The car was all packed and we were ready to leave the wonderful urban sprawl of the Las Vegas area. What was I going to do for the next seven and a half hours of riding through nothingness of the California High Desert and then the pleasing to the eye experience of riding up Highway 99 up through California's San Joaquin Valley from Bakersfield to Merced. There was a stop in Bakersfield at the Famous Hodel's Buffet Restaurant for lunch and then it was off to finish our trip back to Merced.
Seven and a half hours is a lot of time to kill. My wife hates my driving so she does ALL of the driving when we go on any trips-anywhere. To a lot of guys this is truly not what guys do, but I kind of like riding shotgun wherever we go. That's another story. I don't care to get into it because my wife reads my blog and I don't want to kick the bear, if you know what I mean. So, what do I do for those seven and a half long and boring hours other than converse with my wife about how much we hate Las Vegas?
What do you think I did? I will wait for your answer.........OK, time's up. I'll tell you what I did. We got to play golf this trip so my mind was on golf and I started to think about the many courses I have played in Las Vegas on my many trips there. I try to get in a round of golf when I am there, sucking up my pride and shelling out the non-resident green fee. As I have said in my last post, I have issues with how out of town golfers have to pay a premium green fee to play the courses in Las Vegas, but I've talked about that in my last post and I won't go there.
As each mile that looked a lot like the last ticked away, I started to make mental notes about the courses I played in Las Vegas and how I would share them here on this blog. I guess I will do what I normally do and write about them. Keep in mind, I enjoyed playing them. I have also listed them on my website, although I do have to update my website to include The Legacy. By the way, if you haven't done so visit my website at http://the-golf-course-travel-bag.com.
So that you can gain a sort of perspective on this, I think I need to share with you a paragraph of introduction here. The first group of courses I played when I was a participant for four years in The Professional Golfers Career College Coaches Tournament and Clinic. I enjoyed playing these courses and each one was unique in its design. What courses did we play? I will give some feedback on those courses later in the blog but first I want to give you some context as far as playing the courses.
The first year we played at Stallion mountain which at the time had three courses. One of the courses was out of play so we played two of the three. We did play all three Stallion Mountain courses the following year. The third course we played that year was Royal Links which is closed presently. Stallion Mountain's courses were fairly straight up, by that I mean that the course was flat but the rough and fairways were pristine. I remember the greens being large and fast with some undulation to them. The three courses were nothing special really, but they were fun to play. Stallion Mountain's three courses have been rerouted into one course, which I haven't played.
I remember arriving at Royal Links and looking over the course from the clubhouse. I thought to myself that this course is truly Las Vegas. It had a sort of unique twist to it that truly made it a "Las Vegas Concept" course. All of the holes on it were representations of the courses in the British Open rotation such as "The Road Hole" at St. Andrews and "The Postage Stamp". To me, it was kind of a gimmicky golf course. I enjoyed playing the Royal Links and especially enjoyed "The Postage Stamp". The course was pretty damp given the fact that the turf was a hybrid rye and in order to keep rye grass alive in a hot climate, you have to put a lot of water on it. There were a lot of damp spots and puddles. I do have a good memory of the place in that I shot one of the best rounds of my life there.
Memories, tucked between the pages of my mind. You didn't think I could get away with not coming up with some throwback to an Elvis Presley song when this blog is entitled Viva Los vegas which is a Pressly song, did you? Well, there it is. This post is running a bit too long so I will split it up into two posts. In the next post I will share more of the Las Vegas courses I have played. In the meantime, Viva Las Vegas. That is, if you like Las Vegas.
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