Overall: 5 (1 = poor, 5 = exceptional)
Conditions: 5
Pace of Play: 5
Layout: 5
Address:
3 Shadow Creek Dr, North Las Vegas, NV 89081
Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. #5 in Golf Digest's Top 100 Greatest Public Courses in America.
Does it live up to the hype? To me, it’s a reasounding YES.
The overall experience is amazing. As a MGM resort guest, you can set up a tee time. I checked in on Sunday, and got a morning tee time for Thursday, 8:30am. I would recommend an early tee time to beat the Vegas heat.
Another nice perk is that I played as a single. Shadow Creek will not pair you up with anyone else if you don’t want to. Really really cool.
Thursday morning comes along, and waiting for me in the lobby of Mandalay Bay Hotel is a limo. Not just a black car limo, but a limo limo. A stretch limo. He takes care of my bag, opens the door, and we are off.
When you drive up to Shadow Creek, the first think you will notice is that there are no signs. The entrance gate is very basic. Non-golfers who drive by this place won’t even notice they are right next to the #5 golf course is America where they could play.
As I drive up to the clubhouse, the club pro and my caddy are already standing at the curb. The club pro opens the door for me, and I am welcomed in. Very classy.
I enter the locker room. It’s huge and amenities are nice/traditional feel (not modern). However, you will be awestruck by the names on the lockers. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Barack Obama. (And many more)
When you are ready, the caddy will bring you to the driving range. A great range with tour-level balls (pro-v or TM5). It was actually nice having the caddy there. He purposefully watched my shots to get sense of my distances and game-level at the range.
My caddie, Rick Dalpos, was awesome. He was a former PGA-tour pro. His green reading was spot on, except for one read. The classy thing is that he immediately owned up for it. No worries to me. He saved my butt so many times with awesome reads that he totally made up for it. Rick, if you’re reading this, you ROCK! An amazing golfer and person. Hats off to you.
The course is exceptional…practically immaculate condition. This is amazing considering that you are playing literally in the desert. But, once you are on the tee box, you feel transplanted somewhere else. You see trees. You see rolling hills and texture to the course. You see waterfalls, streams, and rock bridges (like mini Augusta National). Also, each hole is lives on it’s own. By this I mean that when you play one hole, you will never see another fairway from another hole. Each hole is totally isolated. Love this design. It’s unreal.
I also enjoyed every hole and the course layout. The caddy’s course knowledge is key, as there are definitely spots you want to play to. The long par 4s are tough, but with two great shots, you can get on in two. The putting surfaces are excellent. The greens are nuanced though, so listen to your caddy!
The pace of play was a non-issue for me. I was the first person to go out, so we zipped through the course with ease. Also, given there are so few groups playing, I would say the pace of play is usually pretty awesome.
When you are done, they will summon your limo to pick you up. On the ride back, I reflected on how great and memorable this experience was. It was awesome round not because I shot a great score for me (76), but it was a door-to-door world class golf-bucket-list experience.