thedude404

Got there early for my round and hit some balls at the range. Be advised the range is mat only, but the mats seem to be pretty high quality and I had no issues hitting off them. There is also a huge practice chipping area and 2 putting greens near the clubhouse.

Today it was really windy, which made the course more challenging to say the least. I've played 4 courses so far since moving to Vegas, and this one was by far the best designed. Many interesting hole designs and there is actually some significant elevation changes as well which was a surprise.

Fairways and tee boxes were in excellent condition. The one area of concern is the greens. They were somewhat bumpy and it looks like a few spots they looked burned out. Overall though it wasnt detracting to the point where it was affecting my game.

Another good thing about this course is there isnt too much OB that comes into play. Of course there is the usual desert waste areas and a few water features as well.
None of the holes are really that difficult per se (except for #10 which was playing 439 into a 15mph wind), but if you hit it in the wrong spot you will be penalized. For example #5 is a 186 par 3. The pin was far left and not wanting to short side myself so I bailed out too far right. I thought my ball would be just off the green in the rough. Wrong...there was a slope which took the ball down into the waste area. Penalty stroke later and a bad chip up the hill got me a triple bogey. Turns out I would have been better off going straight for the pin and would have been better off short siding myself. So it's one of those courses where if you play it a second time, your score will probably improve just from knowing where and where not to hit it.

Overall I enjoyed this course and except for some of the greens being subpar, it was well worth the money and I'll definitely be returning to get my revenge on the course. And once again, I played a 3 hour round of golf and didnt see another person until I hit the 15th hole when things slowed up.

Got to the course early and hit some free range balls and used their practice putting and chipping green. They also have a separate bunker practice area. For whatever reason, they booked me along with another 4-some at the same time, but the starter got me going along with another single ahead of them. We teed off at 1:55 and were done by 4:45. Didnt see anyone the entire round. Absolutely perfect. Golf as it's meant to be.

I played from the tips and while there were homes surrounding the holes, they were set back far enough where OB really wasn't an issue, which was great. The rough was actually up a little bit and pretty thick so it was penalizing to an extent, which is how it should be. Past the rough was the usual sand and rocks, but surprisingly I never had one shot from the waste areas.

The fairways you always got a good lie. This is the third course I have played in Vegas and it seems like the greens had more un-repaired ball marks than the other 2 courses I've played as I repaired several per hole. The greens overall though were smooth although it seemed on the front the speed was slower and the speed picked up on the back. I guess that could be due to it drying out as the afternoon wore on. In any case, my putting sucked but that is 100% on me as once again I couldnt get the speed or direction down.

One small gripe is on the tee boxes, the grass needed to be cut down just a little shorter. Not an issue on the par 4's and 5's, but it was somewhat on the par 3's. Although I do understand you dont want the grass to burn out in the heat. So I'll take how it was over a burnt out tee box.

There are a few water hazards that come into play (I really liked the fake aqua blue looking water) and the par 3's are a challenge with the shortest being 191 from the tips. And there is some good quality sand in the bunkers, although it was a little thick, which is ok, just be prepared. You probably want to hit a few out of the practice bunkers before heading out on the course to prepare yourself.

Overall, this course if very playable and fair and if you are playing well (which I wasnt) you can definitely go low as it's only 6900 yards. While there is no GPS in the carts or course layout on the card, at each hole there is a layout of the hole on the sign and the scorecard shows the greens and pin positions ie front, middle, back.

After the round I had a brew with my playing partner at the bar. Nice bar with several brews on draft and a nice liquor selection and friendly bartender. Fairly large deck overlooking the course. They even have a Golden Tee game. I'd be interested to see how this bar is on the weekends....they have live music and karaoke on certain nights.

To top all of that off, they have a special membership program which i won't get into but suffice it to say, it's a great deal.

So yeah, I think since this course is only 20 minutes from where I live I think this could become my home course in Vegas, especially with the membership program. If you are in town to play some golf on a vacation, I would definitely give this place a try.

This is my second round of golf since moving to Vegas. There were a few things I really liked about this course and things I really disliked. Unfortunately, the dislikes outweighed the likes. I'll start off with the ugly and work my way to the positives.

The ugly:
First hole I put all my stuff ie phone, wallet, keys in the drivers side compartment of the cart like I normally do. However, I failed to notice that there was no ledge (there were screws there so evidently it broke off at some point) to prevent your items from flying out when you start the cart. So of course on the first hole, everything goes flying out of the cart, including my phone. Of course it was a new phone and the face cracked. Bad way to start things off.

After the round and went in and explained to the guy in the shop what happened and I wasnt angry per se, but that I just wanted them to know about the issue so it didnt happen to the next person. Hopefully they fix the cart. I'll just leave it at that.

The bad:
1. I read reviews before coming here that the driving range is mat only. So I knew ahead of time I wasnt going to hit balls on the range on a potential hard mat as it has taken my well over a decade to get my shoulder back to where I can play golf.

2. No course layout on card, no GPS. Even the signs on each hole didnt have the hole layout. There are yardage markers on the fairway and cart path. So that kinda sucked especially on #14 when I thought there was land between the Willow Tree and the lake. Found out the hard way there wasnt.

3. Every single hole has OB, and the homes on some holes felt like they were right up on top of you. Furthermore, I played from the tips and at 6700 yards, there is zero reason to ever bring out your driver on this course. Of course that didnt sink in until the back 9. So if you want a lot of practice with your long irons off the tee, I'd recommend this course. I had 9 penalty strokes and shot an 87 because I sprayed my driver too much early on. So that wasnt a lot of fun. Not only because I lost a few balls, but I was more concerned about knocking out somebody's window as on #11, I hit one DEEP into the neighborhood. Who knows where that ended up. So yeah I probably wont play here again anytime soon (until I get back to playing decent golf after taking a year off) just out of fear of breaking someones window either on their home or their car and I'd be stuck with the tab.

4. The layout is boring. It's like a driving range every hole is straight ahead. Very repetitive.

5. I think #11 is a poorly designed hole. At 227, it was playing more like 245 when I played it due to the wind. So I had to choke down on a driver and tried to hit some low punch shot into the green as I dont carry a 245 yard club. Well, instead what happened is I hit a foul ball out of the park and about 200 yards deep into the neighborhood. The hole could play to as much as 260 yards if they move the tees back and the wind is in your face.

6. Prepare for clubs to get beat up as right off the thin strip of rough is dirt and rocks. But I guess I need to get used to that in Vegas.

The good:
1. Greens were running smooth and fairly quick. Always got a good lie in the fairway. The rough was up which I liked, although there were some patchy areas but it's the rough so whatever. Tee boxes were in great shape. And there appeared to be sand in the bunkers!

2. Some holes make you feel like a pro. It's unfortunate that golf ball/club technology has done to the game of golf. I was slightly downwind for my drive on #17, which is a 535 yard par 5. Since this fairway was really wide open, I brought back out the driver and proceeded to knock it to within 190 yards of the hole, then proceeded to hit a beautiful draw working with the wind 6 iron within 15 feet of the hole and nail the eagle putt which made my day of course. So if you are hitting your driver straight, you can turn this course into a chip and putt fest, wind dependent. But of course that is a big if and like I said before, I'd recommend keeping the driver in the bag for the most part.

3. I saved the best for last. I got to go out earlier than my scheduled tee time by 1/2 an hour and I didnt see a single person my entire round. I did not hurry at all and finished my 18 holes in under 2 1/2 hours playing by myself. Now THAT is how fast a round of golf should be played. I could have easily played in 2 hours if I had played faster (and not hit so many balls OB).

4. There is no escape from the wind. Personally, I like playing when it's windy as it really makes me think about club selection and trying to hit different shots. Today, the wind was between 10-15 mph with some higher gusts, so that added a fun element.

Overall, though, I dont see myself coming back here anytime soon. Having just started back up playing again after a year off, I'm highly erratic and sometimes have no idea where the ball is going so that is not a good mix with all these homes so close to the course. As I get back into the swing of things, I might come back here to work on my long iron game and to get an ego boost as I think someone that is playing to a 5 handicap could really go low on this track like sub par fairly easily.

The reason for my 2 star rating is that there is a mat only driving range, the somewhat boring layout, the poorly designed #11, no GPS/course layout, and the fact there is OB on every hole really outweighs the fact I played a quick round of golf and the conditions were good.

I just moved to Vegas and this was the first course I played, so I have nothing to compare it with. But anyway here goes....

Driving range was good as it had targets. Get a good amount of balls for a warm up (you pay extra for this). Also had a HUGE practice chipping green and an additional large practice putting green. The dudes in the cart barn also give you a wet and dry towel on your cart to clean your clubs which I thought was a nice touch.

Course conditions were really good for the most part. Greens were smooth and were rolling fast. For whatever reason, I couldnt get the speed down so they were definitely a challenge for me. Fairways and tee boxes were also decent. The one negative on this course is there is absolutely no sand whatsoever in the traps. So be sure NOT to get in one because good luck if you do. I happened to get in about 3 or 4 traps. Not fun.

There were a few interesting holes, but for the most part it was just straight away holes as it was built within a housing community.

The one big negative was the time it took for a round. On a Tuesday afternoon, it took over 5 hours to play, which really sucks. Thankfully at the turn, two groups let us play through as they went into the grill and they realized they were behind. Otherwise, we were looking at literally a 6 hour round..

Overall, I would definitely come back here and play as it is a challenging course. But just be prepared for a long round as this course is pretty close to The Strip. Overall, it's a good value for $30 but the reason it only gets 3 stars is because of the bunkers and the length of time it took to play. If they just fix the bunkers, I'd up my rating to 4 stars.