After work on Monday I headed out for some night golf. It gets dark early in the desert this time of year and I was hoping to get to the course with some daylight left. Unfortunately, my schedule didn’t allow that and I just missed a beautiful sunset! Oh well.
If you’ve followed my page over the last couple years you’ll know that I’ve enjoyed mixing in some night golf. So far I’ve golfed three times at night, in three different states. After my spin around Las Vegas Golf Center that makes four times in four different states!
Las Vegas Golf Center (previously TaylorMade Experience) is one of the three lighted nine-hole courses in Las Vegas. It is a large golf complex with a two-tier driving range, grass driving range, restaurant area and the par-3 course. I didn’t check out any of the other attractions and just paid the $19 to walk nine holes. It was an easy walk, but I’ll mention that if you need a cart you’ll want to call to reserve a tee time since there aren’t many carts.
As I hoped, the best thing about the par-3 course is its location. The course is located just south of the Strip and one street over from the McCarran International Airport. The winds were from the north so that meant all the landing planes were flying directly over the course. They looked low enough to be accidently hit with a golf ball! I got a couple pictures, but it was tough to capture the planes at night.
If you’ve flown into Las Vegas then you’ll know just how close the airport is to the Strip. Besides the planes keeping things interesting at Las Vegas Golf Center, I thought the views of the lighted Strip were pretty good as well. Because of the course’s lights washing everything out it is difficult to see in my pictures, however the Mandalay Bay and a couple other hotels are visible clearly from the course. As far as golf course settings go, this one is probably as unique as it gets.
I thought the design of Las Vegas Golf Center was above average as well. It is all par-3’s and plays 1,230 yards from the blue tees. Most of the holes are in that 125 to 140 yard range so there isn’t much variety. The 8th at 185 yards is the longest hole.
Bob Cupp designed the course and I’ve always enjoyed his work. Here there are some forced carries over the desert and interesting green complexes. The greens have plenty of movement while the bunkers and mounding frame most of the holes. The 4th (124 yards) was my favorite hole as it plays over a deep depression of desert.
Sadly, the conditions were pretty bad. I know this time of year everything is dormant, however the tee boxes were mostly dirt and the greens were a mix of grasses (poa annua and bermuda?). That mixture of grass had putts bouncing all over the place. Each green likely had over a hundred ball marks and there were chunks of putting surface missing, almost like someone went around chipping off the greens.
With a lot of TLC I’d recommend the par-3 course at Las Vegas Golf Center in a heartbeat thanks to its awesome location. However, all things considered, I’d skip it right now because of the conditioning.
Course Pictures (click any picture to scroll through the gallery):