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Just deserts!
Desert Willow Golf Resort, Palm Desert, Calif.
Scenic enough to be featured in National Geographic Traveler Magazine, the Firecliff course at Desert Willow uses plenty of the natural desert and some unnatural water. The wet stuff comes into play on eight of the holes, giving you an extra obstacle without losing sight of its true natural locale star.
For more information, including booking, call (888) 333-6078.
Tournament Players Club at the Canyons, Las Vegas, Nev.
Move over Bellagio shooting fountains and Mirage exploding volcanoes. TPC Canyons is a showy a spectacle as you’ll find in Sin City.
Hackers tend to love this course for the performance or hate it for its first-play shallowness. The par 3 second hole features a desert island green that almost seems to float in the air over a canyon. Staff members joke that they should put a camera stand at the hole for all the photo-clicking golfers.
What really sets TPC Canyons apart is its service. Just because you’re getting beaten up in a barren desert surrounding, doesn’t mean everyone cannot be nice to you.
For more information, including booking, call (800) 826-0353.
The Falls Golf Club, Lake Las Vegas, Nev.
Desert does not mean flat. The Falls shows you just how high you can go in desert golf with a back nine that scales up a mountain. Looking down from the 13th tee boxes is a risk for anyone who suffers from even a slight case of vertigo. There are only jagged rocks on a steep drop below and a fairway that starts a daunting 200 yards farther ahead in the valley floor.
At one point on this Tom Weiskopf design you are on top of a tall plateau, staring the Las Vegas Strip eye to eye on the horizon. It’s roller coaster golf. Even the climbs up and swooshes down the steep cart paths become part of the fun.
“It's almost like playing in a picture,” Falls first-timer Randy Shuck said. “You start taking all these mental postcards and then you suddenly realize, ‘Heck, I’ve got to get my golf ball down there somehow.’”
For more information, including booking, call (866) 514-4653.
Paiute Resort, Las Vegas, Nev.
There are three Pete Dye courses at this complex, all making use of the natural surroundings. The Wolf Course, the newest and toughest of the three, usually gets all the attention. But don’t count out Snow Mountain. Local Las Vegas packagers report that many golfers have told them they enjoy Snow more than Wolf and it can be as much as $40 cheaper to play.
For more information, including booking, call (800) 426-6148.
Wolf Creek Golf Club, Mesquite, Nev.
For golfers who want real desert, making the 80-minute drive from Sin City’s high-tech neon to Mesquite’s low-tech neon is a road to travel. For in Mesquite, there’s not just old ladies at old-time slot machines. There’s Wolf Creek, an exceeding tough golf course where you might just run into a real-life road runner. This course features true desert canyons and all the wildlife that scampers across them.
For more information, including booking, call (866) 252-4653.
Pinon Hills Golf Course, Farmington, N.M.
Forgetting about New Mexico in desert golf would be huge mistake. Here you can find courses with little civilization around and bare-bottom green fees. Pinon Hills stands out even on that scale. You have to want to get here to get here and with the chance to play a 7,249 yard track with tons of natural desert brush and wildlife for $33, you probably will.
This is a municipal course in name only with course conditions and traffic jam tees not a concern.
For more information, including booking, call (800) 470-4622.
Our golf bloggers spend a great deal of time traveling from course to course (what a life!). Here’s a selection of their top tips for travelers - where to stay, great restaurants, over-rated destinations, and more!
This article provided through Golf Publisher Syndications.
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