Mesquite NV Golf Weekend
Mesquite, NV (90 minutes NE of Vegas)
Wolf Creek GC
Golf.com/Sports Illustrated, 12/11
St. Louis Dispatch, 4/09
It's always been a pit stop, but now Mesquite gives you plenty of reasons (and courses) to stay
By: Gary Van Sickle,Senior Writer, Sports Illustrated
Published: Wednesday, December 21, 2011
MESQUITE, Nev. -- This town has always been a pit stop.
Pioneers stopped here because the Virgin River meandered past, and water was life in the late 1800s, when settlers first tried to live off this land.
Mesquite, 90 miles slightly northeast of Las Vegas, is a different kind of pit stop now. A river still runs through it. So does I-15.
A quiet little village of 1,871 residents as recently as 1990, Mesquite now has more than 15,000 and is gaining popularity as a retirement area.
It has multiple stoplights. It has two exits on I-15. It has several major casinos, assorted hotels, a cartel of nine area golf courses, booming housing subdivisions under construction and even its own giant Wal-Mart. It’s home to the annual ReMax World Long Drive Championship, which is contested on a grid built into the side of the picturesque, salmon-colored mesa wall that highlights this stark but beautiful valley.
Golf and gaming and entertainment and quality of life are what Mesquite is all about. Since Las Vegas went upscale, Mesquite has taken over as a destination where everything is affordable, from the gambling (penny slots are alive and well) to the hotels (no glorified theme parks here) to the golf (especially when compared to the pricier Vegas greens fees).
Here’s the part you’ll care about -- the golf courses are spectacular. There is no other word for them. I haven’t toured the whole nine-course circuit that makes up the marketing group known as Golf Mesquite, but I played four tracks in four days. They’re worth the trip and frequently camera-worthy.
My first stop was the Coyote Springs Golf Club, about 45 minutes from Mesquite. I wrote about this Jack Nicklaus design for Golf.com when it first opened two years ago, and I’ve been waiting for a return trip.
This is one of my favorite spots in golf. It’s not just the course, which has a bit of a Rube Goldberg feel because of the many slopes that allow you to play bank shots (can you say ground-hook?) and funhouse greens. Whether you think the greens are riotous fun or semi-unplayable may depend upon where you putt from, but hey, nobody stays away from Augusta National and Oakmont because the greens have too much slope. These putting surfaces are wisely kept at speeds well below those iconic courses. They’re very playable; they’re just not easy.
The reason I’m partial to Coyote Springs is the setting. I haven’t seen another course this remote or this quiet. There are mountain views in every direction, and the sprawling valley is barren, stunning and majestic. Best of all, the golfer selfishly said, the housing development that was supposed to help create a city of up to a quarter-million residents crashed with the recession. They built this course first, as a selling point for the homes. There’s a water treatment plant and a recreation center and a golf shop. That’s about it. Big Sky plus Big Empty equals Big Awesome. This spot always reminds me of that old America tune: “I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name…”
It is so silent on the course that when the occasional patrolling hawk screeches or a breeze rustles or a prairie dog skitters across the pea gravel, the noise is startling. You’ll feel like you’re playing your own private course.
The course has a waterfall. Normally, desert-course waterfalls are one of my pet peeves. Why not just put in an igloo while you’re at it? I’m making an exception for this one because it’s so well done, more of a long spillway. The water has a turquoise shade normally reserved for South Pacific islands. Plus, you get to drive your cart over it. I’m hereby shortening my official pet peeves list.
I’ll take the fourth hole as my favorite, a lengthy par 4 that bends right. You tee off across a pond -- not a problem if you can get the ball airborne at all. There’s desert wash along the right side, and from the tee you’re staring at a gaping set of bunkers on the right corner, which is the aiming point. The more you bail left, the harder this hole gets. You’ve got to suck it up and hit a shot. On my first trip two years ago, I pushed a tee shot right and caught a narrow strip of rough between the bunkers and the desert -- sort of a Hogan’s Alley thing. (I couldn’t repeat that shot with a hundred tries, so I don’t recommend it.) It’s just a daunting, good-looking hole, pretty much like the other 17.
Don’t skip this course because it’s out of the way. That’s actually the best part about it.
The next stop, and the first round of a media tournament I was playing in, was Falcon Ridge. It’s built into some natural red cliffs, has great views and is right near the popular Wal-Mart. One hole I can’t wait to play again was the first hole I faced in the shotgun start -- the par-5 16th, 549 yards. The temperature was in the low 40s, and the wind was blowing in the low 30s. It stung.
Anyway, the 16th is a scary hole in that wind. For one thing, you can’t see where you’re going. Cliffs drop off to the left, and cliffs tower above the fairway on the right, which makes a sort of safety net, like a handball wall. The fairway drops off from the tee, then rises to a crest where a black-and-white striped stake indicates where you should aim your drive. Into the wind, our scramble foursome (their names have been withheld due to litigation regarding our lousy performance… but I’m not bitter) barely managed a drive to the stake. From there, it’s a blind shot over the crest and downhill to the green.
With the wind howling into our faces and the ground firm, it was a tough shot. Several of us hit what we thought were pretty good layups. It turns out that down near the green, anything on the right edge of the fairway bounces hard right--toward the cart path and, just past that, down a 60-foot slope to some homes. Oops. That falls under the category of Information We Could’ve Used Sooner.
The downhill slope on the second half of the hole makes it an easily reachable par 5, but with a strong element of risk. I think it may actually be a pretty terrific hole now that I know where it goes. But that wasn’t what I was thinking while we butchered it as a group. No, I was thinking, “Hand warmers!”
The next hole was another attention getter. Luckily, the tournament rules indicated that my handicap (0) meant I had to play from the black tees (the tips). So I was the only player in my foursome who got to enjoy the wonderfully elevated tee on the 232-yard, par-3 17th, straight into a freezing gale. A long, drawn-out Y-shaped bunker guarded the front of the green. It was so cold and windy that I choked up an inch and hit driver off the tee. Now that’s a manly par 3. I got it pin-high left, not bad, but the man we called Dave (not his real name--or is it?) got one on the right fringe from the closer tee and we played that.
The 18th was a hole I’d seen from the road driving to the course. It looked scary then, and it was scarier on the tee. The fairway was separated into three stairstep tiers -- left, right and center -- as the hole climbs a steep hill toward the clubhouse atop the cliffs. This, too, was into the wind and played laughably, ridiculously long. There is a pond right of the green, too. Our play on this hole resembled something from Bataan until the man we called Ed holed an absurd downhill, big-swinging putt from off the green that hit the pin like a speeding locomotive and dropped in for a sweet net birdie.
Three holes played, three holes I’m not likely to forget. That’s all you need to know about Falcon Ridge. It is a collection of memorable holes up, down and around the red cliffs. I can’t wait for a rematch.
Round two of the media tournament moved to St. George, Utah. It was a 40-minute ride to the next course, Coral Canyon, and the road from Mesquite to St. George ranks with America’s most scenic drives, wandering through a massive gorge that had me humming the Indiana Jones theme while my Sports Illustrated colleague John Garrity gawked in amazement as he drove the car. He was amazed by the scenery -- not my crappy humming. How cool is this drive? Others have shot videos of their ride through the area and posted them on YouTube.
Coral Canyon is a relatively flat course nestled among the red rocks north of St. George, a popular retirement area that has a population of around 150,000. To reach the Coral Canyon entrance, Garrity maneuvered the car past some sort of office-warehouse layout whose side streets, he noticed, featured unique names--Bowling Alley, Alley McBeal and Alley McGraw. There was no Kirstie Alley, Garrity noted.
Coral Canyon was one good hole after another. The underrated Keith Foster designed it. There aren’t many courses you play where you don’t stand on at least one tee and wonder, “What the hell?” Coral Canyon is one of them.
It’s a scenic spot. The mountains to the north were snow-capped and photogenic when seen across a sprawling valley filled with homes. The only flaw in the picture was the busy expressway in the distance, where double-trailer trucks often passed each other, which was entertaining in its own way. Coral Canyon was the course Garrity and I voted as the one we’d most like to play every day for the rest of our lives. We reached that conclusion even before we played our final hole in the shotgun outing, the par-3 sixth. It must be Coral Canyon’s signature hole, a shortish 122 yards from the blue tees to a small green encircled by a rugged collection of red rock formations. With the sun low in the sky, it was a postcard waiting for a stamp. Wow is the appropriate word.
The Conestoga Golf Club, located back in Mesquite in the hills near the long drive grid, may be the most spectacular layout of the four. After four holes, the foursome in front of my group was three holes behind the group ahead of them. After they left the first green, my group hit four approach shots, two chip shots and putted out. When we got to the next tee, two women in the group ahead still hadn’t teed off. It had to be camera-related. Most of Conestoga’s front nine begs to be photographed.
This course is a trip. The front nine winds up and down and around rock formations and arroyos, almost a lunar-like landscape. It’s like playing golf on the moon, but with full gravity.
The second hole is, indeed, something to behold. It’s 162 yards from the gold tee and pretty much straight down, a 100-foot drop to a postage-stamp green. I won a closest-to-the-pin contest there with a well-struck pitching wedge, but it’s all about picking the right club, which is a total guess the first time you play it.
Conestoga’s front nine is a series of eye-poppers. The sixth hole is a winding par 5 that requires carrying a ravine-like wash twice, with a right side bordered by huge foothills. The fourth is a medium-length par 4, but the tee shot is blind. If you’ve played it before, you’ll know you can smash a driver and carry 237 yards over a wash to leave yourself a pitch to the green. If you haven’t, you’re likely to timidly lay up with a 200-yard shot to the end of the fairway, which is atop a 50-foot plateau and leaves you with a 170-yard approach to a green guarded by a deep bunker left and a rock wall in back. This hole should come with a tour guide.
The seventh is another fun hole, a drivable par 4 (286 from the gold) that’s blind. All you can see are a couple of deep bunkers in the distance. They’re well short of the green but provide visual intimidation. I invoked the I-didn’t-come-2,000-miles-to-lay-up rule and hit driver, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover I was on the green and putting for eagle.
Like Falcon Ridge, Conestoga has spectacular holes. A second round, once you know where you’re going, would help your comfort factor and your enjoyment level.
The back nine is pretty good, too, but plays through some sections of housing and past some areas where they’re putting in foundations for more homes. The views aren’t as stunning on the second nine--how could they be?--but the holes are fun and, from the back tees, more challenge than you probably need.
Four days here equaled four days of spectacular golf. I wasn’t expecting anything this good. It was a nice surprise and an eye-opener. Mesquite is a totally legit golf destination, one of the better ones, in fact, and I haven’t even finished the whole circuit yet. Sand Hollow in St. George looks terrific, and Wolf Creek in Mesquite is rumored to be as good as any course here.
Damn. Guess I’m going to have to come back next year for another pit stop.
*See also: Red Rock Golf Trail centered around St. George UT
Otherworldly rounds in Mesquite
By Ron Cobb
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Places to Play and Stay in Mesquite
Mesquite's peak season is Feb. 15 to May 31, and fall is also popular. The weather is still good in November, when hotel rates begin to drop. Avoid mid-September, when courses close for a week or so to overseed.
Getting there. Southwest, United, and US Airways fly nonstop to Las Vegas from Philadelphia. The lowest recent round-trip fare was about $290. It's a 1 1/2 hour drive to Mesquite.
Weather. Hot but dry in summer, mild to chilly in winter. Beautiful in spring and fall. Check www.mesquiteweather.com.
Packages. Golf Mesquite (1-866-720-7111, www.golfmesquitenevada.com) is the primary source for packages, with groups getting discounts on lodging and greens fees. Other options include contacting the courses or hotels directly, including Wolf Creek Resort (1-866-252-4653, www.golfwolfcreek.com), Oasis Golf Club (1-888-367-3386, www.theoasisgolfclub.com), and the Eureka Hotel (1-800-346-4611, www.eurekamesquite.com). For Black Gaming properties, call 1-877-438-2929.
Places to stay. Budget-minded visitors generally choose the Oasis or Virgin River casino hotels. The Eureka is midrange. The CasaBlanca, which, like the Oasis, offers a spa, is top of the line among the casino resorts. Not to be missed is CasaBlanca's tropical island-style lagoon pool, with palm trees and waterfall.
For visitors who don't care for gambling, the Falcon Ridge Hotel and the Highland Estates Hotel are both attractive high-end options. The Falcon Ridge is family oriented and pet-friendly, with an outdoor heated pool, free high-speed Internet, and workout room.
At the budget end, with no gambling, is the Best Western Mesquite Inn.
Best Bar: It's true that Mesquite is not teeming with nightlife outside the casinos, which feature live music, with CasaBlanca offering the widest variety of entertainment. Just opened this fall, Lee's Tavern on Pioneer Boulevard has a sports-bar ambience, with sports-bar fare during the day and a steak and seafood menu at night.
Places to eat. Mesquite's best restaurants are in the casinos (Katherine's at CasaBlanca, Charmaine's at Oasis, Gregory's at the Eureka), with one exception. The golf courses also have reputable restaurants.
Mesquite primer
A first-time visit to Mesquite can be confusing, so here is some help in getting facts straight.
Oasis Golf Club and the Oasis Hotel & Casino are separate entities, situated on different sides of Interstate 15.
CasaBlanca Casino Resort & Spa and the CasaBlanca Golf Club are both owned by Black Gaming. The golf course is a few blocks south of the resort.
Falcon Ridge Golf Club and Falcon Ridge Hotel both sit on Falcon Ridge and are across the street from each other, but they are separate entities.
Palms Golf Club is considered a Mesquite course, but it actually is in Arizona, abutting the Nevada-Arizona line.
More information
1-877-637-7848
www.visitmesquite.com.
[Fat Guy Note: A 4-day, 3 round weekend in Mesquite starts at a baseline of roughly ~$1000, without rental car, food, beverages, or gambling. Not bad for a full-on golf weekend including a flight, but partiers will want to buck up for Vegas instead. Translation: Mesquite caters more to the 35-and-over crowd.]
Mesquite NV Golf Weekend Review:
MESQUITE, Nev. - Jim Longlas, who repairs MRI machines in Los Angeles, was having a cold beverage at Wolf Creek Golf Club and extolling the virtues of Mesquite as a golf destination.
"Las Vegas got to be too big and too expensive and too crazy," he said. "Here, you look out at night and it's quiet and the stars are out, and you don't hear any traffic."
In two sentences, Longlas came close to summing up what makes Mesquite appealing for a growing number of visitors. Situated 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas, the town of about 1,800 offers Vegas-style amenities - quality golf, a desert climate, mountain scenery, and gambling - but at a lower price and a more relaxed, congestion-free pace.
Mesquite has six golf courses and seven hotels - four are casino hotels - and two spas. It is growing, but far from overgrown. On the north side of Interstate 15, which cuts through the heart of Mesquite, bulldozers crawl around the vast stretches of desert just beyond the edge of town. More condos and retirement housing are on the way. Another golf course is coming in. The Eureka Hotel & Casino is expanding.
Also expanding is Mesquite's profile among getaway-minded golfers. Since 1997, it has hosted the ReMax World Long Drive Championship. It has also been the site of the Golf Channel's reality show, Big Break.
Word of mouth has spread not only about Mesquite in general but also about its crown jewel - Wolf Creek. The eight-year-old course, rated No. 25 on Golf Digest's list of America's best public golf courses, winds through an otherworldly series of pale dunes, creating something akin to a lunar landscape.
At $195 in peak season, Wolf Creek is Mesquite's priciest but most tempting treat. With numerous elevated tees, including one said to be 11 stories high, plus forced carries and tight landing areas, the course demands a lot but delivers a memorable experience.
"I tell golf groups you've got to play Wolf Creek," says Rick Morris, a Eureka Hotel group golf salesman.
Fees at Mesquite's five other courses range from $92 to $132 - not out of line for a resort golf destination in the desert Southwest. Those peak-season rates drop in winter and summer.
"A lot of people who come here are used to going to Scottsdale [Ariz.] or Vegas, where the average round is $220, and it's $100 cheaper here," says Cody Law, administrator of Golf Mesquite Nevada, a co-op that represents most of Mesquite's resort hotels, all the golf courses except Wolf Creek, and two golf courses in St. George, Utah, 35 miles to the northeast.
Mesquite was founded in the late 1800s by Mormons answering the call to colonize the Virgin River Valley. Only 26 years ago, the town was barely a blip on the radar screen when William "Si" Redd set in motion the events that would eventually make Mesquite a golf destination.
Redd, who died in 2003, had made a fortune as the creator of the video poker machine and as founder of International Gaming Technology. He and a partner bought a truck-stop casino in Mesquite, and the casino became Si Redd's Oasis Hotel, evolving into a resort and spa. In the 1980s, Redd built Mesquite's first golf course, the Palms.
Redd sold the Oasis in 2001 to Randy Black, chief executive officer of Black Gaming, which now holds the biggest presence in Mesquite as owner of not only the Oasis but also the Virgin River Hotel & Casino and the CasaBlanca Hotel Resort & Casino, along with the Palms Golf Club and CasaBlanca Golf Club.
The CasaBlanca, Mesquite's high-end resort casino and spa, is where the Big Break contestants stayed in 2007. They competed at the Palms and at the Oasis Golf Club's Palmer Course.
Oasis- Palmer
Although some golfers dislike Wolf Creek Golf Club because it demands precise shots, critics seem to be in the minority. "You either like it or you don't. There's no in-between," says the Eureka Hotel's Morris.
"It's fantastic," says Longlas, the MRI repairman from Los Angeles. "Golf magazines say it's like playing golf on Mars. That pretty much says it. From some of the elevated tee boxes, it looks like you have to hit it all the way to Vegas. I love it for the sheer craziness of it."
One of the tee boxes at Wolf Creek is so elevated and so inaccessible to machinery that it has its own mower, tucked away in a tiny shed.
Wolf Creek was designed around and through the existing dunes, making it hard for trucks to maneuver. Sand for the bunkers had to be dropped in by helicopter.
When Richard Forsyth and Paul Davidson, both from Newcastle, England, visited Mesquite for a few days of golf during a Western vacation, Forsyth called Wolf Creek "one of the best courses I've played."
They enjoyed Mesquite's golf and scenery, but lamented its limited options at night. "If you're not into casinos, for guys in their 20s and 30s, there's nowhere to go out, really," Forsyth said.
It's true that Mesquite is not teeming with nightlife outside the casinos, which feature live music, with CasaBlanca offering the widest variety of entertainment. The town is still so small, it takes only five minutes to anywhere. Mesquite does have a Wal-Mart, but for serious shopping, visitors drive to St. George or Las Vegas.
"We don't cater much to guys who want to go to strip clubs," says Scott Sullivan, general manager at Oasis Golf Club. "Guys here want to play as much golf as they can, go to the buffet, put a few coins in the slot machine, and get ready to do it all again the next day."