Heading out there on the morning of the 18th through the weekend. Looking for good recommendations for golf. Thanks

Price range? Skill level? Looking to play a serious round or just drink beer and hit the ball?

I'm an average to a below average player (maybe 18-20) but my buddy is probably a 2 handi. Not a serious round, but want to play a nice track. My buddy is used to playing some pretty nice courses. Price range, probably $250 or less

Cool.

Its winter time so the rough in all places will be dormant. Most of the nicer courses overseed the fairways. The good news is the greens in Vegas in December are usually absolutely perfect.

I used to live nVegas and have played most of the courses. I would go

1. Rio Secco-Home of the Wendys 3-tour challenge, the WAC Championship, and the Butch Harmon school of golf. It was my home course when I lived there and is a fantastic layout. In my opinion it is the best course in Vegas in that price range. It is a championship course.

2. TPC Las Vegas-The old home of the Vegas PGA event and the practice home to many good pros. It is a better course than the private TPC where the tour is now but harder for patrons to get around. I don't know if it is quite as difficult as Rio, but it is a fun championship course.

3. Bears Best-A lot of people stay away from it because it is supposedly a copy of a lot of Nicklaus holes. Maybe so but you don't get the feeling of a gimmick when you are playing it. It has been known in the past to have spotty conditions caused by over play.


All of those should be under $250 in the winter.

Also-Play early to avoid a 5.5 hour round on any course. Also, the sun sets very early in Vegas because it is on the east side of the time zone, so after 4:00 or so it gets real dark and by 4:30 you are done. Tee off before 9 if possible.

Thanks for the all of the info agsalaska....much appreciated! We arrive on Thursday at 9 am so we set up a tee time at Rio Secco at noon. Hopefully it wont be too terribly crowded on Thursday.

exact two courses i would've recommended.....you'll have a great time at rio secco. might have trouble finishing with a noon start, but maybe it will be moving fast that day.

Yeah you'll struggle to finish by dark if you start at noon. First time I played Rio Secco, I only played 16 holes due to darkness.

Those three courses that alaska recommeded are my go-to recommendations as well. I just like to add one more, Revere Lexington. Beautiful place IMO that almost matches Rio Secco.

DP, you have played Rio Secco before when we went for SH's BP. But I doubt you would remember considering you came straight from an all nighter at the blackjack table and were hammered.

I am aware of that, pendejo

I would try to get that tee time moved up to 11:30. Its only about 15 minutes from the rental car place. If you land at 9 you will have plenty of time.

Dropping bags off & checking into the Cosmo first. Will probably arrange a car over there through them

I'm playing TPC and Bear's Best this weekend. I'll post my reviews when I get back next week. I've played Rio Secco twice, and it has been in excellent shape both times. Great layout and a challenging course. I will say that the last we played Rio we left after 4 hours and 14 holes. Terribly slow and nobody seemed to give a ****.

quote:

---

I'm playing TPC and Bear's Best this weekend. I'll post my reviews when I get back next week. I've played Rio Secco twice, and it has been in excellent shape both times. Great layout and a challenging course. I will say that the last we played Rio we left after 4 hours and 14 holes. Terribly slow and nobody seemed to give a ****.

---

I wouldn't call 14 holes in 4 hours terribly slow in Vegas.

There is something about Rio Secco and a couple of other courses out there that cause rounds to go long anyway. My buddies and I had the 6am and at times the 6:10am tee times every saturday morning at Rio in the summer from 2009-2012. We were first off the box. If we teed off at 6am we rarely finished before 10:15 and it was more often 10:30. We averaged probably 4:20. I could take that same foursome over to, say, Legacy, and play in 3:45.

I think the cause was a combination of long distances between holes, searching for balls in the desert, and the difficult greens.

And we were locals. So when you add the tourist, who often do not play a course anything like Rio or TPC at home, it becomes more challenging and more time consuming just to get the ball in the hole. Add some alcohol and the general laid back not in a hurry attitude most people bring on vacations and it stretches out to five hours pretty easily. I fully expected to have a five hour round if I teed off past about 9:00.

Coyote Springs 45 minutes out of LV.

Bears Best was good. Decent condition. TPC was excellent and in perfect shape.