NEVADA
Two hundred and eighty miles northeast of Palm Springs is Las Vegas, where golf could well be the primary purpose of your trip … but might not be. Again, there are numerous excellent courses which have gained national recognition either by hosting PGA TOUR events, costing outrageous fortunes to build, or courting publicity in other ways.
Thanks perhaps to its location 45 miles southwest of Vegas on the Nevada/California border, Primm Valley Golf Club (primmvalleygolf.com, 888-PRIMMNV) has never become quite as familiar to Northwesterners as Cascata or Shadow Creek, with which the Lakes Course at Primm Valley shares a little DNA – all lush paradises completely alien to their arid desert surroundings.
Tom Fazio designed both courses at Primm — the Lakes opening in 1997, the slightly more natural-looking Desert a year later. Both offer serious eye candy — low on subtlety but big on conspicuous, eye-catching features. The views of the Mojave National Preserve and McCullough Mountains are spectacular. Stay and play package deals are also available at Primm’s casino resorts, as well as other area hotels. If your game stinks, it might be worth scheduling a lesson with the Bob May Golf Academy, based at Silverstone in Las Vegas but which often visits Primm Valley. And when you’ve played two of Nevada’s finest courses, and had the 2000 PGA Championship runner-up reboot your swing, you can head to Buffalo Bill’s Hotel and ride The Desperado roller-coaster, which was the tallest in the world when it opened in 1994.
There are too many good courses in Las Vegas to mention them all, but one that can’t be overlooked is the remarkable Angel Park Golf Club (angelpark.com, 702-254-4653) which never seems to get the love and attention it deserves. Managed by OB Sports, Angel Park is just a few minutes west of the Strip in a golf-rich part of town – Badlands, TPC Summerlin and TPC Las Vegas are all nearby.
There are 57 holes here – 36 designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay (Palm and Mountain), the 12-hole Cloud Nine par-three course designed by Bob Cupp (nine holes are floodlit each evening), and the nine-hole putting course, Seventh Heaven. In a town where everything has to be the biggest or the best, Angel Park is not slow to bill itself as the “most complete golf experience in the world.” That’s up for debate, certainly, but what isn’t in question is that Angel Park is a great day out.
General Manager David Bogue has been at Angel Park since 2003 and says he has never felt prouder to be associated with it.
“I wouldn’t have said that five or six years ago,” he adds. “The courses weren’t in great shape at the time, but we spent a lot of money during the down market and it has really paid off. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the courses looking so good.”
Eighty miles east of Las Vegas is Mesquite, whose Palms Course, which opened in 1990, spawned a new golf destination and viable alternative to Vegas and Scottsdale. Six more 18-holers have since been built here — seven if you include the Jack Nicklaus-designed Coyote Springs, 45 minutes to the west via I-15 and State Route 168, along which you will most definitely start doubting your GPS, checking how much gas you have and wishing you had stocked up on water and snacks at the last gas station. Don’t worry, you’ll find it eventually and be very glad you did.
Virtually all of Mesquite’s courses are surrounded by, or actually built on, the sort of scenery that makes for good calendars. While Palms is the oldest, Conestoga Golf Club (702-346-4292, conestogagolf.com) is the city’s newest course, having opened in 2009. It was designed by Scottsdale-based architect Gary Panks, who made the most of the site’s remote setting and magnificent landforms, although he says finding a course out here, let alone building it, wasn’t easy.
“We had to hike to some points because we couldn’t get a vehicle out there,” he says. “It was by far the largest earthworks project I’ve been involved in. I think we moved five million cubic yards of dirt.”
Fortunately, Panks adds, the earth was fine silt and had few rocks or boulders in it, “so moving it wasn’t actually too big a problem.”
The results are amazing. Despite the huge earth-moving effort, and the fact that this is definitely not one of those sites where the architect would have said something like, “God meant this to be a golf course,” Conestoga looks remarkably natural. It’s the sort of place you expect to find archaeologists and paleontologists digging in the dust, but in between the sandstone peaks you actually find bright green fairways, large sand bunkers and the odd lake. Green fees between New Year’s Day and Apr. 30 begin at $69 and top out at $169.
Cody Law, Executive Director at Golf Mesquite Nevada — a consortium of six courses, including the aforementioned Coyote Springs, as well as Coral Canyon, Falcon Ridge, the John Fought-designed Sand Hollow and the 36-hole Oasis Golf Club, the latter including a spectacular Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay layout — says Mesquite is growing in popularity every year because golfers are beginning to appreciate the ease with which they can get around to the various courses and hotels, promoting a stress-free vacation. Golfers can plan entire Mesquite getaways on GolfMesquiteNevada.com, from hotels to tee times and more.
“The main thing that sets Mesquite apart is the proximity of our golf courses to the hotel and casino resorts,” Law says. “You are literally a five-minute drive from hotel to golf course. Golfers return to Mesquite because they feel they will get a more intimate experience with their group than they would elsewhere. Many say it feels like a second home because of the warm reception they receive every time.”