daslinker

Played 3/4/22
OMG, they have just let this course completely go. Fairway shots ended in thin, cuppy lies within the short, interspersed mixed grasses, bare spots were plentiful, and the course featured greens that aren't green at all (they look like mostly gray/white pressed mud). At least the rock strewn sand in the bunkers was still playable as long as you removed the pebbles. A big portion of the rakes we picked up in the bunkers were broken, too. The bar/grille right now closes at 3 PM, so you can't sit down for a snack or drinks there after your round before the hour drive back if your tee time is 11 AM or later. The pace of play was slow-ish, a few minutes wait on most shots. We finished in just under 4 1/2 hours as a 3-some with a 3-some ahead of us, but if they had a slower 4-some ahead of them... who knows, maybe a lot of lost ball searching as the wind was 15-20 mph with gusts to 27 on this day. Pretty brutal.
On the plus side, the staff is very friendly and accomodating, and the practice facilities are expansive and well worth going early there to work on your short game or hit the range, with practice balls supplied free of charge.
We had played the Lakes Course the last few times and it seemed like it was getting a bit scruffy but still decent, so we decided to go for a little change of scenery and play the Desert Course this time out.
Unfortunately to me, this course was poorly maintained and not worth the drive from Vegas or the green fees. We played with a Hot Deal tee time from GolfNow and $54 was still too much with the 100 mile round-trip drive and extra $20 in gas money you pay in order to play here. Sad, these are two Dye-designed beauties and it seems like they're nowhere near what they used to be.
Well, hopefully it will get better in the future. I don't understand the conditions because we had quite a mild Winter. Maybe they're just letting it go before reseeding new grass for this Summer.
Anyway, at least for now- not recommended.

Paid $120 through GolfNow, which is pretty reasonable for Hawaii visitors.
Course was is fine condition, as most Hawaii courses are when you get little temperature variation and plenty of moisture. The fairways are pretty narrow, I checked on the opening 9 and quite a few of them were in the 20-30 yard range, but the rough is easy to play from, not thick ot matted, with mostly good lies on hills and mounds. Avoid the trees and you're good. My only knock was that there were a few large trees hanging out into the fairways in front of the tee boxes, basically cutting your play to the fairways in half- well, unless you're a low handicapper with the ability to accurately shape tee shots (I'm not! lol).
Greens are firm, gentle and pretty smooth. A couple of memorable holes on the back 9 with water hazards and beautiful views will have you willing to return. Great staff, nice conditions. Recommended.

Just about 40 minutes away from Las Vegas, Primm Valley stands alone in the desert and has two full sized, Fazio designed courses to enjoy. On a beautiful Winter day we played the Lakes Course, the older and more scenic of the two and found it to be in pretty good shape. Some of the greens were being re-sodded in places and the fairways aren't pristine, but they're very playable. The greens weren't attractive, kind of muddy-looking, but putted just fine. All in all, the staff does a fair job of maintaining this off-the-beaten-path venue. The last time we played the Desert course it was in somewhat poor shape, but it is closed at the moment and we hope to see it back to an enjoyable state when it reopens.
It's a lot of fun to play here, the course layout is a wonderful blend of all kinds of holes, small elevation changes, bunkers, water hazards and risk/reward choices. It's also affordable, which makes the drive worthwhile. There are enough challenges and thoughtful shots to entertain low handicappers and enough scenery, space and playability to make it very enjoyable for higher handicappers. Two forced carries on Par-3s will try your nerves and hole #10 is an absolute classic risk/reward Par-4.
If you don't demand pristine conditions but can enjoy a well-crafted course with a lot of variety... yes, very recommended.

Fun, pretty, well-maintained, friendly staffed, affordable and the best pizza I've EVER had at a golf course- Chimera has it all.
I live 30 miles away with 11 full-size golf courses that I can play within 15 minutes of my house, but I never turn down the opportunity to go play there. As a Las Vegas resident, I get a lot of friends and family coming in and every golfer I've taken to Chimera asks to play it the next time they come. It may not be a particularly difficult or a "trendy" bucket-list venue in the Vegas valley, but it's absolutely beautiful, enjoyable to play, and IMHO tops the list of the affordable (less than $80 for locals) courses to play in town.
If you're not a low handicapper solely looking for a challenge for your more elite skills I believe you, your family and friends will all love their day spent here. Highly recommended.

Rhodes Ranch and it's sister course Chimera (in Henderson) are two of the prettiest, fun courses in the Las Vegas area and they're always in great shape, too.
I was only in the sand on two fairways and hit good shots out of them, so I can't rate the greenside bunkers, but every other facet about the course itself was excellent as far as play goes. Rough was lush, but not penal, fairways nice, greens have little undulation and are medium/slow, good for amateurs. The recent housing additions have taken some of the teeth out of Rhodes, however. The former signature par-3 (#3) has been seriously shorted, a wonderful par-5 (#5) is now a boring, short par-4 and the following long par-4 after it (#6) is now a driveable one, so it's become a pretty soft track, challenge-wise.
Sadly, they've also increased the rates and charge for warmup balls on the range now, so you'll pay $10-20 more to play a shorter course, but the aesthetics and prime conditions still make for an enjoyable round.
Recommended!

Pros:
Nice grassy area to hit from on the range, putting green was representative of the course conditions and there was a good-looking chipping area there also. Practice balls were in good shape.
Fairways were quite nice- easy to hit from with just a nice little "fluff" to the lie.
Greens had some scruffy patches at times, but very consistent speed from hole to hole and putted medium/slow. Fairly level, very firm surfaces without many undulations made for easy alignment and very few ball marks were seen.
Cons:
$5 for 25 warmup balls is about double the price of anywhere else that charges for them.
Tacked on "convenience fee" to make tee time reservations is unheard of elsewhere.
Site says "under OB Sports management", but no points were added to my card and no discount was offered anywhere, unlike every other OB Sports venue.
Rough is pretty much non-existent. Miss the fairway and chances are you're going to end up on dirt, gravel, or both.
The few greens perched near water might as well have the lake right up against them as any miss on or close to the edge of the green on the water side will not stop rolling down all the way down into the hazard. It's SO severe, that I landed a shot inside the right edge of the #9 green, but it trickled off and down into a sand trap- and then kept rolling all the way THROUGH the sand trap for another 30 feet or so until it went into the lake on the other side.
And speaking of sand traps...
There aren't any. Bunkers have hard, baked bottoms with patches of dried, cracked mud in some of them. No sand. Weeds and grass grow in some. No maintenance or upkeep whatsoever, they're just left to erode and decay.
SLOW PLAY?! Either they allow 6-somes to play or they don't, but there's no marshal to find out. No other course in Las Vegas even allows 5 people, but we caught up to a group of six on the back-9 (I believe the 2 groups ahead of us got tired of waiting and just passed them up) and our last 7 holes took nearly 2 1/2 hours.
Won't be back.

This was the worst I have seen the Lakes Course conditions- but it's still a solid step up above your usual munis. The great layout and many interesting holes always make for an enjoyable day of golf. Looking forward to when it's pristine again like I'm used to seeing there. When it's normal, it's just a beautiful place to play. No one's fault, it's just the pandemic wreaking havoc with everything. Some greens have bare dirt areas abutting the fringe, the fairways were also a little barren/rough in spots... Anyway, glad it was open and it's still very playable. We'll be back soon!

OMG- this used to be one of my favorite courses in town and now I wouldn't recommend it to anybody. They are tearing up holes to add in some more houses and changing it from a beautiful, interesting par-72 to a par-70. The signature 160 yd par-3 3rd (from the "whites") is now a 100 yarder- "temporarily". We'll see what happens later. The 475-yd Par-5 5th has become a cheesy 275 yard par-4 hitting from a temporary tee box, the former #1 handicap par-4 6th hole is a featureless, boring, flat 160-yd par-3 to a temporary green scoured out of the old fairway... and all during the round we were interrupted by the sounds of tractors and heavy equipment suddenly beeping their reverse alarms in a backswing and gunning their diesel engines while tearing up the ground sometimes within 50 yards of us. No one mentioned any of this when we made our reservation or when checking in- and they're still continuing to charge full price to play while all this is going on! I was really surprised to find the course so empty when I arrived, but now I fully understand.
Thank you Mr. Rhodes for destroying one of Las Vegas' most enjoyable courses and shortening it to make room to throw in a bunch of houses to fatten up your coffer- Ted Robinson, your original designer, must be turning in his grave. My friends and I won't be back.

Love this course- played it 3 times now, always in excellent condition, scenic, even spectacular (back 9!), not unpleasantly difficult and there's a very friendly staff to start you off smiling.. The greens are superb, fairways plenty wide and play beautifully, the rough isn't penal at all unless you get into some of the rare thick nasty stuff around a green or two, the sand plays wonderfully and there's enough variety and challenge steadily increasing throughout your round to keep your attention all day. Really not to be missed if you're in the area. A little on the expensive side for me, but here you truly get what you paid extra for in beautiful scenery, a nice variety of holes and perfect course conditions.
I give VERY few 5 star reviews- this is one of them.

Cold weather (around 40 degrees) and a little wet when we played, but the course was in excellent shape- no bare spots, greens rolled well, rough was easily playable and fairways fine. It's relatively short, somewhat tight, but the real defense is that the greens were pretty tough- several pins were put on the crest of hills or on slopes, meaning uphill for 15 feet- and if you missed, the ball would then trickle down the other side forever leaving you a 6-12 footer coming back up again. My partner had a 30-footer downhill that left him a 15 yard pitch back up from off the green when it finally stopped. Once a bunker shot decently hit landed short of the hole, one-hopped and then rolled down half the green and continued off the side and down a hillI until I was BELOW the sand trap on the other side! It became the worst putting day of the year for me, missing 4 putts from 2-4 feet from watching other's putts break right or left at the hole and then having mine go straight when playing that break. I know, I know... become a better green reader and learn to just bang in those short ones a la PGA. lol Missing shortys isn't a "knock" on the course, that's more on myself, but the greens were still very difficult for this 10-handicapper. To score well, it seemed that you actually need to be able to hit quadrants, not just greens.
Anyway, quite enjoyable, no tricks- minimal blind shots, no hidden hazards, the sand played well and there's some nice scenery to enjoy, too. I'd play it again, no problem.

Arroyo's fast, hard greens and thick, "sticky" rough means fairways and greens are a must, because unless you're an accomplished, low-hdcp golfer, hitting full shots out of the rough will be dicey and chips are... simply bewildering. I've played here for years and I still haven't learned how to chip here (someone do a YouTube video, please!). That's not a knock on Red Rock- the greens putt pretty smooth and true if you avoid the pitch marks that are left from lazy idiots who don't fix them and sunflower seed droppings that brainless, inconsiderate buffoons leave. The fairways are good and wide enough and there's a nice mix of some difficult, some easy and a lot of moderate holes to make for a fun day. When you're in the rough (like me!), hey- you hit it there, deal with it. Hope for a good lie!
The sand was fine- but with a couple of problems: One, drain filter cloth sticks out here and there making some bunker shots worrisome and quite a lot of the traps are littered with a lot of rocks. Luckily the new rules let you remove them.
On the whole, Red Rock is a good, and truly a fair course. Maybe nothing real "special", there's no water to speak of except on one par-3, but it's still a little above the normal mid-range course here in town. Yes, challenging rough, but well-struck shots are certainly rewarded, too. There are 3 reachable par-5s (from the blue tees) and 4 very different par-3s keeping your interest, as well as a few demanding tee shots on some par-4s. Conditions are usually above average for Las Vegas, too- except of course during overseeding (usually September and May, if I recall).
Solid course- good shots are rewarded, bad ones are often punished and except for an absolutely diabolical green on #5, it's just a plain, fun track.

The bermuda fairways are all in now (9 holes had been closed for awhile), so the Winter appearance is muted and yellow/brown, but definitely playable- and they roll farther than ever! I'm guessing that in the Summer they'll be wonderful- we'll see. Tee boxes were fine, too.
The greens are smooth, fast and soft. Beautiful to putt on, but I ripped back a couple of wedges 20 ft.- and I'm NOT a "high spin" player. I did play my usual "tour" ball because most Vegas greens are very hard and usually you need as much spin as you can get. Maybe not here, at least right now, though.
Around the greens... the one drawback- not good. Super tight (at times bare), yet still soft in places, so the ball always found a cupped lie to settle into and it was very difficult to get good contact when chipping. We all gave up after a few attempts and putted from sometimes 10 feet off of the greens when we missed for better outcomes- think "links course" with bumpy areas to traverse to the green. (Hmmm, maybe we just need to learn to be better chippers?) As a reference, I'm an 11 hdcp and shot my rating from the whites this day in perfect weather.
Palm Valley is still an enjoyable course, moderate in price and attraction, not much elevation change and a little water here and there to break up the monotony. Beautiful mountain views frame the course well when you play to the West. The par-3s can be very demanding after a short first one on #3. From the white tees the last 3 measured 181, 168 and 190 yards each (215, 190 & 230 from the "blues"!), and they are all very well protected and extremely difficult to "get up and down" if you miss your tee shot.
To sum it up, we enjoyed our round. Very friendly staff, too. Decent range- mats only. Putting green was representative of the course speed. Good for everyone to play and stronger players will like the par-3 challenges from the back tees. We'll be back.

Big, brawny, beautiful... and brutal. As tough a challenge as you can find anywhere. That's Coyote Springs. Every shot demands your full attention. The fairways are a mile wide, but full of undulations, there's water on many of the holes, deep bunkers (but nice sand!), lots of waste areas topped with pea gravel to catch wayward shots... but almost perfect conditions throughout the entire course every day of the year. The greens aren't too fast- but hit your approach to the wrong area and a 3-putt may be almost inevitable.
Yet the allure is unmistakable. This is top-notch desert golf as pure, gorgeous and demanding as it gets. I play to a 10 handicap and from the front (white) tees I seldom play to my handicap here, but I still look forward to making the trip whenever I can because it's so spectacular, pristine and just well worth the 50 minute drive out of Las Vegas. There is even a first class, comprehensive practice area and range that is practically a draw all to itself. Plan a full day and take advantage of all Coyote Springs has to offer.
If you go, my advice is to to leave your ego at home and just enjoy this remarkable layout. When you're done I'm sure you'll say that even if you didn't tame this monster, you sure had a heck of a ride on it!
The entire staff has always been congenial and superb and Karl Larcom is as fine a Director of Golf as you'll ever find anywhere. My thanks to all- I can't wait to go back again!

Been living here in Vegas for 20 years and haven't played Wildhorse for over 10 years because it was always a beat-up, scarred dog track. But a friend won a 4-some in a charity event, so my local golfing friends made a tee time and we headed out- in 37 degrees with 15-20 mph winds... just miserable. When we arrived we found that all the smart golfers had stayed home and were offered the first tee right away, which we accepted.
Well, SURPRISE! A new company has taken over there and I have to say these were some of the BEST greens I've played on here recently in town- smooth, true-rolling, some subtle breaks without getting tricky/gimmicky... just wonderful! The course also was now kept up and a HUGE improvement over what I remembered. I was shocked, happily surprised and despite the weather, the course turned out to be worth the drive and now I wouldn't hesitate to go back. Some doglegs are blind and if you cut the corners too much you can find trouble, but that's risk/reward and they show representations of the holes at the tee boxes, so just pay attention.
Thank you, Wildhorse, for remaking your facility into a good place to play! It's moderate in price, challenge, conditions, interest- but a big plus for the greens. I'll be back.

I have 10 courses that I can play within 15 minutes of my house, but we'll continue to drive 30 miles across town to play here whenever there's a "locals special". Compared to all the the other courses in the moderate price range, it can't be beat. It's beautiful, fun, and currently in pristine condition now that the overseeding is finished and the rough has been pared down and playable. Bunkers are good, too- often a miserable hazard here in Vegas where the winds can scour them out and leave hard pan, concrete bottoms. Greens are smooth, but quite slow- and I think that's the only ticky-tack "criticism" I can come up with. There's a mix of a few challenging holes with a lot of just plain fun ones and I never feel like I played the same hole twice. Super nice staff, too.
A BIG thanks to the management for their Specials that make it worth the 60 mile round trip from the West side to come play what has been my favorite Vegas area course for years. We'll be back ASAP!

Soft, plush, fairways are somewhat long in the blade, like a "first cut" and the greens are much slower right now after the recent overseeding. But it looks great and should provide a wonderful Winter of golf. Cart path only for the moment, but even with a walker joining us we completed our round in 4 1/2 hours on a Friday, so a relaxed, comfy pace. To tell the truth, the (temporarily?) slower greens right now are kind of a blessing as at Angel Park the speeds can get quite troublesome because there is a good amount of slope on many of them. We've had balls go up to the hole and then horseshoe back at us and watch downhillers trickle forever until they go off the greens at times in the past- but hey, it's common knowledge to stay below the hole there.
Enjoyable course & well routed through interesting desert terrain, a nice setting with enough challenge for the average golfer to need their focus and one of the better values in the Las Vegas area. Two more weeks and it should be just superb.

I encountered average to below average conditions, with about 4 kinds of grass on the wet fairways- when there was grass. Kind of a disappointment, as I was expecting the course to be better considering it was located in nice Irvine, Ca. Anyway, we played "Winter Rules", cleaned the mud off, and so that wasn't so bad. The rough was short, but spotty with a lot of bare and sloshy lies. Not their fault- SoCal had rain the night before we played on Christmas Day. Anyway, a below average, but not horrendous track. I shot around my handicap because there were a lot of fairly short holes and I was having a decent day from the tees and chipping well. The tough part was the greens. Receptive to approaches, but bumpy, undulating and at least 4 holes were actually located on the top of mounds. My brother-in-law and I both had 6 foot putts on one green from a foot apart and his broke left while mine broke right. One time I had an uphill 40-footer, the ball broke left and downhill from the hole and my next putt was from 20 feet away going back uphill. OK- bad putt speed, maybe. But the next one broke 6 feet right when it got within a foot of the hole. Another green I had a 3-foot putt and playing a full 6 inches of break it still turned so hard downhill I was left with another 6-foot comeback. These were NOT fast greens, either! Just medium. That wasn't even the end- there was one hole we all walked away from because if you couldn't make the 7-footer it would just roll right back to your feet with each miss. Pure insanity...
HOWEVER... take the putting away and you've got a pretty decent layout, with a few slopes, ponds, doglegs and mild elevation changes to change scenery and keep your interest. I never felt like I played the same hole twice or got bored. The two bunkers I hit out of were both ideal. Luckily I had lies away from the jerks who don't rake (hey, it's a muni!). Tee boxes were mostly bare, but level. Lost a ball that landed within 10 feet of one green (!) and my BIL lost one that he topped from the tee box into the fairway (!?). Strange...
Oh well. Bottom line, if they put the holes in reasonable spots it's an OK muni to go to and whack the ball around at. In fairness, my BIL warned me about the putting ahead of time- so now you know, too.

Best course for the money in Las Vegas! Conditions are almost always superb. Greens may be a little slower, but very comfortable- smooth enough and not very difficult. The rough can be penal- right now (November, 2018) it's about 3" thick, juicy and difficult to get any good contact out of. But the fairways are wide and nice, the sand well maintained and the course aesthetics are beautiful, making it always a fun track to play. Normal round a neat 4- 4 1/4 hours in duration. Not particularly difficult, only a few tough holes and most single-digit handicappers might be pressed to find much challenge, but for the rest of us it's a very pretty course that's both interesting and a joy to play. Great staff, great layout, great conditions... my favorite course in town. I've lived here nearly 20 years and I still drive the 30 miles from my home to play here whenever the weather is nice and I can get a good rate- and I have 9 courses I can play within 15 minutes of home.

Angel Park Palm is the easier of the two Angel Park courses. It's a par-70 (3 par-5s, 5 par-3s), a shorter course, but always a fun day welcomes you with wide fairways, over-water or canyons par 3s and a few tricky greens (Hint: remember to look for the Stratosphere to factor in a little downhill break to the East). You'll start with what can be a nasty dogleg-left hole with OB all the way down on the left side and follow with a long par-3 that plays uphill more than you may think... but after that the course becomes much easier. The 9th has a lake on the left that will gobble up any ball hit close to the 10-yard bank framing it and the 10th can be a brute with a long uphill approach, but there are quite a number of possible birdie holes, too. Altogether it's a pleasant, friendly and fun desert layout. The overseeding is finished, so although you may have to clean some mud off your ball for a week or two still, the course is as pretty as it gets and will be shortly be a great place to play for a family/friends day. Likewise for the greens- a little slow and bumpy after the overseed, but in a week or so expect them to be perfect again. They've done a great job fixing the bunkers, too. Because of the wind we get here in Vegas, many of them had been scoured clean of sand and it was easy to "drop-kick" your ball from the hard-as-concrete bottoms way over the greens for awhile, but although they're still somewhat on the hard side, they're very playable- just go a little steeper and a touch harder to get the ball out and on. For those seeking a more challenging layout, head for the Mountain Course on the same property.

Just finished the Fall overseeding and as a result, the course is lush, plush and gorgeous. The greens were slow and a little bumpy, which was expected this soon after re-opening, and the rough was a little high and wet- again as expected, but in a week or two this should again be one of the best places to play in Las Vegas. It's a fun, beautiful and interesting course. You'll not find holes that look the same over and over and the aesthetics are wonderfully pleasant. Not an overly difficult course, but always a very nice place to play and enjoy a round of golf. 7 lakes on the course add to the beauty and variety, and Ted Robinson, the designer, has said this was one of the best group of par-3s he ever put together on one course.
Disregard the bad reviews given in August/September as they seem to be primarily from out-of-towners that don't realize that most Las Vegas courses have to prep and convert their grounds in April and September and nearly all public play courses in Las Vegas let the conditions go in preparation for the seasonal overseed. Also, the hot, strangely humid Summer that wreaked havoc on many courses (the Summer grass here is designed for a hot, DRY climate) has been dealt with and surpassed with the great seasonal prep that is now concluded.
As good as it gets- you can't go wrong. Enjoy!