Las Vegas is lit. Is it ever not?
On this weekend night in March, a UFC fight card is headlining. The West Coast Conference men’s basketball tournament is also in town. And Maroon 5 is scheduled to play at the Park MGM.
The shows and entertainment are about to start. The sequin dresses, light-colored designer suits and high-energy beats at the STRAT’s Remix Lounge would suggest as much. It is go time.
On I-15 just off the Strip, however, traffic is stalled in front of Allegiant Stadium. The video board – one of the largest in Sin City – on the side of spaceship-like stadium shines so brightly that one might think aliens have just landed and dropped the hatch. Las Vegas definitely feels like another world. It might not be for everyone even if it has something for everyone.
Included in the night life is golf – not the indoor simulator kind but the outdoor kind under the lights. The following Sunday night, golfers have packed Angel Park’s Cloud 9 short course (which converts from 12 holes to nine when the lights come on) just after sunset. The holes and/or greens are patterned after famous ones – like the island green at TPC Sawgrass, the Postage Stamp at Royal Troon and the Valley of Sin at St. Andrews. The groups playing are diverse – families, young kids, the men’s golf team from Western Illinois and at least one golf writer who has never played under the lights. From various vantage points on the course, the Strip (some 10 miles away) comes into view, most notably the iconic 1,149-foot tower at the STRAT.
Jeff and Jimmy, members at TPC Las Vegas (www.tpc.com/lasvegas), a top golf course just a short ride from Angel Park, claim that all the putts break towards the STRAT. The Summerlin region of Vegas sits at a higher elevation and closer to the mountain range so the effect seems real. The atypical routing at TPC feels like it stretches out as long as Las Vegas Boulevard itself featuring arroyos and barrancas, bouldered tee boxes and varied desert landscapes. The golf shop there has a great hat wall that could compete with Lids. After all, combining a TPC signature course with the Las Vegas brand is a winning merchandise proposition if there ever was one.
Midwest Golfing Magazine (MGM) used Las Vegas as its hub for a trip out west to begin its golf season. There were vibrant colors (even in the desert setting) and characters and plenty of majestic rocky snapshots. The golf at times felt like playing on another planet which may be why this slice of Nevada and Southern Utah, among many other reasons, has become such a desired destination.
The stairway to touch the sky is 119 steps
Mike and Noah flew to Nevada from North Dakota for a little father-son golf trip to shorten the long winter season back home. They knew about Wolf Creek (www.golfwolfcreek.com) in Mesquite (just over an hour from Las Vegas, right on the Arizona border) from having played there before. But for many, the course is famous because of a 2009 EA Sports Tiger Woods video game that featured it. So wild and spectacular are the canyons and holes at Wolf Creek that they tend to blur fantasy against reality.
Amazingly, these natural creations are hidden by the drive into the property, from the parking lot and even on the practice range. The reveal only happens when walking around the clubhouse to the first tee where the opening par-5, with levels of tee boxes, sets up the contrast of emerald green fairways, white sand bunkers and stunning rocky outlines. Those features define all 18 holes. As assistant professional Matt Wieland tells MGM in the golf shop, Wolf Creek is one of the few courses that “100% lives up to the hype.”
There are moments of Golden Tee come to life here. A few tweaks removed from traditional golf in an otherworldly setting is why golfers come from all over the world, not just North Dakota and Wisconsin, to play Wolf Creek. Hang on and enjoy the ride – literally (with some of the winding, downhill cart paths) and figuratively (every hole is an adventure).
The lasting images on a picture-perfect, 70-degree day are the long shadows cast late in the afternoon which provide an even more dramatic effect on the landscape. Many of the tee box ledges are so severe that they challenge the maintenance staff, let alone golfers, to get to them (Wolf Creek stores a mower on the top of one of them at No. 2). The back tee box on No. 2 seems like more of a stairway to the sky than a launch pad for a par-4 fairway below. MGM went back after the round and climbed 119 steps to get to that spot as the sun went down. The burning quads and Achilles strains at the top were telling enough. The 360-degree view at the highest point on the property provided a “king of the world” moment.
Though most holes play off rocky perches to fairways below and then slightly up to the green complexes, every hole has its own personality. The mountains feel almost like a movie set backdrop with a different tint. A series of streams and water features add some audible serenity if not shot-making challenges especially on holes 7, 8, 12 and 17. For those daring enough, the slope rating from the Challenger (back tees) is 154. The USGA max for a course is 155.
Wolf Creek partners with Eureka Casino Resort – which has an inviting courtyard with a pool, multiple hot tubs, an outdoor bar and private cabanas – just down the road. Room 408 there has a picture of Sean Connery as James Bond carrying a golf bag on a cobblestone street just about to enter the door of a London flat. The hipster look from Bond (cuffed jeans, black dress shoes, a red sweater and a newsboy cap) would not be the only interesting attire MGM sees in the coming days as it relates to golf.
Lassoed at Black Desert
The 20th Hole, a 14,000-square foot modern sports bar equipped with golf simulators at Black Desert Resort (www.blackdesertresort.com/golf) in southern Utah, is full of golf tales. Night has fallen after a full day on the links and the beers are talking. At least one group of senior golfers is having a friendly discussion about who owes the next round. They sit opposite each other at an L-shaped bar and are paper airplaning a Benjamin back and forth. Down the way, a jovial group of younger men are dressed in full cowboy gear from head to toe including bolo ties. They have come all the way from metro Detroit to settle the second Creepy Tree Classic, which is really just a getaway for the boys with just a touch of Masters formality.
Just before the group heads out for some frivolity on the 36-hole illuminated putting course at the Resort, two of them stop to talk to MGM, excitedly so. The night before, they rented out an entire restaurant to hold the event’s kickoff dinner, in which everyone received their own bottle of wine fit to their personality. The affable leader of the posse, Dan, is holding the large wooden trophy and maybe has the biggest cowboy hat of the group. He reads a poem dedicated to this year’s event to the tune of Twas the Night Before Christmas. No detail has been spared. This is clearly buddies group golf at the highest level, if not for quality of play, then everything else.
Before heading out, MGM asks why they chose the St. George area in Utah to host their event. They basically say it won out by a vote over a couple Cabot properties, Florida and Scottsdale. Why? Because they wanted to go west and experience “desert” golf unlike any other. Well, they found a good spot.
Of all the great and beautiful Greater Zion golf, which has been called the Red Rock Golf Trail, Black Desert is the new, shiny piece. Not only will it host an LPGA event in early May, but also a PGA Tour event for the second straight year in October. The Resort opened a couple years ago and has plans to grow but is already first class.
Even on an overcast, drizzly day for MGM, there is so much to take in at Black Desert. The most obvious draw is the natural black lava rock that dominates the property, offset by the red rock mountain range. The lava rock frames each hole, pinching fairways and providing outcroppings and even pond banks at a few spots. The conditioning of the course is second to none, a true Tour experience sans the Tour being in town. The golf shop is swank, the tee times are 12 minutes apart and food and beverage (not alcohol) is included with the round at the palm tree-dotted Oasis on the course. MGM caddie Alex even called in orders one hole ahead of time so they were ready on arrival.
As Tom Weiskopf’s final course design before he passed away in 2022, Black Desert may go down as one of his best. There is dramatic movement on some of the fairways and Tour-contoured green complexes with plenty of pin positions available. A bunker is placed in the middle of the par-3 third green and there are two par-4s that can play drivable. There is a 19th hole, too, to finish off the round. For MGM, it played just 60 yards to a tiered, sliver of a green basically surrounded by the lava rock.
Black Desert seems like a place primed for more golf holes in the future. A community there has already developed and residential construction is ongoing. Other plans include a boardwalk, a water park and pickleball courts to add to the spa, fitness and restaurant offerings. All of it is done in laid-back luxury style. The Resort Center gives off some Beverly Hills vibes without the pretension.
Forces of nature
With five national parks, Utah has the third most of any state. They are all spectacular but Zion National (www.nps.gov/zion) is the most popular, drawing over 4 million visitors annually. Like many national parks, it would take months to explore everything Zion has to offer. But any visitor could also pick out one spot to sit for hours and never feel uninspired.
The same could be said for the benches – pointing right at a majestic red cliff dotted with trees – on the second story balcony at the aptly-named Red Cliffs Lodge Zion just down the road. The town of Springdale (population just under 600) blends in perfectly with its park neighbor both in style and substance with quaint gift shops, restaurants and places to stay. A college-aged group earlier in the day was using professional-grade cameras to film and fuzzy microphones to interview each other on a shuttle coming back from one of the Park’s many trails. The wide-eyed expressions as they were talking about editing and producing what they had just experienced were magnetic. At such a young age they had memories – documented or otherwise – for a lifetime.
One of the “easier” trails at Zion is the Riverside Walk. There were hundreds making this trek, sometimes through the shallow, rocky Virgin River waters to get to the Narrows. This is the smallest section of the Zion Canyon some 20-30 feet wide between rock walls thousands of feet tall. Fortunately, the fairways MGM played earlier that day were a little wider.
Those came at Copper Rock (www.copperrock.com) in the city Hurricane, about 30 miles away. Like Black Desert it has a history of hosting the professional Tours. In fact, this May it is scheduled to hold the Copper Rock Championship on the LPGA Epson Tour and then a week later the Legends Championship, one of nine events for the LPGA Seniors. The trophy of the latter is displayed in the corner of the golf shop.
In the backyard of Sand Hollow State Park, Copper Rock has plenty of modern, high-end designed vacation rentals on site. The course sits snug to the copper mountains and the ninth and 18th holes come together at a long double green separated by a bunker in the middle. The locals voted Copper Rock as one of the best courses in the St. George area, which includes 14 courses in a 20-mile radius (www.greaterzion.com/activites/golf). Essentially all of those courses allow golfers to take in the unique natural landscape. One, however, is a little more known for it than the others.
Greater Zion’s most famous golf stretch
The cliffside hole at Sand Hollow Resort (www.sandhollowresort.com) on its championship course was made for drone footage and still photography. What some may not know, however, is which cliffside hole.
Yes, Sand Hollow is so much more than one cliffside hole. In fact, a recent Golf Digest list of the 100 top holes in America included three holes on the Sand Hollow layout alone. They all come on a back nine stretch that is arguably as memorable as any – Pebble Beach’s ocean stretch, Augusta’s Amen Corner and TPC Sawgrass’ finishing holes all included.
Holes 12-15 run along a towering ridgeline that falls off into a red rock canyon to the left. Hole 12, which can play as a long par-4, and No. 13, which can play as a drivable par-4 also have a rock wall that runs the right side giving each a leveled effect. After a tee shot at No. 14 that goes uphill a bit and then back down, the stretch is punctuated by the par-3 No. 15. It has tee boxes ranging anywhere from 115-230 yards, placed on different levels among the jagged rock formations. Some are even tucked into pockets of these formations. The long green is propped up on a rock terrace before the remainder of the routing finishes “inland” again. Views of the chasm below on this stretch can go for 20 miles.
Like other courses in Greater Zion, the red rock pops at Sand Hollow and the various jagged peaks throughout the course leave an impression. The reddish sand in the desert scrub framing the holes and in the bunkers looks more like clay. But the sand is iron rich thus hues of red, orange and brown take over.
Sand Hollow also has a wee (short) course and a 9-hole routing called the Links. The latter pays homage to true links courses overseas with its wide corridors, massive greens, rugged sunken bunkers and hand-built stone “sheep fencing” which is ever present. Regulars at Sand Hollow deepen that international tie with the Friendship Cup, an event held against Great Britain counterparts. Last year, 32 golfers from Scotland came to the States as the amateur friendly rotates sites between Sand Hollow and Scotland which includes the Old Course at St. Andrews.
The last ride
A final look at Sand Hollow for MGM comes from a special place. For all intents and purposes, it feels like the top of the world in Hurricane, Utah. Just down the road from the Resort is Mad Moose Rentals and Tours (www.madmooserentals.com) which offers an off-road adventure like no other.
After some brief education, a safety video and a helmet fitting, MGM takes off on an ATV excursion with the help of professional guide Brent. The two-hour trek feels like being in a video game – up and down massive sand dunes, along bumpy stretches and banked corners and climbing “Pucker Wall” on four wheels. There are a couple stops along the way for explanations and to take a break. One is to locate Sand Hollow Resort in the distance and another is at the cliff’s edge for an epic photo opportunity.
On the drive back down to base camp, a stray rain shower miles away blurs the mountain views to the north. To the west, sun beams shoot down through a small opening in the clouds like they were sent down from the heavens. And to the east, a singular rainbow beam appears, almost touching the desert floor. The skies are alive.
The colorful final reminder provides a great synopsis. Of the green fairways set against the different desert landscapes. Of the black lava rock. Of the red sand and red rock.
Albeit in a different way than Las Vegas, Southern Utah is lit too.
