If you could only play one golf course on a trip to southern Nevada, Reflection Bay at Lake Las Vegas would be on a very short list of candidates. Site of the annual Wendy's 3-Tour Challenge since its 1998 opening, Reflection Bay has every element you want for a memorable golf experience - superb conditioning, great design and spectacular scenery.
Many golf courses claim to be unique, and on some level, they all are, but there really is nothing like Desert Pines Golf Club. On what other golf course in Southern Nevada will you find thousands of Carolina pine trees? Where else can you find a two-tiered, climate-controlled practice center? And how many golf courses are just 10 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip and 15 minutes from the airport?
Not only is Bali Hai Golf Club one of the Vegas area's best upscale courses, the location on the south end of the Strip in the shadows of Mandalay Bay and across the street from McCarran International Airport is unbeatable. It's the Strip's only golf course open to the public.
When golf course architect Bob Cupp went about the business of designing the 27 holes at Silverstone Golf Club in Las Vegas, he knew he had to include design features to test the better players in the game, and that meant plenty of bunkers, doglegs and water. It also meant length: Silverstone has the longest par 5 in Nevada.
Plenty of modern golf courses in southern Nevada will dazzle with spectacular views, impeccable conditions and difficult holes, but few will give you a real sense of Las Vegas history. One exception is Las Vegas National, one of the few remnants of how life used to be in Sin City.
If you like sand, you'll love the Arroyo Course at Red Rock Country Club. The Arnold Palmer signature golf course has close to 100 bunkers, but even more importantly, some 40 acres that used to be irrigated turf have been returned to the desert - ergo more sand ... and rocks and cacti.
It doesn't take a great deal of imagination at Royal Links Golf Club to get a feel for the history of British Open golf. Many of its holes were inspired by British Open host courses, including the revered St. Andrews.
They say the devil's greatest trick was convincing the world he didn't exist. In golf, the equivalent might be a master-planned community where players don't recall there were homes around the course. Such is the case at Siena Golf Club. Somehow, architects Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley managed to please not only its landlord, but the golfing public as well.
TPC Las Vegas is a course that will test all aspects of your game. It's first rate in terms of service, conditioning and playability, Kevin Iole writes. And, because there have been numerous PGA Tour and Champions Tour events conducted on it, you can try some of the same shots that the biggest names on the professional circuit have faced.
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