Golfgal Golf news and commentary from a business woman’s perspective.
When I was planning our golf trip to Las Vegas this past spring I asked around about which golf courses would be best for us given our handicaps and preference for wide open spaces. There are soooo many great courses in the City of Sin, and picking just the right ones was kind of tough. But I have to say, we got pretty lucky with Angel Park and its two 18-hole Arnold Palmer courses.
I will post a review of the Mountain Course at Angel Park shortly, so stay tuned for that. Today, let’s take a look a the Palm Course from the clubhouse:
Yes, Angel Park is a lovely golf course visually, but what’s it like in terms of service? Pretty good actually. They don’t have GPS on the carts, but other than that, the staff is very friendly in the pro shop, restaurant and on the course. They provide bottled water and ice in the coolers (which seems normal, but believe me, I’ve paid $200 to play courses that didn’t provide either).
There are no houses on the course, which I really like. It’s quiet and peaceful, except when I 3-putt and then things can get a little noisy.
Angel Park Palm is a course I would highly recommend to new women golfers because it is not too long – only 4570 yards from the forward tees, and there are only 2 par 5’s. Sounds easy right? Oh I wish…I found trouble all over the course, but in theory I should have hit a lot more greens in regulation like my golfguy who shot 38 on the front 9 with 6 GIRs. I ended better, but started off slowly, not parring anything until the 4th hole…which is a short par 4, with wasteland off the resort tees to cross (ladies we get a break on this hole teeing off after the trouble)
I felt pretty darn good hitting my tee shot and hitting the green in 1. My golfguy ended up in a bunker, behind a tree with another bunker on the other side of the tree before the green. Yuck!
I thought he had an impossible shot, but he had other ideas, going up over the tree and over the second bunker landing just a few feet from the pin. He birdied the hole and I 3-putted for a par. Arg!!! Doesn’t that just drive you nuts!
The number one handicap hole is #6 – a short par 5, but with a lot of danger zones to trip you up. I usually struggle making a GIR on par 5’s, but I actually overshot the green on my 3rd shot. It was a course management error on my part – too much club. I had that trouble a lot in Vegas. High elevations and heat caused my ball to travel a lot farther than normal. I bet I added 30 yards to my tee shots and at least 15-20 on my woods and hybrids. It felt great to hit balls so far, but it really screwed up my club selection.
The 10th hole was the #2 handicap hole and my nemesis…
But then I arrived the 11th and shocked myself and my golfguy by hitting a drive 236 yards!!!
A 409 yard par 5 for me and I was on the green in 2. Eagle time!!! Well, not quite, but I did walk away with a birdie and felt on top of the world. I’ve never hit a drive longer than 200 yards and I haven’t hit one since, but it sure felt great to know that there is a real golfer in here trying to get out!
Oh I forgot to mention the bunnies – hundreds if not thousands of very tame rabbits line the fairways, tee boxes and greens. I guess there aren’t a lot of bald eagles out here…
The 17th hole was a very nice par 3 because, although there was ton of crap to cross, it was only 101 yards for me and 164 for Charles (I love it when the forwards tees are 63 yards ahead of the whites :)). He didn’t like that hole very much.
The 18th was a pleasant ending to the round – nice straight down the middle par 4. I really like it when they don’t punish you at the end. It makes you forget the 17th đŸ™‚
The view of the clubhouse coming home is always nice as well. As Golfgirl has been known to say, there is nothing better than a glass of wine after a round of golf. They just go together.
But I didn’t stop there. At night we hit the best bar in town – the VooDoo Lounge at the top of the Rio where we were staying. Take a look at this view from their huge outside balcony – breathtaking!
During this vacation we also played the fun, but deadly, Revere Course, the wide open links called Boulder Creek and the ever windy, but fun Legacy. I will try to get those reviews up soon.
Golfgal
