.
Service (B-): Had a mid-afternoon tee time & they seemed really anxious for us to finish & leave. No one was rude though, none of the reputed attitude from years back.
7/13 – TPC Las Vegas ($47 – Golf Now; Score – 83)
Fun course to play, very scorable from the proper tees. Favorite holes are 2nd, 13th and 14th. The holes that run along the canyon on the back side (12 thru 15) are the highlight here, though I also really like the run from 2 thru 6. Another storm tried to blow in on the back side - got a little light rain, but nothing major. This course did get dumped on that morning & possibly the previous day as well.
Birdied Holes: #8 Putts: 27
Conditioning (C): First hole was mostly mud, several other fairways with bare patches. Frankly, as bad as I’ve seen it here, but my comments above regarding the rain provide the explanation.
Service (A-): No complaints.
7/14 – Coyote Springs Golf Club ($90 w/free replay & lunch; Scores – 92, 90)
This place is fantastic. The club house is essentially a trailer. If you care about this, you’re concerned with the wrong things. The warm up area is the best that I’ve ever seen. The course is aces, the conditioning pristine. None of it really makes any sense. Coyote Springs is a town that does not yet exist, and probably never will. It sits an hour plus outside of Vegas, and a good 30 miles from I-15. Selfishly, I’d like to see it succeed. Logically, I don’t see how it can. Of course, if it does that means you’ll start to see houses on the course. And that would really change the dynamic here as well. The lack of houses, or anything, is what makes this so unique. It’s hard to pick favorite holes on this one, as most of them are pretty strong. I guess I would go with number 4 (par four, dogleg right over water) or maybe number 16 (long par 5 downhill, undulating fairway to green protected by water on the left). We had a beautiful, warm sunny day and we were the first group off in the morning so the pace was our own. Caught one group on the replay but they waved us right through. The day wasn’t perfect – see my scores. How a grown man could twice miss something as wide as the 7th fairway is beyond comprehension. Hopefully I’ll get another chance next year. My finishing birdie capped a pretty fine day.
Birdied Holes: #18 (replay round) Putts: 32, 35
Conditioning (A+): We saw nothing better the entire trip
Service (A): From the club drop to the finish, everything was great. Lunch is just a wrapped sandwich from the cooler & chips. As above, if you care about this…
Coyote Springs #6
7/15 – Entrada at Snow Canyon (Round included with $135 overnight rate at the Inn at Entrada; Score – 91)
This is a private course up in St. George but non-members can play if staying at the Inn. The Inn is a bit of a misnomer, as you are actually renting a townhome inside the gated Entrada community. Many of the units back up to the 9th hole, though ours did not. It was a fantastic place to stay – we didn’t really want to leave. I’ve seen some mixed reviews of this course online, and I have to say I don’t really get it. The course was flat out beautiful, and fun to play. The only complaint I have, and it’s a minor one, is that we went off on 10. And this is a course that really builds on itself from 1 thru 18, so it would have been preferable to play them in order. The highlights are the final four holes: 15 thru 17 run through a black lava field, and 18 is a spectacular closer with the fairway running right to left probably some 50 feet below the tee boxes. Numbers 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10 also stick in my head as highlights. I’d come back here anytime.
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 36 (Yeah, I wasn’t playing great.)
Conditioning (A): Recall some minor maintenance repairs happening on 1st hole, otherwise perfect.
Service (A): Sometimes privates can give the non-members a cold vibe - didn’t sense that here.
Entrada #18
7/15 – Sand Hollow ($35 – Twilight; Score – 80)
Love this course, and at this price it’s like stealing. The front nine is very wide open, bit of a ‘links’ feel. Then the back takes you along a high bluff overlooking the Virgin River valley. All of the bunkers are red sand/dirt that is prevalent in the area, which I seem to have a real talent for hitting out of. Another storm began chasing us on the back side; we barely finished before it rolled in. Favorite holes here are 12, 13 and 15, with the aforementioned bluff dropoff running down the left side. Holes 6, 10, and 17 are also very strong, and number 9 is a real bear – long par 4 uphill into the prevailing wind. This is a must play if you get up to St. George.
Birdied Holes: #4, 11 Putts: 34
Conditioning (B-): Some of the fairways had substantial burnout areas, didn’t see any of this last summer.
Service (B+): Wanted us to finish quickly with storm rolling in, but didn’t provide any relief from the foursome ahead that chose not to either hurry or waive us through. Otherwise everyone was great.
Sand Hollow #13
(As an aside, I would be remiss not to mention our disappointment with the Falcon Ridge Hotel in Mesquite. Saw quite a bit of positive feedback and it was close to our course the next morning so decided to give it a try. Just really wasn’t impressed with much of anything here. Casablanca or Eureka would have been preferable.)
7/16 – Conestoga Golf Club ($39 – Includes lunch; Score - 83)
Finally got to play Conestoga after near misses the past couple years. I wasn’t disappointed. This is a really nice course with some beautiful holes. Favorites for me were numbers 2, 4, 12 and 17. Number 2 is a cool par 3 that drops off probably 25 feet from the tee to the green. Four is the hole that I’ve seen photographed the most, with a split fairway that drops off similarly. Ken (if you’re reading this), I see what you mean about reversing the nines, as the front is a bit more dynamic than the back. And I thought that 18 was kind of a bland finisher. However if they did that then what is now the par 3 tenth would be the opener. Not sure how well that would work. The lunch here was the real deal – off the menu of their clubhouse restaurant. At the price we paid, this was a steal.
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 34
Conditioning (A-): No complaints
Service (A): Very welcoming
7/16 – Wolf Creek Golf Club ($55 – Twilight; Score – 79)
This was my second time here; first was about 5 years ago. Knowing the course even a little bit makes a difference. This could have been the round of my life if I’d had a working putter. Instead I continually hit irons right to the holes like darts, then missed the short birdie putts. It was really fun and frustrating at the same time. Just a strange round altogether. We were interrupted by pouring rainstorms three separate times. The first we rode out sitting in our cart & got soaked. The second sent us running to the clubhouse for about an hour. And the third we hung with our cart again, even as the rain turned to hail. I had to wipe the hailstones out of the way before putting when we resumed. The first time I played here, this course was absolutely pristine. This time it was a mess. The rain didn’t help, as mudslides were occurring all over the place. But the fairways were in awful shape. Dead burnout everywhere, some holes even had big black patches in spots. Apparently they had a pipe burst, which I guess explains some of this, but it was still pretty disappointing. Hope they get this turned around, as it is a pretty incredible course when it is in good shape. (See the comparison pictures below.)
Birdied Holes: #1, 8, 15 Putts: 33
Conditioning (D): See comments above
Service (C): No mention of course condition before the round. Tried to encourage us to leave after the storms had passed. I get here once every few years and there is still hours of daylight left. (And I’m one over through nine.) We’ll finish it up, thanks.
Wolf Creek #5 in July 2007
Wolf Creek #5 in July 2012
7/17 – Primm Valley Golf Club – Lakes Course ($30; Score – 82) & Desert Course ($24; Score – 89)
What happened here? A couple years ago this sat in the middle of an empty desert. Now it’s surrounded by a huge industrial complex and sits next to a reservoir. OK, it’s not really a reservoir, but they had so much rain that the ‘dry’ lakebed was filled with water as far as you could see from I-15. The industrial complex is a solar power project, and it is massive. At one point we glanced over form the edge of the course just as a shift must have been getting off. There was more traffic coming down the little desert road than there was on the interstate. Kind of bizarre. Anyway, back to the golf. The Lakes is a lush parkland style layout that has the feel of an oasis in the middle of the desert. The Desert course is, as its name suggests, closer to a classic desert style track. I like the Lakes a lot, but have found that many of the holes tend to run together in my memory. My favorites are probably the par-5 second around the big pond, and the short risk/reward par-4 tenth. (Even though I don’t have enough length to consider taking the risk, it’s still a cool hole.) Having played here a couple of times now, I must say that I much prefer the desert course. The long par-4 second hole, with a long approach over water, and the short par-4 sixth with the green seemingly floating above the desert on the right side stand out in my mind. But there are many other stellar, picture worthy holes on this one. Unfortunately with all of the rain, the bunkers were mostly unplayable on both tracks – particularly the Lakes. And there were areas of standing mud on some of the fairways, notably so on the Desert 10th hole. Still, I thought they had done a decent job of getting it back to where it was considering all of the water. Definitely worth the drive, and another huge bargain considering the price.
Birdied Holes: Lakes #4, Desert #5 & 7 Putts: Lakes 35, Desert 33
Conditioning (B-): See comments above
Service (B+): For some reason I always have issues trying to get bottled water here. Didn’t we put one in the cart cooler for you? Yes, but we’re playing 36. Do I need to fill out a requisition? Otherwise all was great.
Primm Valley - Lakes #2
Primm Valley - Desert #7
7/18 – Paiute Snow Mtn. ($129, includes lunch[or not]; Score – 90)
Finally, after about ten trips out here I have now played Sun Mountain. And I think it’s my third favorite track here. It’s pretty nice, of course, but I much prefer the other two. Perhaps it was because I played horribly, and maybe it will grow on me more with additional rounds. But many of the holes kind of ran together in my head. The ones that I recall the most were the par-3 fourth (over water) and the par-4 finishing hole (a brute over water into a strong breeze). The short par-4 fifteenth, with a fairway split by bunkers, was also a fun hole. We purchased the ‘golfapalooza’ package, which includes two rounds plus lunch. When we checked in, they said to take our time since nobody else was going out for a while. They also said that our afternoon round on the Wolf would be wide open. We did catch a threesome on the back side, but no big deal. When we finished, we checked in for our second round before heading over to grab our lunch. However, there was now somehow a tournament scheduled on the Wolf (several holes with shotgun start), and if we wanted to get ahead of it we’d better get out there. We asked if we could grab our meal afterward & were told no problem.
Birdied Holes: #8 Putts: 31
Conditioning (B+): Not in pristine shape, but close enough.
7/18 – Paiute Wolf (Price included with first round; Score – 84)
The starter told us to go off on one & get in as many as we could as the tournament wasn’t going to start for about 30 minutes. Five minutes later he finds us on the first green & tells us to go to ten as they are bringing them out now. So we played one, then the back, then one through nine. Not a big deal, but strange. We would have been fine with starting on 10 to begin with. Anyway, the course was in tremendous shape. The greens were the best we played all week, even better than Coyote Springs. The Wolf is a tough track, but I played it much better than Sun Mtn. Perhaps my familiarity helped, but for some reason I was swinging much better in the afternoon. My favorite holes here are the split fairway par-5 sixth, the long downhill par-3 eighth, and while it’s perhaps a bit out of place here the island green par-3 fifteenth is a lot of fun. The long dogleg right par-4 fourteenth is also a memorable hole.
So we finished the round and went in to grab our lunch only to be told that the kitchen had closed over an hour ago. While the meal isn’t really a huge deal to me, I don’t understand this – especially at Paiute of all places. Don’t tell me the afternoon round will be “wide open” if you in fact have a tournament scheduled. Don’t tell me it will be “no problem” to grab lunch after the round if the kitchen is closing in two hours. And all of the ‘gee, that’s too bad, nothing we can do about it’ looks didn’t really brighten my mood either. We’re willing to work with you, just give us an idea of where to go & when.
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 31
Conditioning (A): As good as we saw all week; greens were tremendous.
Service (C-): See my whiny comments above. This is usually one of their strengths.
7/20 – Badlands ($20 – Golf Now; Score – 90)
Badlands has three nines - we played the Outlaw & Diablo. This was the first time I had played the Outlaw nine, which is a bit more sedate than the Desperado & Diablo tracks. The highlights of Outlaw were the par fives: number 6 with a green guarded by water on both sides, and number 9, a downhill double dog-leg around a pond short left of the green. Number 6 on Diablo is probably the best of all 27 out here, a split fairway par-4 probably some 30 feet below and left of the tee boxes. This is true desert target golf, and if you aren’t striking the ball well you will be penalized. (See my score for exhibit A.)
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 36
Conditioning (B+): No real complaints here.
Service (B+): No complaints here either.
Badlands - Diablo #6
7/21 – Tuscany Golf Club ($24 – Golf Now; Score – 37)
We paid for 18, but decided to hang it up after nine. I played this one with family, and there were just too many people out on a hot, humid (for Vegas) day for everyone to enjoy it. This isn’t a bad course, but I have to say I don’t get the love for it. I see so many great reviews for it, and the couple of times I’ve played I’ve been underwhelmed. The warm up area is misery – hitting off curled up old mats to a dirt patch. At least they don’t charge you for the practice balls. Obviously it is priced right to attract play, so I guess I shouldn’t gripe about that. Favorite holes? I don’t know, I guess 18 is an interesting par-4 over the water. From what I recall of the front (we went off on 10 this trip), number 2 down the hill and number 9 over the water are also memorable. It’s probably not entirely fair to grade this against the other heavyweights that I played.
Birdied Holes: #10 Putts: 14
Conditioning (C-): Lots of brownout dirt patches on the fairways; some bare patches on the greens
Service (B): No real issues.
Tuscany #18
In summary, this was quite a trip – 261 holes of golf, including 216 in a seven day stretch. Pretty sure I’ve never played that much in a week before. I got a little tired toward the end of a couple of the afternoon rounds, but other than the morning round at Paiute I didn’t really feel stiff or sore. Wish I’d played a bit better, but that’s nothing new. If you read this far, I hope you enjoyed the report or at least the pictures.
It was kind of an odd trip in some ways. The weather was unusual. My putter was miserable, as was my driver at times. A summary of the golf follows. (Warning – this is long, we played a lot of golf.)
7/12 – Rio Secco ($80 - Twilight; Score – 85)
Nice course with some spectacular views of the valley. Especially love the 3rd & 11th holes here, and the former closing holes 7 through 9 (they reversed the nines several years ago) are solid. The run of holes from 11 thru 16 is the highlight, which explains shifting them to the back, but the rather bland back-to-back par 5 finishing holes make for a strange finish. Homes on the course are in abundance, but most are set back a good distance. Most of them are interesting to gawk at anyway - the ‘compound’ that sits above the left side of 14 in particular. I’ve heard this belongs to the founder of e-bay, but I'm not certain. Clouds & a brutal dusty wind blew in during the back nine, making it a much more difficult round.
Birdied Holes: #15 Putts: 33
Conditioning (B-): Some bare patches in the fairways, greens a bit sandy & slow, nothing terrible.
Service (B-): Had a mid-afternoon tee time & they seemed really anxious for us to finish & leave. No one was rude though, none of the reputed attitude from years back.
7/13 – TPC Las Vegas ($47 – Golf Now; Score – 83)
Fun course to play, very scorable from the proper tees. Favorite holes are 2nd, 13th and 14th. The holes that run along the canyon on the back side (12 thru 15) are the highlight here, though I also really like the run from 2 thru 6. Another storm tried to blow in on the back side - got a little light rain, but nothing major. This course did get dumped on that morning & possibly the previous day as well.
Birdied Holes: #8 Putts: 27
Conditioning (C): First hole was mostly mud, several other fairways with bare patches. Frankly, as bad as I’ve seen it here, but my comments above regarding the rain provide the explanation.
Service (A-): No complaints.
7/14 – Coyote Springs Golf Club ($90 w/free replay & lunch; Scores – 92, 90)
This place is fantastic. The club house is essentially a trailer. If you care about this, you’re concerned with the wrong things. The warm up area is the best that I’ve ever seen. The course is aces, the conditioning pristine. None of it really makes any sense. Coyote Springs is a town that does not yet exist, and probably never will. It sits an hour plus outside of Vegas, and a good 30 miles from I-15. Selfishly, I’d like to see it succeed. Logically, I don’t see how it can. Of course, if it does that means you’ll start to see houses on the course. And that would really change the dynamic here as well. The lack of houses, or anything, is what makes this so unique. It’s hard to pick favorite holes on this one, as most of them are pretty strong. I guess I would go with number 4 (par four, dogleg right over water) or maybe number 16 (long par 5 downhill, undulating fairway to green protected by water on the left). We had a beautiful, warm sunny day and we were the first group off in the morning so the pace was our own. Caught one group on the replay but they waved us right through. The day wasn’t perfect – see my scores. How a grown man could twice miss something as wide as the 7th fairway is beyond comprehension. Hopefully I’ll get another chance next year. My finishing birdie capped a pretty fine day.
Birdied Holes: #18 (replay round) Putts: 32, 35
Conditioning (A+): We saw nothing better the entire trip
Service (A): From the club drop to the finish, everything was great. Lunch is just a wrapped sandwich from the cooler & chips. As above, if you care about this…
Coyote Springs #6
7/15 – Entrada at Snow Canyon (Round included with $135 overnight rate at the Inn at Entrada; Score – 91)
This is a private course up in St. George but non-members can play if staying at the Inn. The Inn is a bit of a misnomer, as you are actually renting a townhome inside the gated Entrada community. Many of the units back up to the 9th hole, though ours did not. It was a fantastic place to stay – we didn’t really want to leave. I’ve seen some mixed reviews of this course online, and I have to say I don’t really get it. The course was flat out beautiful, and fun to play. The only complaint I have, and it’s a minor one, is that we went off on 10. And this is a course that really builds on itself from 1 thru 18, so it would have been preferable to play them in order. The highlights are the final four holes: 15 thru 17 run through a black lava field, and 18 is a spectacular closer with the fairway running right to left probably some 50 feet below the tee boxes. Numbers 2, 3, 8, 9, and 10 also stick in my head as highlights. I’d come back here anytime.
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 36 (Yeah, I wasn’t playing great.)
Conditioning (A): Recall some minor maintenance repairs happening on 1st hole, otherwise perfect.
Service (A): Sometimes privates can give the non-members a cold vibe - didn’t sense that here.
Entrada #18
7/15 – Sand Hollow ($35 – Twilight; Score – 80)
Love this course, and at this price it’s like stealing. The front nine is very wide open, bit of a ‘links’ feel. Then the back takes you along a high bluff overlooking the Virgin River valley. All of the bunkers are red sand/dirt that is prevalent in the area, which I seem to have a real talent for hitting out of. Another storm began chasing us on the back side; we barely finished before it rolled in. Favorite holes here are 12, 13 and 15, with the aforementioned bluff dropoff running down the left side. Holes 6, 10, and 17 are also very strong, and number 9 is a real bear – long par 4 uphill into the prevailing wind. This is a must play if you get up to St. George.
Birdied Holes: #4, 11 Putts: 34
Conditioning (B-): Some of the fairways had substantial burnout areas, didn’t see any of this last summer.
Service (B+): Wanted us to finish quickly with storm rolling in, but didn’t provide any relief from the foursome ahead that chose not to either hurry or waive us through. Otherwise everyone was great.
Sand Hollow #13
(As an aside, I would be remiss not to mention our disappointment with the Falcon Ridge Hotel in Mesquite. Saw quite a bit of positive feedback and it was close to our course the next morning so decided to give it a try. Just really wasn’t impressed with much of anything here. Casablanca or Eureka would have been preferable.)
7/16 – Conestoga Golf Club ($39 – Includes lunch; Score - 83)
Finally got to play Conestoga after near misses the past couple years. I wasn’t disappointed. This is a really nice course with some beautiful holes. Favorites for me were numbers 2, 4, 12 and 17. Number 2 is a cool par 3 that drops off probably 25 feet from the tee to the green. Four is the hole that I’ve seen photographed the most, with a split fairway that drops off similarly. Ken (if you’re reading this), I see what you mean about reversing the nines, as the front is a bit more dynamic than the back. And I thought that 18 was kind of a bland finisher. However if they did that then what is now the par 3 tenth would be the opener. Not sure how well that would work. The lunch here was the real deal – off the menu of their clubhouse restaurant. At the price we paid, this was a steal.
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 34
Conditioning (A-): No complaints
Service (A): Very welcoming
7/16 – Wolf Creek Golf Club ($55 – Twilight; Score – 79)
This was my second time here; first was about 5 years ago. Knowing the course even a little bit makes a difference. This could have been the round of my life if I’d had a working putter. Instead I continually hit irons right to the holes like darts, then missed the short birdie putts. It was really fun and frustrating at the same time. Just a strange round altogether. We were interrupted by pouring rainstorms three separate times. The first we rode out sitting in our cart & got soaked. The second sent us running to the clubhouse for about an hour. And the third we hung with our cart again, even as the rain turned to hail. I had to wipe the hailstones out of the way before putting when we resumed. The first time I played here, this course was absolutely pristine. This time it was a mess. The rain didn’t help, as mudslides were occurring all over the place. But the fairways were in awful shape. Dead burnout everywhere, some holes even had big black patches in spots. Apparently they had a pipe burst, which I guess explains some of this, but it was still pretty disappointing. Hope they get this turned around, as it is a pretty incredible course when it is in good shape. (See the comparison pictures below.)
Birdied Holes: #1, 8, 15 Putts: 33
Conditioning (D): See comments above
Service (C): No mention of course condition before the round. Tried to encourage us to leave after the storms had passed. I get here once every few years and there is still hours of daylight left. (And I’m one over through nine.) We’ll finish it up, thanks.
Wolf Creek #5 in July 2007
Wolf Creek #5 in July 2012
7/17 – Primm Valley Golf Club – Lakes Course ($30; Score – 82) & Desert Course ($24; Score – 89)
What happened here? A couple years ago this sat in the middle of an empty desert. Now it’s surrounded by a huge industrial complex and sits next to a reservoir. OK, it’s not really a reservoir, but they had so much rain that the ‘dry’ lakebed was filled with water as far as you could see from I-15. The industrial complex is a solar power project, and it is massive. At one point we glanced over form the edge of the course just as a shift must have been getting off. There was more traffic coming down the little desert road than there was on the interstate. Kind of bizarre. Anyway, back to the golf. The Lakes is a lush parkland style layout that has the feel of an oasis in the middle of the desert. The Desert course is, as its name suggests, closer to a classic desert style track. I like the Lakes a lot, but have found that many of the holes tend to run together in my memory. My favorites are probably the par-5 second around the big pond, and the short risk/reward par-4 tenth. (Even though I don’t have enough length to consider taking the risk, it’s still a cool hole.) Having played here a couple of times now, I must say that I much prefer the desert course. The long par-4 second hole, with a long approach over water, and the short par-4 sixth with the green seemingly floating above the desert on the right side stand out in my mind. But there are many other stellar, picture worthy holes on this one. Unfortunately with all of the rain, the bunkers were mostly unplayable on both tracks – particularly the Lakes. And there were areas of standing mud on some of the fairways, notably so on the Desert 10th hole. Still, I thought they had done a decent job of getting it back to where it was considering all of the water. Definitely worth the drive, and another huge bargain considering the price.
Birdied Holes: Lakes #4, Desert #5 & 7 Putts: Lakes 35, Desert 33
Conditioning (B-): See comments above
Service (B+): For some reason I always have issues trying to get bottled water here. Didn’t we put one in the cart cooler for you? Yes, but we’re playing 36. Do I need to fill out a requisition? Otherwise all was great.
Primm Valley - Lakes #2
Primm Valley - Desert #7
7/18 – Paiute Snow Mtn. ($129, includes lunch[or not]; Score – 90)
Finally, after about ten trips out here I have now played Sun Mountain. And I think it’s my third favorite track here. It’s pretty nice, of course, but I much prefer the other two. Perhaps it was because I played horribly, and maybe it will grow on me more with additional rounds. But many of the holes kind of ran together in my head. The ones that I recall the most were the par-3 fourth (over water) and the par-4 finishing hole (a brute over water into a strong breeze). The short par-4 fifteenth, with a fairway split by bunkers, was also a fun hole. We purchased the ‘golfapalooza’ package, which includes two rounds plus lunch. When we checked in, they said to take our time since nobody else was going out for a while. They also said that our afternoon round on the Wolf would be wide open. We did catch a threesome on the back side, but no big deal. When we finished, we checked in for our second round before heading over to grab our lunch. However, there was now somehow a tournament scheduled on the Wolf (several holes with shotgun start), and if we wanted to get ahead of it we’d better get out there. We asked if we could grab our meal afterward & were told no problem.
Birdied Holes: #8 Putts: 31
Conditioning (B+): Not in pristine shape, but close enough.
7/18 – Paiute Wolf (Price included with first round; Score – 84)
The starter told us to go off on one & get in as many as we could as the tournament wasn’t going to start for about 30 minutes. Five minutes later he finds us on the first green & tells us to go to ten as they are bringing them out now. So we played one, then the back, then one through nine. Not a big deal, but strange. We would have been fine with starting on 10 to begin with. Anyway, the course was in tremendous shape. The greens were the best we played all week, even better than Coyote Springs. The Wolf is a tough track, but I played it much better than Sun Mtn. Perhaps my familiarity helped, but for some reason I was swinging much better in the afternoon. My favorite holes here are the split fairway par-5 sixth, the long downhill par-3 eighth, and while it’s perhaps a bit out of place here the island green par-3 fifteenth is a lot of fun. The long dogleg right par-4 fourteenth is also a memorable hole.
So we finished the round and went in to grab our lunch only to be told that the kitchen had closed over an hour ago. While the meal isn’t really a huge deal to me, I don’t understand this – especially at Paiute of all places. Don’t tell me the afternoon round will be “wide open” if you in fact have a tournament scheduled. Don’t tell me it will be “no problem” to grab lunch after the round if the kitchen is closing in two hours. And all of the ‘gee, that’s too bad, nothing we can do about it’ looks didn’t really brighten my mood either. We’re willing to work with you, just give us an idea of where to go & when.
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 31
Conditioning (A): As good as we saw all week; greens were tremendous.
Service (C-): See my whiny comments above. This is usually one of their strengths.
7/20 – Badlands ($20 – Golf Now; Score – 90)
Badlands has three nines - we played the Outlaw & Diablo. This was the first time I had played the Outlaw nine, which is a bit more sedate than the Desperado & Diablo tracks. The highlights of Outlaw were the par fives: number 6 with a green guarded by water on both sides, and number 9, a downhill double dog-leg around a pond short left of the green. Number 6 on Diablo is probably the best of all 27 out here, a split fairway par-4 probably some 30 feet below and left of the tee boxes. This is true desert target golf, and if you aren’t striking the ball well you will be penalized. (See my score for exhibit A.)
Birdied Holes: None Putts: 36
Conditioning (B+): No real complaints here.
Service (B+): No complaints here either.
Badlands - Diablo #6
7/21 – Tuscany Golf Club ($24 – Golf Now; Score – 37)
We paid for 18, but decided to hang it up after nine. I played this one with family, and there were just too many people out on a hot, humid (for Vegas) day for everyone to enjoy it. This isn’t a bad course, but I have to say I don’t get the love for it. I see so many great reviews for it, and the couple of times I’ve played I’ve been underwhelmed. The warm up area is misery – hitting off curled up old mats to a dirt patch. At least they don’t charge you for the practice balls. Obviously it is priced right to attract play, so I guess I shouldn’t gripe about that. Favorite holes? I don’t know, I guess 18 is an interesting par-4 over the water. From what I recall of the front (we went off on 10 this trip), number 2 down the hill and number 9 over the water are also memorable. It’s probably not entirely fair to grade this against the other heavyweights that I played.
Birdied Holes: #10 Putts: 14
Conditioning (C-): Lots of brownout dirt patches on the fairways; some bare patches on the greens
Service (B): No real issues.
Tuscany #18
In summary, this was quite a trip – 261 holes of golf, including 216 in a seven day stretch. Pretty sure I’ve never played that much in a week before. I got a little tired toward the end of a couple of the afternoon rounds, but other than the morning round at Paiute I didn’t really feel stiff or sore. Wish I’d played a bit better, but that’s nothing new. If you read this far, I hope you enjoyed the report or at least the pictures.
