Out in Vegas for 3 weeks.....Played Bear's Best on Tuesday afternoon for $61 at 3:30 and the course was in amazing shape....greens were tour quality.

Badlands after 2pm for residents is $19....unreal.

Not really as a tourist I paid $56 at 8:00 AM. This time of year 2:00PM is an oven

Played Pauite Snow today at 2 pm, it was hot but certainly fine. Really awesome course, booked Wolf for monday.

Have lunch there also Great food in the Clubhouse. All four of us thjought it was our best meal in Vegas that week.

Pauitte was a treat.

Played Pauite Sun, Pauite Snow, Bear's Best and TPC Las Vegas since I've been out here. All great tracks for under 60 bucks (played later in the afternoon all four times). Checking out Red Rock Arroyo today.

I was a decent golfer (high single digit ish handicap) in high school but haven't played much in the last few years and I'm loving getting back into it.

I'm in vegas for awhile. Looking to golf Tuesday, Wednesday, and/or Thursday. Preferably somewhere <$60.

feel free to shoot me a pm

I'm most likely moving to Vegas in September and am interested in getting a membership somewhere. I searched this thread a little and didn't see much about memberships, so apologies if it's been discussed elsewhere in detail.

Does anyone have any recommendations? I don't require the nicest course in Vegas--I'm guessing any of them would be suitable, and I don't want to spend 10k+ in annual dues either (thinking like 3k-5k would be ideal, could go lower and maybe slightly higher. I'll be playing at least 5 days a week so I'm getting my money's worth).

I don't care about country club functions--just want a membership that includes green fees and use of the practice facilities.

Location isn't terribly important. I'll most likely be choosing where I live based on which membership I get. 30 minutes or less from the Strip would be nice, though.

Las Vegas National has an annual membership of $3,375. Since it's a public course I am worried about over-crowding and lack of tee times, especially for a single who doesn't really want to be put with 3 randoms every time. Valid concerns?

Siena's membership is $5,100. Seems like a nicer course and might be less crowded.

If anyone could suggest other golf clubs I would really appreciate it!

Playing Badlands on Monday...starting time is 7:20. Not optimistic about getting 18 holes in before either my buddy or I (most likely him because I'm an idiot) throw in the towel.

IIRC the carts there have misters - do they actually help?

Hey Keyser,
I'll do a pretty good write-up of some courses tonight, but it'll take me a while and I'm off to play some golf of my own!

forgot to post, but I played Badlands with Dominic while I was in Vegas, about 2 weeks ago

I definitely don't remember misters. However, course was awesome and Dominic got me on for resident twlight rate of $19. 1 birdie (that shoulda been an eagle) and a few bogeys. It's really ****ing narrow, I don't see how anyone besides a pro could play 18 without hitting it in the desert at least once.

Tees, fairways, greens all excellent! Even though it was 105*, I didn't really feel that hot, it was really dry and fairly windy. Helluva lot better than here in Dallas.

We made this mistake and I am sure others have at Badlands also. Desert is considered a lateral hazard

No misters shot 43-43 (good for me) on Desperado and Outlaw. 107 at noon when we finished

I've played in mid-November a few times and it's been fine. Also springtime in the March/April timeframe is usually nice.

May is my fav

Gonna be out in Vegas for a bachelor party/NFL opening weekend...There are only going to be two of us who want to golf, and it'll probably end up being on a Thursday.

Is it best to just go through GolfLink or one of those internet tee time systems? Or does anyone work at a course that could direct me to a nice track?

Thanks...

golfnow and sign up for the daily deals and book from that about 4-5 days prior

Great...thanks.

Hey Keyser,
Las Vegas National is one of my favorite courses in LV. That said, it's definitely not your cookie-cutter "high-end LV desert resort course." It's kind of a throwback to the 50s and 60s. It's cut through a bunch of 50s-style vacation bungalows, with much more variety than the average LV golf course setting (identical McMansions packed down each hole.) If you've ever seen the movie Casino, the main characters' (Deniro and Stone) house is an actual house on the course (just left of #1 fairway) and the golf course/ plane landing seen was filmed there. Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra used to hang out and sing in the clubhouse, and Dean's old house is right on the course (#8 tee.) The course itself is kept in above-average shape, not on the scale of TPC summerlin / Cascata / even maybe Paiute, but not bad. The course is almost totally flat, and features a good range of different types of holes, it's not an easy course but not excruciatingly punishing either. As for overcrowding, totally depends on time of year and day. I'm sure that during the mornings in the spring and fall, it's pretty packed, as well as for a few hours in the early afternoon (probably just after their twilight special starts). But from June-August I'm sure you'd have no time playing almost any time of day. (Haven't played there in about a year, but this goes for almost all courses.) The range is nice, long and wide and flat, although the standard is to hit off of rubber mats, but they might let you hit off grass if you're a member. Chipping green is kind of cramped but serviceable, and there are two decently-sized putting greens. Also, LVN is probably located in the hottest, least windy part of town. Just an FYI.
Siena is in Summerlin, a much richer community than the east side where LVN is. Most people would consider it a nicer course than LVN. I loved it when I played it two years ago, but I've heard from a reputable source that it's in awful condition right now, but that may change. Their driving range is just okay. You hit off of grass, but the range itself is one long valley with lots of undulations. It's also quite downward-sloping. So it's much harder than the LVN range to hit regular golf shots. Putting green is huge and very nice, and I think it's also used for chipping, not sure though.

The other thing to remember is that at LVN, the standard is to hand out range balls to customers in bags of 25 or so. I'm not sure how they handle it for members, but hitting a large number of range balls might involve you having to walk back and forth to the cart barn or pro shop. Not a big deal but something to consider. I'm not sure about Siena's range, but I think they have a bunch of balls set up in pyramids. I'll post descriptions of other places in my next post, this one's getting long.

There are some sick deals on private courses these days. TPC summerlin (the course where they play the PGA tour even here) is a 6k startup and 5k per year for those under 40 years old. That course is consistently in good condition, is in a great location, and can be as challenging as you want it to be. The range is huge and perfectly flat, balls set up for everyone, grass hitting area LDO. Putting green is huge and kept in nice shape. Never been to the chipping area but it looks pretty big. Of course, for this course, and other private courses, you have to be invited, I guess, or be sponsored or something, but in this economy if you're nice and presentable I'm sure it's not too hard. This is where Negreanu, Ivey, and Antonius play, FWIW.
I'm a member at Paiute. It's north of town on the Indian reservation, but from my house in Summerlin it's only a 20-25 minute drive. Membership is 6k/year, unlimited golf and practice and no cart fees. It has three Pete Dye courses, two huge driving ranges, 3 putting greens and two chipping greens. In terms of working on your game, I think it's probably the best place in town. The downside is the wind. In the summer, it's manageable. (Normally calm in the mornings and 10-15MPH in the late p.m.) But this spring, it was really annoyingly windy. (That said, this was one of the windiest and coldest springs in a long time for all of LV, not just Paiute, but being a little elevated and having nothing around us to stop the wind makes it worse.) This spring was a pretty even distribution between calm days, 10-20 mph days, and days where a good portion or all of the day was 25+ MPH. But you do learn to be a good wind player! And the breeze is quite nice in the summer, and it's about 5 degrees cooler there than in town.
Spanish Trail is a private course, 3 9-hole tracks, pretty standard desert course layout. The service is top notch IMO, you really feel like a member of a posh CC. The restaurant is also v nice imo. (As in good lunch/ bar food, not like *nice* nice.) I've heard that they are hurting s badly that membership is now no start up and $275/month (cart fees not included AFAIK), which is a great deal and I am considering it (along with Paiute and TPC Summerlin) for next year. The range is nice enough, although a step down from TPC Summerlin and Paiute, good practice putting greens and average chipping area.
TPC Las Vegas has memberships for 5 or 6k, I think. I would not recommend this. I find the course to be in just meh shape, it's the public version of the two TPC courses, so you get a ton of corporate douchebags invading your space all the time, and pace is generally slow. That said it's good enough for Charley HOffman so I may be wrong about all of that.
Rio Secco is a nice course in Henderson, membership for 5k I think. I've never played it but supposed to be nice and Nick Watney plays there.

The other thing is a bunch of courses have kind of half memberships where you pay a small monthly fee for the use of practice facilities, and then a discounted rate on greens fees. Silverstone (North LV) comes to mind, I think it's as low as $50/month for unlimited range balls. LV golf club (a muni course which is not very nice, but the range is pretty good) also has a deal like this. And Paiute has a thing where its $450/ year for unlimited practice and a $45 rate for two of the courses and $55 for one of them, so you might want to consider one of these, depending on how many rounds you want to play.

Awesome, thanks a lot for the info. I'll check all these places out and probably have some more questions for you before I decide. thanks again.

Fwiw played Siena last month twice and I thought it was in good shape aside from no practice putting green which they were replanting I guess.

I played Spanish Trail at least 6 times this summer while in vegas, was between $49 and $59 each time (booked on golfnow) and is in great shape (Actually, one of the 9 hole courses is in terrible shape but they just closed it for renovation for the next couple of months). Def worth checking out, I think its the nicest open-to-the-public course in vegas right now (tied with Bear's Best).

Cool, I think I'll just get a room for a week and check out all these places and decide then.

Anyone know much about Black Mountain? It has some meh reviews in this thread but the membership prices are very nice. $99 initiation and $215 per month for unlimited golf/practice plus cart rental fee.

played it a few times not impressed at all more like a local course ****ty clubhouse also. That was two years ago though