Las Vegas has long been known as the place to get away from it all, to escape a questionable past, to live life as large as you can, to strike it rich - or to lose everything you own.
People have been heading to this oasis in the desert in droves for the past 70 years, but the past decade has truly shaped and defined what the Las Vegas experience is all about.
Simply put - it’s about experiencing the best life has to offer! The 99-cent buffet has been replaced with the finest cuisine in the world - prepared by the top chefs in America. The $19 rooms with the questionable stains have been replaced by the largest, the most elegant and the most luxurious accommodations you might ever enjoy. Sleazy bars have been replaced by the poshest, hippest and most exciting night clubs in the world. And the golf...let’s just say you’ll never find a better selection or variety of world-class golf courses anywhere else on earth!
With more than 50 public courses in the Vegas area, and at least half of them claiming “must play” status, it’s hard to go wrong.
But if you want to experience the best Vegas has to offer, and if you’re willing to pay the price to play the best, there are three courses that you simply have to play the next time you’re in town, Rio Secco, TPC Canyons and Cascata.
Each of these three courses provides its own unique memories, each of them fabulous in its own way. They are located in three very different settings, three very divergent parts of town, and offer three very different golf experiences, starting with one of the most unique and exciting caddie programs on earth!
Rio Secco recently introduced its unique T-Mates program, which is an innovative caddie program offering female caddies to help you play your way around the course. These beautiful ladies are basically ambassadors for the course, and provide you with everything from help finding a wayward shot to reading the greens to raking bunkers to ordering your beverages and snacks. All you do is show up and enjoy the day! These services aren’t required to play at Rio Secco, but they are highly recommended, and they’ll help provide you with a round of golf you won’t soon forget.
Rio Secco opened about 10 years ago to wide acclaim, being named to virtually every Top-10 list in the business, and later being named as one of the top 100 public courses in America by Golf Digest. Butch Harmon makes Rio Secco the “home course” for his top-rated school of golf, and Tiger Woods has held the course record of 64 for many years, and will continue to hold it for many more. If you play the course from the tips, which stretch to almost 7,400 yards of very tough golf, you’ll wonder how any human being could ever shoot a 64 on this challenging Rees Jones designed course. That’s assuming Tiger is human, of course.
In addition to the great challenge of the course, you’ll also be challenged to keep your concentration on your game, as the course is surrounded by eye-popping homes throughout all 18 holes, including a rather impressive new home that’s been under construction for the past three years and which is perched high above and all along the 15th hole. This is a par 4 hole, by the way, not a short par 3. One hole later you’ll play into one of the most impressive box canyons in golf - which is also overlooked by some rather impressive homes, although they are about a tenth the size of the one along 15. The photo on this page shows you the canyon and homes I’m talking about.
The course ends with two sensational back-to-back par-5s, one of which is reachable and the other is simply a monster playing at somewhere over a third of a mile from the regular men’s tees and way too far from the back tees. A 64? I really don’t know how he could do it, and either will you once you’ve experienced the greatness found during a round of golf on Rio Secco.
Located in the footsteps of the scenic Red Rock Canyon National
Park and less than 30 minutes from the famous Las Vegas Strip, TPC Canyons is the only course you can play in Las Vegas where the PGA Tour plays.
As co-host to the PGA Tour’s Frys.com Open, TPC Canyons is highlighted by superb conditioning, a beautiful layout and excellent customer service, and for a truly exceptional experience you can actually play the course right after the Tour gets done playing it! If you’ve ever wondered just how good those guys really are, this is an excellent way to find out. Play from the Tournament tees and chances are very good you won’t break 100!
Considered the most coveted golf environment in Las Vegas, TPC Canyons truly provides all guests a premier experience from beginning to end.
“Between the course conditions, the layout and the staff, TPC Canyons is simply the best golf experience in Las Vegas,” said Chris Riley, a member of the 2004 Ryder Cup Team.
Voted the Best Upscale Resort Course by Vegas Golfer and earning a Four Star rating by Golf Digest Magazine, this Bobby Weed/Raymond Floyd layout provides one of the ultimate golf experiences in Las Vegas golf for players of all skill levels. Featuring an on-site PGA Tour Instructional Academy and a world class caddie program, TPC Canyons allows all guests to “Live the PGA Tour Experience” every day of the year.
Visit TPC Canyons this October 11th-14th to watch the best players in the world tee it up during the PGA Tour’s Fry’s.com Open. Experience for yourself actual PGA Tour conditions at TPC Canyons beginning Sunday October 14th. Tee times are currently available! For reservation information, visit them online at www.tpccanyons.com, and for ticket, volunteer or tournament information visit www.thefrysopen.com.
Enjoy the beauty of Summerlin and the never ending excitement of Las Vegas with a variety of vacation packages available through the beautiful JW Marriott Resort. Stay and play, spa and golf instruction packages can be reserved through www.pgatourexperiences.com or www.jwlasvegasresort.com.
I just finished playing Cascata, the finest golf experience I’ve ever had. Located just outside of historic Boulder City, Nevada, about a half hour from the world famous Las Vegas strip, Cascata offers an unbelievable level of service, seclusion and style in a setting you won’t believe until you experience it for yourself. And experience it, you must!
You might have heard of Cascata. It is the $54 million golf course conceived and designed by Rees Jones which opened to a hushed roar of rumors, myths and tall tales seven years ago as the private – very private – playground for the highest of high rollers staying and playing at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. It was so exclusive that many days would see only one or two groups teeing it up, and they weren’t necessarily foursomes.
Many days there were more big horn sheep grazing on the
steep mountainsides surrounding the course than there were golfers gracing the finely manicured and beautiful sculpted fairways. Cascata was one of those very special places which everyone talks about, yet few experience for themselves. That was really a shame.
Luckily, 2005 saw the acquisition and merger of Harrah’s and Park Place Entertainment, which owned Caesars Palace.
Through this transaction Harrah’s became the world’s largest gaming company, and they also assumed ownership and control of several magnificent golf properties across the United States, including Cascata. True to their policy of fully utilizing their resources and amenities to bring great pleasure and entertainment to the public, Harrah’s opened the majestic, protective gates of Cascata to the public, and just like the Old Course at St. Andrews, Pebble Beach Golf Links or Pinehurst # 2, this is one of the few golf experiences that must absolutely be experienced and enjoyed by everyone who loves the game of golf at some point in their life, no matter what the cost.
You’ll start to realize what the Cascata golf experience is all about from the moment your limousine picks you up at the front door of your hotel. It is all first class, with every possible attention paid to every detail you can imagine – and many you can’t! For instance, as the limousine pulls up to the rugged, wrought iron front gates and the driver announces you’re arrival, you’ll realize they were actually expecting you, and they already know you by name. A PGA professional will greet your car, removing your bags and welcoming you into the awesome clubhouse, where you’ll get your own personal tour showing you around the stunning building, explaining things like the flow of the river which runs right through the clubhouse, pointing out some of the special artwork and amenities, and guiding you to your own personal locker for the day – with your name proudly etched into the brass nameplate. Go ahead – use the locker. It’s yours!
After checking in you might decide to enjoy a casual lunch on the patio out back, which overlooks the most impressive practice range in golf – complete with its own 400’ waterfall cascading down the mountain at the far side of the range. Or perhaps you’re anxious to hit the course, so you head downstairs to the loading area, where your caddie helps you into your fully loaded golf cart and points the way through the heavy double wooden doors, which open automatically as you approach. Yes, the caddie stays with you through the entire round, explaining the history and special stories of the course along the way, and helping you to play your very best golf on this very special course.
As you pass through the doors you enter the world of Cascata, and you’re in for an amazing round of golf.
The course plays through an incredibly lush landscape of high desert scenery, highlighted by Red Mountain, rising over a thousand feet above the course. The surrounding hills, canyons and mountains let you know that this was a harsh, inhospitable land just a few years ago, but the course is now a luxuriant, verdant oasis, bringing life and beauty to where it never was before. Cascata is the Italian word for Waterfall, and you’re going to see plenty of waterfalls, streams, rivers, lakes and ponds as you make your way around the surprising course. It is surprising because every hole is a completely different and wonderful golf experience. Rees Jones is known as “the Open doctor” for his work getting seven different courses ready to host a U.S. Open, but you should see what he can do when he’s given an incredible piece of land stretching out over 400 acres (more than 3x the average 18-hole golf course) and a virtually unlimited budget to work with. He’s not a doctor, he’s a magician!
No matter how you end your round, your memories of Cascata will be immortal. I suggest bringing your camera and plenty of film or a large memory card, as nobody will believe your stories otherwise.
Cascata is more than a great golf experience. It is a great life event which must be experienced in person to fully comprehend. I already envy you your time there.
