Our Experience
Today's
adventure takes us to Mesquite, located on the southeastern border of Nevada,
alongside northern Arizona and southern Utah. We are just shy (about an
hour) of yesterday's stop at Sand Hollow in Utah but still about 80 minutes
from Sin City. Set into the canyons and valleys, Wolf Creek is truly an
oasis in the desert: the grass is velvet rolling along the plateaus. Going into this round, I’m anticipating some
flashbacks to our round at Tobacco Road, as it would appear there are
similarities. This course is the only
course designed by architect Dennis C. Rider, who allegedly is not known from
golf course architecture, but instead, landscape architecture. The course is
still fairly new--opening in 2000. We look forward to traveling all 7018
yards of it—by cart, of course. Never
mind the 154 slope from the tips.
Driving
in, you climb a road to enter Wolf Creek.
It’s a quiet, still day out here; beaming blue skies and 109º of dry
heat surrounds us. We pull past the
irons only driving range before settling under the canopy of a tree to unload,
and Brian, the starter emerges to welcome us, already knowing who we are. This means either we are the only people
playing, or he’s a good guess among those with tee times. No sooner, he returns with a cart for us, and
we are loaded to go. It is evident from
this point forward Wolf Creek is the consummate host. The cart is loaded with bottles of water, a
cooler fresh with ice, and towels. They
even have buckets of cool water for you to wet your towel should you
desire. The clubhouse features a grill
and adequate pro shop.
The
views from the elevated tees are nothing short of spectacular. These awe-inspiring
views and layout led EA Sports to highlight Wolf Creek as one of the courses
on Tiger Woods '09 (1). Perhaps I should have
spent more time on the PlayStation and less on the driving range in preparation
for today's round. The admiration doesn't end there, Wolf Creek ranked
number 3 on Golfweek's Best: State-by-State Courses You Can Play, 2014;
the same spot it has held since at least 2007 (2).
Golfweek has also favored Wolf Creek on its Best Resort and
Modern course lists (4, 5). Golf Digest ranks Wolf Creek at number
2, in state, ahead of Cascata (6),
while Golf Magazine places it behind Cascata at a humble two-spot (7).
Golfweek’s Martin Kaufman wrote,
“What Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes Resort do
for seaside golf, Wolf Creek does for desert golf. It shows the art form at its
finest, all the while leaving you with one stunning vista after another. There
are surreal moments, such as when you’re standing more than 11 stories above
the valley floor on the second tee, looking out over the enormous sand mounds,
that you might feel like a character in one of painter Loyal H. Chapman’s
“Infamous Golf Holes” series. But logically and aesthetically, it all works”(3).
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| Ready at the first tee. Palm trees at the top of the canyon at top left are the tips for 2. |
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| Second set of steps to second tips. Taken from the blue tees. |
From the first tee, Brian motions to the tips for the second hole, previously mentioned as being eleven stories above the valley of the first fairway. Recognizing this is a rare opportunity, Shawn and I trek up the eleven stories to, if nothing else, take in the view once we reach the second tee. Shawn launched over the canyon in this absolutely blind shot to somehow land in the fairway. Luckily, my tee box was placed on the other side of the canyon. The third hole was a bit of déjà vu for Shawn’s tee shot, as he had another shot over the canyon to start. The fairway of three was so dissimilar from its desert surroundings, as it rolled uphill, blanketed in green. At this moment we recognized the trend that would carry throughout this course: a rollercoaster of fairways and cart paths winding through, above and below the canyons. Each hole was better than the last, even though I was spending more time in the sand than I prefer. Perhaps I should have packed my beach toys.
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| Shawn teeing off the blues, over the canyon, and to the fairway. Taken from the tips. |
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| Where the cool kids (myself) hang out. |
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| Hitting up to the third green. |
Panoramic views await us on the fifth tee. We felt as though we were at the top of the world, as you look out at the desert floor and surrounding mountains. With that said, this was the hardest hole at this point in our round even though it’s the 3 handicap. Course management and target play are key on this hole where you must clear a stream before working your way back up to an elevated and tiered green. The course staff was superb, stopping the sprinklers before we reached each tee and stopping their work until we played through.
The interest and awe continue up to the turn. We top off our ice, and head to the back
nine. Sure, golf is half mental, half
skill, but ten is just cruel. The view
from the tee presents water all along the left side of the fairway that slopes
from right to left, dotted with boulders. There’s a narrow opening at the end
of this horror, cut by a stream. This is
your fairway. The challenge
continues.
 |
| Wow. Just wow. |
While each hole presented a photo opportunity, enough so that
I should have enough desktop backgrounds for everyday of the next year (see my favorites here), fourteen
is unique in that it curls around the canyon, forcing you to the right. The back nine is certainly a little more wild
than the more easy going front nine. The
course is a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde, but remarkable nonetheless. The last two holes aren’t nearly as much of a
visual wonderland as the rest of the course, but we have traversed throughout
the canyons in the last four hours. They're still gorgeous compared to most courses.
After the Round
Approach on 12.
Rounding out at the clubhouse, they are quick to clean our
clubs and offer us drink coupons. We
stop to rest our legs, tired from all the hiking (read as: you can’t
necessarily drive to your shots all that easily), and grab some lunch. We wouldn’t typically eat at the clubhouse,
but this is one I would recommend. The
food and service were spectacular.
A buy one get one-half off sale in the pro shop led us to
peruse the swag. Shawn and I each picked
up a new top, and the gentleman working the pro shop was generous enough to
take half off the more expensive shirt, and throw in one of those souvenir
poker chips—in Buckeye red.
From start to finish, Wolf Creek was an amazing experience,
and one we would surely repeat the next time we’re in Las Vegas. It’s playable, reasonably priced, and a great
way to “hike” the desert.
Scorecard
Links
1 Official Wolf Creek
Golf Club Tee Times and Information. (2014, June). Retrieved from
http://www.mesquitegolfnow.com/mesquite-golf-courses/wolf-creek-golf-club/official-wolf-creek-golf-club-tee-times-and-information.html
2 Golfweek Staff. Golfweek's
Best: State-by-State Courses You Can Play (2014, March 19). Golfweek. Retrieved
from: http://golfweek.com/news/2014/mar/19/golf-courses-golfweeks-best-state-by-state-2014/
3 Kaufmann, M. (2011, June 1).
Golf Landscape Puts Remote Mesquite on the
Map. Golfweek. Retrieved from: http://golfweek.com/news/2011/jun/01/golf-landscape-puts-remote-mesquite-map/?print
4 Golfweek’s Best: Resort
Courses, 2014. (2014,
January 27). Golfweek. Retrieved from http://golfweek.com/news/2013/nov/01/golfweeks-best-resort-courses-2014/?print
5 Golfweek’s Best: Next
100 Modern Courses. (2011, March 10). Golfweek. Retrieved from http://golfweek.com/news/2011/mar/10/golfweeks-best-next-100-modern-courses/
6 Nevada: Best In State
Rankings. (2014). Golf Digest. Retrieved from http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-courses/nevada
7 Best Public Golf
Courses in Nevada. (2012, July 22). Golf Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.golf.com/courses-and-travel/best-public-golf-courses-nevada-2012
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