Buy, buy birdie: Value at several price levels

Vegas golf pricing has undergone a sticker-shock-inducing shift of San Andrean proportions. Thankfully, not all that glitters is gilded, and great plays can be had for five Bens or even just one.

With its service, conditioning and layout, as well as a parkland setting that steps so far past the boundary of incongruity that it looks, smells and feels perfectly native, Shadow Creek simply excels. Purists might scoff, but every player needs to make a life’s journey to Shadow Creek as surely as to Scotland’s St. Andrews.

vwww.shadowcreekgolf.com, (866) 260-0069; $500 plus caddie tip and the cost of a required stay at one of the MGM Mirage properties.

With three courses by Pete Dye and a to-the-horizon setting worthy of a John Ford western, Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort just might be the best, most complete golf spot in southern Nevada. Snow Mountain, the resort’s first course, is an exercise in sleight-of-hand routing, risk-reward doglegging and the occasional nod to old-school design, as in the cape hole 10th.

There are two types of holes at TPC Canyons: attractive and attractive-scary. The shared attribute comes courtesy of the course’s all-of-Vegas views. The second condition is a function of the word “canyon” in the course’s name. And by canyon, grand, albeit with a lowercase “g,” comes to mind. On the outward nine, the canyon is a broad arroyo through which holes are snaked. Coming home, it’s a chasm to be avoided at all cost.

If you’ve never played a Nicklaus course, Reflection Bay Golf Club is as good an introduction as exists on the public side of life. The course is approachable and potentially explosive, and coughs up no illogical well-we-gotta-link-the-12th-green-and-14th-tee holes. No track in the desert consigned to coexisting with housing does a better job of not messing up the course for the houses. Besides, it is just flat-out nice out in Lake Las Vegas.

There have been times during the summer when Primm Valley Golf Club could be had for one-tenth the price of Shadow Creek ... hmmm, 10 rounds of Fazio golf versus one? OK, Primm isn’t Shadow, but even at high-season rack rates, it is a best-of-Vegas selection, despite the fact that it’s actually in the Golden State. The Lakes Course gets most of the attention; save the trees, lakes and flowers for the Carolinas and play the enthralling Desert Course.

Boulder Creek Golf Club is a sleeper, offering upper-level desert-style play at decidedly lower-level rates. It was purchased by Boulder City several years ago. Boulder Creek offers 27 holes in a manner that is coolly down-tempo electronica to the typical municipal’s Muzak.

— Ken Van Vechten

Greens fees quoted are winter rack rates, which, in most cases, are as high as they get — except for Shadow Creek, where the rate is year-round.