Las Vegas Golf, Yeah Baby

Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada is claimed by town promoters to be "The Entertainment Capital of the World." Vegas is famous for its entertainment, and 24-hour mega casino–hotels. It's the place where "what happens here stays here". The Vegas Strip measures just over 4 miles long. The Strip is known for its over-the-top themed hotels such as the pyramid-shaped Luxor and the Venetian, complete with canals and gondolas, luxury resorts, and little chapels on the strip.

Tourists are well catered in Las Vegas. Everything is a bit flamboyant, including the golf courses. Vegas is home to a number of top-100 courses and is a great place to sample golf courses designed by some of the great architects of the time. Courses include:

The Tom Fazio designed Shadow Creek Golf Course located 15 miles north of The Strip. Shadow Creek is ranked #17 on Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses You Can Play list.

Rees Jones was the architect of Cascata Golf Course. Cascata is located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas, in Boulder City. Cascata is ranked #58 on Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses You Can Play.

Tom Fazio designed a second course in Las Vegas that was also on Golf Magazine's Top 100 Courses You Can Play, coming in at #66. The course is The Wynn Las Vegas Golf Course. 

Sure, many courses have a desert theme; after all we are talking Southern Nevada. But thanks to millions of tourists and gambling profits, money to build over the top structures and attractions has never been a problem. After all, if you can build a pyramid like hotel, canals with gondola within a hotel and a pretty good replica of the Eiffel Tower, you can bet that the golf course can be a bit over the top and don't have to have a desert feel.

A prime example that with enough funding, you can do amazing things, even in the desert, is the Pete Dye designed Desert Pines Golf Course, ideal for golfers looking for the wooded charm of Pinehurst in a desert environment.

Desert Pines is extremely convenient, it's located less than 10 minutes from downtown and less than 15 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip.

Nearly 4,000 mature pine trees, imported white sand and abundant water features make Desert Pines feel like a course cut right out of the Carolina's. The Dye Designs layout plays 6,810 yards from the back tees. Pine trees shade the roughs on virtually every fairway, water comes into play on half the holes and more than 60 bunkers -- many framed with Pete Dye's trademark railroad ties -- really tighten up the course. Greens are further protected by their smaller size and severe green side undulations.

You can learn more about Las Vegas golf courses and their designers on www.GolfCourseRanking.com, North America's most authoritative golf course web site.

They even have a golf course video for Desert Pines Golf Course. But that should not be surprising; they have videos for over a thousand golf courses.

And don't forget, if you have a really lousy scoring round on your Las Vegas vacation, no problem, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

Before your next vacation or next round of golf, be sure to visit www.GolfCourseRanking.com for golf course ratings & reviews, ranking, golf courses, discount tee times, course architects, rules quizzes, weekly videos and more.