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 What you shoot in Vegas should stay in Vegas. But some of the details of my trip to Desert Pines Golf Club, located 20 minutes from the Strip, are perfectly suitable for public consumption. So I'll get right to the juicy parts. An ambitious effort to replace the putting greens has been recently completed at Desert Pines. Installed in 1996, and redone in 2002, the greens were patterned after the emerald platters at Augusta National, but they proved difficult to maintain in the arid Vegas soil. In order to get the greens to the same standard as the rest of the course, Walters Golf, which owns the property, spent more than $1 million to have the course's original designer - Dye Designs - create new ones. They were installed in late spring and the course re-opened in June. The restored greens merely add to the luster of one of the most distinctive courses in a part of the country that has plenty of golf options. Play the course and you might think you're in the hills of Carolina rather than the desert of the Las Vegas Valley. Though a short distance from the bustling Las Vegas Strip, the pine trees and sloping fairways make it seem as if you're hundreds of miles away. At 6,810-yards from the tips, you don't need a huge amount of muscle off the tee to play the course. But the Perry Dye-designed track will certainly make you feel the weight of precise shot-making. That becomes abundantly clear by the time you reach the second hole, a deceiving 195-yard par 3 that requires a precise shot off the tee or your ball will roll off the back of the green as several in our group did. There are few level lies on the fairways, as they slope from gentle to severe, and the greens are also severely undulating. When the starter tells you there are no straight putts, not even from three feet, believe him. If it looks straight, chances are you're reading it wrong. Compounding the difficulty of the greens, many of which are multi-tiered, is the typical Dye-design mounding around the greens, which are protected by crystal-white sand bunkers. Water comes into play on half of the holes, including the par-4 fourth hole, one of my favorite on the course. It's only 322 yards and with the help of the dry desert air you get the feeling you can drive it from the tee. I tried, but found myself safely in the fairway with an easy sand wedge in. Though the lies are uneven and the greens can be tough if read incorrectly, there isn't a great deal of out-of-bounds on the course, and the sloping fairways generally mean that the ball will filter a bit closer to the center even if hit errantly off the tee. All in all, it's a challenging course but one that, if played smart, won't beat you up too badly. And if you happen to feel that your game needs some serious work after playing the course, you can always take advantage of the Desert Pines Practice Center, one of the best in the region. It's a two-tiered, air-conditioned facility that features automatic ball return in its 58 covered hitting stations and target greens patterned after famous par 3s. It's open day and night, and PGA professional teaching is available courtesy of the Walters Golf Academy. For more information, call (888) 427-6678 or visit waltersgolf.com. |
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