Desert Pines is a poor man's Shadow Creek, parkland style golf in the desert, they like to compare it to playing in the Carolinas. The course is what I'd call resort style, not all that long from the tips at 6,800 yards, with a 70.4/122 ratings, so not extremely difficult or penal. It's a Perry Dye design, and is reasonably wide open off the tee, but has a lot of sand and water, and narrow approaches to the greens complexes. Nicely conditioned course. Greens were very fast and true the day that I played. The layout was fun and challenging, the greens fees were reasonable for golf in Las Vegas, it was a lot cheaper than Bali Hai which we played a couple of days later. The course is just east of downtown Las Vegas, about 20 minutes from the Strip at exit 73 off the I-515. Good levels of service, nice practice range, a pleasant surprise since I hadn't heard of the course previously.
Posted by: graeme64
Oct 13th, 2011
This course really is a great course and a good value for Las Vegas, a nice surprise. It is very tight with the front none tight and the back nine terribly tight. Most holes I would keep my driver in the bag using a fairway wood or a long iron off the tee box. This course is very much about course management. Lots of uneven lie with plenty of hidden greens and false fairways, good conditions, the greens were in good shape and running about average speed.
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Posted by: chris22
Jul 11th, 2010
I will always have a fond place in my heart for Desert Pines because it is the course where I had my lowest score of any of the Vegas courses I’ve played. Having said that, if I had to describe the course in one word it would be “tight.” The design of the course is actually somewhat ingenious in that they were able to cram 18 holes of golf into a city block or two. Because of that the holes basically are laid back n forth with the smallest fairways and landing areas of any course I’ve played. Many of the fairways were less than 25 yards wide. It is not unusual, in fact it’s fairly common, to see players from other groups wander into your fairway to hit an errant shot. I don’t know if the course quite achieves the stated goal of a Carolina course in the heart of Vegas, but it is a worthy effort. However, like most Walter courses, the pace of play was pretty slow and the course conditions were fair at best. It does have one of the coolest driving ranges ever, with devices that re-teed your ball after each shot.
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Posted by: bobbyj
May 24th, 2010
Have been to Vegas for 30 years and never have even heard of this golf course. Not a high profile course by any stretch, and the rates were under $100 for this time of year, that's a real value in Vegas. The round was played in 4 hours, conditions were excellent, especially the greens. The course is parkland style with pine tree lined fairwyays, they call it a poor man's Shadow Creek, but having never played Shadow Creek I can't attest to that. It's forgiving off the tee for the most part, all of the holes are interesting and challenging, a few short par 5s where you can get home in two. The fairways are mounded along the sides which for the most part bounced the errant shots back into the fairway. Off the fairway, it's a gravel and scrub mixture, but most of the time you can find your ball and save par.
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