We are about to head out on a vacation to Vegas, July 9-15. El Perro Fumando has some work conferences to attend in order to get other people to pay for a lot of it, and as such, she also has some daytime that is committed, while mine is not.
I would love to try a little bit of a desert course or two, having nothing nearly so visually striking here on the eastern seaboard. But I don’t want to bring my clubs for a week if I only go out once (with the oversized luggage fees and risk of loss associated with packing them), and I really don’t want to pay the $400 greens fees of some of the hotel-affiliated courses.
What I am hoping for is a course or two within easy reach of the Strip, whether it be something a short walk or taxi from a monorail stop, or some place a bit further out with shuttle service from an easily accessible location. I’m not likely to have a rental car. Hopefully, I could get away with spending less than $100 for the round, midweek in the heat of summer (though if such a thing as getting a morning time still exists, all the better), and less than $50 for decent rental clubs (from the course, from my hotel?). The hotel (Imperial Palace) does not seem to have any courses affiliated with it, but it appears all too glad to help me book at 33 area courses (though seeing one or two that I know to have driving distances up to an hour away, “area” is subjective).
So what are the best deal courses in the area, once transportation without a rental car is taken into account?
Well I don’t golf but I live here. There’s a place up the street from where I live It’s called Craig Ranch Golf Course. They are going to convert it into a park soon but I still see golfers there. I just called them and they said 18 holes is 19.00 if you walk 35.00 if you ride. Thier phone number is 702 642 9700. It’s about 15 miles from the strip but I doubt you will find a less expensive place to golf. Lots of trees – well search it. It’s in North Las Vegas.
Frequently, but nowhere near the Strip, with a resident discount, our own clubs, on weekends. With a cart, Silverstone (20-ish miles north of downtown) ran us $35 each at 11 am last Sunday, and $50 at 6:30am on Saturday. Seems like non-res prices are $15-$20 higher, but weekdays are a lot cheaper for everyone. The TPC courses are more expensive, more crowded, and I didn’t think they were that much nicer – but I’m a hacker with a cheap streak. YMMV.
My only useful advice would be to book your tee-time as early in the morning as possible, be sure to drink a LOT of water, and don’t forget your sunglasses.
Talk to your concierge about where, and transportation. The way I understand it, stuff like that is their job, that’s what they do.
I was thinking of 7 or 8 am tee times, and of course water aplenty. Then again, today I was wearing a suit walking around DC in 95 degree before the total saturation humidity. Felt like 110.
I was thinking about using the concierge, since they’d definitely know about things like transportation to courses. But I wanted some more local opinions on which courses are better than their reputations, which are expensive shite, which are a bit more costly but well worth a splurge, etc.
Here are 33 courses the concierge is most likely to recommend, from the hotel’s own site. Anybody with experience on any of them?
ETA: I see Silverstone is on there. Which of their three courses do you play, Pansy?
i used to live in las vegas and can tell you that neither painted desert nor craig ranch (and neither is the local muni by siegfired and roy’s house but i forgot the name of it) is worth taking your clubs for. angel park probably isn’t either but its a close call. if i was going to have a golf vacation in that area i would either get a package at mesquite or primm valley. otherwise you can expect to pay 2 or 3 times what you can get nicer elsewhere.
Too late for a golf vacation; I’m just hoping to tack golf onto a regular week. I’m willing to pay a little more than I would have if golf had been my original plan, but I don’t know that I’m willing to take a second mortgage to do it.
It’s 3 nine-holes, so we play which ever two the guy at the proshop assigns us. Desert seems to always be where we start, and I hate Mountain because I haven’t broken 100 there – yet. I might love it next time. They’re all 3 very nice. Fast greens, forgiving rough, no geese, one truly vicious sand-trap gnome, competent rangers, no geese, perky beer cart girls, nice range, no geese, comfortable clubhouse, clean potties and no geese. The clientele seems well behaved but not overly prissy. The Bloody Mary’s are a tad inconsistant, but always acceptable, and after a big tournament, they’re a little slow getting the range balls picked up.
I haven’t pissed off the water hazard faeries, so they can’t be too cruel.
