Las Vegas offers dynamite courses, VIP treatment
LAS VEGAS Even before Las Vegas had an NHL team of its own, locals learned how to spot the skating and puck-stopping stars.
“We get plenty of hockey guys out here, and you can always tell, too, because they walk into the pro-shop and smile and they have no teeth,” quipped Monte Montgomery, general manager at Shadow Creek Golf Club, the gotta-seeit-to-believe-it oasis accessible only to guests at an MGM Resorts International property along The Strip.
“And they all hit it a mile, too.” Now with an NHL team to call their own, Sin City is officially a hockey hot-spot.
The Vegas Golden Knights are not only new to town, they’re currently the talk of a town with a whole lot of other stuff to yammer about.
On a sunny afternoon at TPC Las Vegas, we’d just warned our playing partners — both born and raised in the area — that we might need extra mulligans because we had been shovelling snow, not digging divots, for the past several months.
“Oh, you guys are from Canada … ” one replied as we stepped up to the first tee. “Have you ever been to a hockey game?”
His buddy shook his head in disbelief: “Dude, they’re from Canada!”
So yeah, we’ve been to a few hockey games — enough to know the fan atmosphere at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas stacks up with some of the best in the NHL.
Last month, Washington Capitals wrecking-ball Alex Ovechkin provided this hilarious assessment of the scene at the 17,500seat rink just a wedge-shot — or slap-shot — from The Strip: “It’s like, ‘Holy Jesus, are we in a hockey game or is this like a pool party out there?’ ”
The Golden Knights seem to have hit the jackpot so far in Vegas. (The NFL’s Raiders will relocate from Oakland to join them in 2020.)
A collection of castaways and expendables, the NHL’s newest squad has already shattered the previous record for most wins by an expansion outfit.
The Golden Knights are in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Proof of their star status in the city where “What Happens Here, Stays Here,” Golden Knights defenceman Deryk Engelland, surprise sniper William Karlsson and a handful of teammates were on-hand to help celeb chef Gordon Ramsay open his Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Caesars Palace in late January.
(If you’re a foodie, you’ll need to stay a month to even scratch the surface in Las Vegas. And if you’re looking for a casual bite and beverage en route to a hockey game, you’ll love Beerhaus, steps from the arena entrance and with a list of suds double the size of the grub menu.)
“I’ll tell you what — people around here love the Golden Knights,” Montgomery said. “And not only because they ’re winning. I don’t care if they ’d only have three wins by now, they’ve really taken to the community, and that’s big in Vegas. I don’t even know if the Raiders are going to be as hot as these guys.”
Echoed Joe Massanova, the director of sales and marketing at TPC Las Vegas: “There is just this incredible buzz about that team being in our city. People are off the hook. Every time you go to that rink, the souvenir store is filled up, but then they’re running out of supplies.”
Of course, they won’t mind if you bring your own jersey from home.
Even if you’re sporting enemy colours.
If you’re one of the many hockey-crazed Canadians who likes to combine a winter golf getaway with an opportunity to cheer on your hometown team, Sin City should be next on your hit-list. Of course unless you’re a Jets fan, you’ll have to wait until next fall to plan a trip, but with the Knights still going, you can plan a quick golf trip and still get in some playoff hockey.
Las Vegas will always be best known for its nightlife, shows and sea of slot-machines and gaming tables, but for the other kind of club-goer, the day-life is darn good too.
I get it … Not every visitor to Vegas wants to set an alarm or even stray from The Strip.
If golf is your game, you should. Why? Because like everything in this world-famous escape, they went a little over-the-top when creating the best courses in this area … in a good way.
Designed by Rees Jones, Cascata is named for the waterfall that tumbles down Red Mountain. Among the many touches, you’ll find a personalized name-tag on a stall in the locker-room when you arrive for your tee-time.
Cascata, for example, is carved into a steep mountainside and named for a 418-foot man-made waterfall that not only sets the backdrop but roars through the lower level of the clubhouse.
If it’s possible for a course to feel rugged without even a single blade of grass being out of place, this is it.
“It’s sensory overload,” said Mark Blais, director of golf sales and marketing for Vici Properties, which operates both Cascata and Rio Secco Golf Club. “There is so much to look at it. You have a tourcalibre caddy. The conditions are going to be top-notch. You walk in and see the waterfall going right through the clubhouse …
“And it’s not just a round of golf. It’s the Cascata experience. We want you to feel like you’re a VIP, no matter who you are, when you step on these grounds.”
Course designer Tom Fazio described his work at Shadow Creek as “one of the grandest experiences of my life.” This exclusive track is only accessible to guests of the MGM Resorts International properties along The Strip in Las Vegas.
The previous morning, other guests at Aria Resort & Casino — located smack-dab in the middle of The Strip and featuring three pools, 150,000-plus square-feet of gaming space and upwards of two-dozen food and drink options — must have wondered if we were some sort of VIPs as we carried our clubs past the tables, stepped outside and were greeted by a limousine for the ride to Shadow Creek. (Aria is one of 13 resorts on MGM’s roster. Right next-door to T-Mobile Arena, Monte Carlo is currently being transformed into Park MGM.)
Despite its lofty status as No. 5 on Golf Digest’s latest listing of the top public-access tracks in the U.S., there’s a mystique about Shadow Creek, a blend of much-hyped and little-known.
You’ve probably heard more about the price-tag than anything — a round runs US$500, which includes limousine transport and a caddy fee. Even if you’re willing to pony up, there are limited teetimes made available.
If you can get inside the gates, you’ll be in good company.
Just wander around the lockerroom — the slate of names reads like some sort of Hall or Walk of Fame.
“What makes it really special is it’s just different than anything in the desert. There’s nothing natural here. They brought in 20,000 trees,” Montgomery said. “If they knocked you out and flew you here in a helicopter in and you woke up, you would just have no idea where you were, and I think that’s what makes it so cool.
“And not only do you have the mystique and the beauty, you have a great product. People love to play this golf course.”
Cascata and Shadow Creek are both worth a splurge, but if those bucket-listers are too pricey, there are still superb options.
Bear’s Best Las Vegas is a collection of some of Jack Nicklaus’ favourite assignments from courses he has designed elsewhere. In some cases, the golf superstar figures he improved on the original.
Bear’s Best Las Vegas is sort of like Jack Nicklaus’ take on an expansion roster. Except the 18time major champion and superstar course designer didn’t have to worry about protected lists or nomove clauses. He simply picked his favourite holes from his own layouts in several other destinations — from Palm Springs, Scottsdale, Los Cabos and more.
“It’s a concept that just fits perfectly into the personality of Vegas,” said Jim Stanfill, general manager at Bear’s Best Las Vegas. “We’ve got Paris. We’ve got New York-New York. We’ve got the pyramids of Egypt at Luxor. We’ve got the water and grace of Bellagio. So as much as Las Vegas tends to embody other areas of the world, so does this golf course.
“The beauty of it is the way Mr. Nicklaus routed the golf course, it does not feel as if it was a compilation of other designs. It flows from hole to hole very, very smoothly and provides the golfer with quite a deal of anticipation of ‘ What’s the next hole going to be like? Where’s the next one from?’ ”
If TPC Las Vegas looks familiar, you might recognize this setup — headlined by the four-hole stretch known as Canyon Corner — from Golf Channel. For a six-year span from 2001-06, they co-hosted the PGA Tour’s stop in the Nevada desert, now known as the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children Open.
The course record at TPC Las Vegas — a 9-under 62 — is shared by several household names, including long-bombing John Daly.
And if the guy headed to the practice area looks familiar, well … there’s a reason this facility is billed as the “Home of Professional Golf in Las Vegas.”
“It’s a really cool environment,” Massanova said. “You have a dynamite course coupled with a PGA Tour environment where, in a really laid-back way, you can see Charley Hoffman just hitting balls off the back tee, or Ryan Moore or Kevin Na … We have a number of them that roll through here and practise, and it adds to our golf experience. It’s really fun to be a part of.”
Those guys are still popular, no doubt, but this town now belongs to the Golden Knights.
You should see them in action at T-Mobile Arena.
You might see them on the course the next day.
“You can automatically point out, ‘Hey, that’s a hockey player,’ because you can see it in their golf swing,” Stanfill said with a chuckle. “It looks like a slap-shot.”