About an hour and 15m drive north of the Vegas strip heading towards the old Nevada Test Site is a GEM of a Jack Nicklaus “Signature” golf course. It was to be part of a master planned community. The course was built first and the economy put the damper on the rest of the project so this beautiful golf course sits like an oasis in the middle of no where.
I played it two days ago for a whopping $40 (Locals) and it has to be the BEST value in the country. I thought of all ABS’ers while playing this course because it places an ultra premium on shot-making. While it is a bit long from the back tees (7471), the middle tees are a perfect ABS 6807y and still a very tough 72/137 rating. It is a bit more of a shot-making course than Las Vegas National.
Vic was telling me they are expecting 50% of the courses in Las Vegas to close in the next 5 years. They simply can’t make it because the whole town is so overbuilt and very few courses can get enough rounds to play their bills. The price of water is going up, all kinds of issues.
Like everything else in this town recently, that wouldn’t surprise me a bit. 50% seems high though and I think it would suck if true because some courses here are very popular and crowded and the spillover would make playing golf here impossibly frustrating. There are some courses you can play without feeling “sandwiched” between groups and a closing of half the courses would mean everyone has less choices. I HATE crowded courses and feeling rushed to the point I would quit playing if I couldn’t seek out more open play.
What I have noticed here though more & more is the cheapening of rounds. While a good thing for consumers to always lower prices, it eventually reaches a point of negative. There are many ways to play golf for under $50/rd here in Vegas now (some as low as $25) but I have noticed it has reached the point of bringing out the rif-raff. I saw two guys wearing tank-tops at Angel Park (where they obviously just took golf shirts off during play) and no one corrected them. Saw a group in front of me at a different place that drove their golf cart ON THE GREEN. At National two weeks ago I swear the punk kids in front of me stole my Callaway Tour ball when I accidentally hit it near them. There is a course by me that I used to be able to practice off grass for cheap, but they now have unlimited range use special that has packed the place but it is mats only now. Etc.
Owning a golf course must be a tough business here. I was reminded of that while at Coyote Springs. They cannot sustain giving out $40 rounds.
They are in the process of “throat cutting” one another to survive. Palm Springs is facing the same problem. They are practically and in some cases actually giving away memberships in a desperate attempt to survive. The game simply got over bloated, so a correction is due and in the long haul, probably a good thing.
Personally I am much more interested in the quality of the game than trying to grow it. There was nothing wrong with golf 20, 40, or even 70 years ago.
Great players on a great track will draw the true fans. We could really cut back on all the circus tents and other nonsense.
