GolfNewsRI

I had the opportunity to play TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas, NV during the week of February 12. Summerlin is consistently ranked in the top 3 private courses in Nevada. The course was designed by Bobby Weed, a name unfamiliar to me but I absolutely love this course layout.

We stayed on the Vegas strip and took the eight mile ride to TPC Summerlin by cab. We thought about taking an Uber, but it’s not as easy as taking a cab from the hotel.

Inexplicably, the cab ride was $20 cheaper than when we took one three days earlier to very nearby TPC Las Vegas.  

TPC Summerlin is private and you need a security code to get past the iron gate. We received it verbally by the club staff.

The absolute highlight of the cab ride was that the driver slightly delayed entering the gate after I put in the code and the gates missed closing on our (his) car by a millisecond. 

It felt like something out of a Get Smart sitcom scene.  

We purposely arrived plenty of time before our tee time and checked in at the pro shop.  

Compared to TPC Las Vegas, we found the staff less than friendly.

After buying a few things in the shop, we went to eat. Being on East Coast time, we were between breakfast and lunch and decided on breakfast. We found the wait staff fairly inattentive and we had to ask three times to be served.

The breakfast was good and we headed to the range.  We used Ship Sticks to have our clubs delivered to TPC Vegas and the staff at TPC Vegas brought them over to TPC Summerlin after our round on Thursday. 

But unlike TPC Las Vegas, our clubs were nowhere to be found and we had to ask for the clubs to be brought to a cart.

The range at Summerlin is very nice. However, only about 20% of the range was available for use this day and players looking to warm up had to wait for a space on the range.  

The range balls were new Titleist, and we had access to beautiful grass, but no one seemed to be available to fill the empty ball racks.

After our brief warm up, we headed to the first tee.  We were greeted by the starter, Chip.  Chip is obviously in the right profession. Extremely personable, warm and welcoming, he told a few brief stories, some about his interaction with PGA Tour professionals at the annual Shriners Children’s Open.  

Spoiler alert: Chip says Byson DeChambeau is one of the nicest, most down to earth professional athletes that you will ever meet. His reputation is completely misleading, Chip says. 

More important, he says that every putt tends to break toward the Strip and away from the mountains.  This information does shave a few strokes off my score.

As I stand on the first tee, I look around and enjoy the beautiful mountain views and green grass. It is sunny, high 50’s and zero wind.  I tee it up and hit terrific tee shot ~ I don’t have the physical capability to hit one better.  A long, hard draw right down the middle.

I get to my tee shot and have almost the same approach shot I had on Tuesday at TPC Vegas, which I shanked into the desert.  Today is a different day, and I hit a beautiful draw into the green and barely missed an eagle and have an 18 inch putt for birdie.

On the second hole, I hit another great tee shot and approach and barely miss a 10 foot birdie putt.

Number three was the golf highlight of my trip to Vegas.  Three is a 473 yard par 5. 

I hit another great tee shot (for me) and had a lay-up opportunity left or right.

There was a (slow) five-some in front our us and no one behind us so I measured from every angle and decided going for the green in two over the ravine was my best option.  I was anxious but hit a career shot a foot off the green. I was ecstatic. I left an eagle putt six inches from the cup, and for the first time in my golfing career, was two under after three holes.

I wouldn’t say I fell apart, but I certainly did not maintain that pace.  Number six is a nice 407 yard par 4. I hit my tee shot into the desert on the right, hit a great chip back into play and then had four chip shots to a very elevated green ~ three of  which came back to my feet and I carded an 8.

I shot a 42 on the front and faded to a 44 on the back.

Two overall thoughts about the course:  

The layout is pure genius. One of the best, most interesting layouts I have ever played.  

Secondly, the houses on the course are both beautiful and unique.  I have played plenty of private courses with beautiful homes but this is the first course where I have noticed most of them are unique, many large beautiful homes but so many different styles – contemporary, traditional, so many different and beautiful homes.

The five-some in front of us became an issue. With no one behind us and with all the time, and then some, to plan our shots, and the weather sunny and beautiful, we are not bothered.  

They tell us on six that they joined up because it was slow in front of them; we were unfazed.  

When it was apparent that no one is ahead of them, and they are over every putt like they are putting for the win at the Shiners Children’s Open, it becomes annoying. The weather was beautiful until the last three holes and we were annoyed and cold at that point.

I hit a beautiful tee shot on 18, a great approach shot and missed a ten foot birdie in front of no one but my group.

We had time and went into the dining room for a quick dinner before seeing Cirque Du Soleil Michael Jackson One.

Again, the servers were in attentive and we had to flag them down twice, but the food was fine.

My general take away from TPC Summerlin was that we observed a fantastic layout and a reserved, some might say, rude, membership.