A Second Chance: Wynn to revive its Tom Fazio design along the Strip

The announcement comes on the heels of plans to scale back the "Paradise Park" initially slated for the site.
Steve Wynn and Tom Fazio have collaborated again at Wynn Golf Course. (Wynn Las Vegas)

The Wynn Golf Club along the Las Vegas Strip is getting a second chance.

The polarizing 7,042-yard course was closed in December of 2017 to make way for the Wynn Paradise Park, a $1.5-billion development with a 400,000-square-foot convention center and three new hotel towers surrounding a 38-acre lagoon. That ambitious project has been scaled back, according to the Las Vegas Journal Review, leaving room to revive most of the original Tom Fazio routing.

Deanna Pettit-Irestone, the executive director of public relations at Wynn, declined to provide any details by email other than to "confirm what was mentioned in our recent earnings call—the golf course will open around the time of our new convention space, Q1 2020."

Turns out, the Wynn needed golf more than management thought. The newspaper article indicated that "the company lost $10 million to $15 million of domestic casino business from people coming in for golf trips who decided to go elsewhere."

“We actually went back and re-engaged Tom Fazio, who was the original designer of our golf course, to come in and take a look at the couple holes that were disrupted by this 400,000-square-foot convention center and see if we can design a new 18-hole golf course connected to Wynn and Encore and have that back in action before our convention center opens,” Wynn Resorts Ltd. CEO Matt Maddox was quoted as saying on the earnings call.

The rebirth brings golf back to a site that has been green with fairways for more than six decades. The old Desert Inn Golf Club opened in 1952. The mostly flat, featureless course hosted more than 35 professional tournaments before it was blown up in 2001 to make way for Steve Wynn's twin hotel towers, Wynn and Encore, and the Wynn Golf Club. The Fazio design that debuted in 2005 became a symbol of Vegas excess with its massive waterfall behind the 18th green and its $500 green fee, which was one of the most expensive in golf. As pretentious as it was with all the unnatural shaping and landscaping more fit for North Carolina than Nevada, I always enjoyed my rounds at Wynn.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that Fazio's newest effort will offer a similar experience - a high-ticket round of caddies and immaculate conditions for high rollers and big spenders. Money always talks in Vegas, right?

Are you happy the Wynn is coming back? Will you play it? Why or why not? Or maybe you were happy that golf had one less pricy course selling unrealistic standards for the game? Let us know in the comments below.

Jason Scott Deegan has reviewed and photographed more than 1,100 courses and written about golf destinations in 25 countries for some of the industry's biggest publications. His work has been honored by the Golf Writer's Association of America and the Michigan Press Association. Follow him on Instagram at @jasondeegangolfpass and Twitter at @WorldGolfer.
48 Comments
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Golf for the 1% crowd. that's not me so no thanks.

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The Wynn has not been the same without the golf course - it was an island of calm beauty in the middle of the excitement of Vegas. I am excited to see the new design. Once the golf course is back, the Wynn will once again be my favorite vacation destination!

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for players to whom money is no object, go play it. Haven't played it but stayed there. Looks a little contrived. the thing about Fazio courses is that after you have played a number of them , the holes seem to look alike and I have trouble recalling each hole. That is unlike Pete Dye who had "short term memory loss" thus many unique holes on every course he designed. Just my opinion

Tired of high priced resort golf courses.

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My favorite course I play costs as little as $18 a round (with cart).
I don't have money to blow so I won't be playing any Vegas golf any time soon.

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$500 for a round of golf is excessive IMO, but hey, it's a free country if they want to build it, and I am free to decline. Would love to have the excess income to play such a nice track however.

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Guess not I have been going to Vegas for about 50 years and have played some golf there over the years, in fact tried to golf the Desert inn course and they would not let us play as I had tennis shoes on and not golf metal spifed ones. But$500 even though I could afford maybe one round thereI have ot tell you the truth I have played many great courses around the country but that would be way to much for a simpple round plus if you require a caddy the cost goes much higher.

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No I will not. I love to play, and have played a lot of nice courses but refuse to pay ridiculous prices to play. I am sure lots will pay the price as there are lots of people with more money than brains.

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Perry (below) is correct, we don't need anymore $500 courses. I'm sure the course is very nice and I'd love it too if I played for free. However, I'd like to see the game grow so that courses stop closing all over the country. I diffinitly would not play it but I'm not a high roller either.

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No I wouldn't play this course. What's so exciting about spending hundreds of dollars for golf, when for significantly less I can and will get the same experience and enjoyment.

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A Second Chance: Wynn to revive its Tom Fazio design along the Strip