Want A Knock-Out Golf Vacation? Go To Nevada

With Vegas glitzy image (and the legalized sinning) most people associate Nevada with just Vegas. Little else comes to mind than Wine, Women and gambling when you talk of Nevada but with more than 100 courses throughout the state, Nevada and golf are synonymous. It just takes a discerning golf travel enthusiast to sift through the mud and hit gold. Nevada boasts of several seriously tough courses that figure in Golf Digests top 10 lists and are wildly popular with golf holiday makers as well but somehow people seldom look beyond The Strip.

Nevada started out as a Spanish Territory later becoming a part of the First Mexican Empire, becoming part of the United States only in 1850. All this political upheaval and cultural tossing around has left an indelible impression on the state and is evident in everything Nevada. And that includes its golf. So, if you are ready, heres a list of some of the roughest courses that call Nevada home and which must be included in your golf package if you want to tom-tom a bit to the boys back home. Each of these courses is a battle and proves over and over that golf is a game played between the ears.

First up is Shadow Creek in North Las Vegas. It tops the Golf Digests Best in State rankings currently and is also one of the Top 100 Greatest Courses in America. You want to tee off at this 18-hole Tom Fazio gem on your golf tour because it makes you want to think of a happier place on every hole, because it is so breathtakingly beautiful and because it will hit you on the head with a $500 green fee. However, there is value-for-money because green fees includes transporting you to and fro your hotel in a limousine!

Take your golf travel to Mesquite, a one time Mormon settlement and now a booming resort getaway and retirement community for Wolf Creek Golf Club. The USGA has rated this devilish course as the third hardest to play in the country and the jury is still out on who really designed this piece of wickedness. Although it is a reasonable 6,923 yards, each one of the 18 holes makes you sweat. With stunning views of the canyon, lush green fairways, several elevated tees and a price to match ($185 per player) your golf vacation to Nevada would be incomplete without it.

Wake up in Reno the next morning and realize you are still on your golf holiday and simply cannot go back without playing at the Montreux Golf & Country Club. Host of the Reno-Tahoe Open, Montreux is a Jack Nicklaus design spread over 7,552 yards. This 18-hole beauty will have you talking more about the $4.5 million homes on its periphery than the game. That is, if you can find someone to sneak you in!

Far away from the casinos is the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course, a Golf Digest Top 10 in the State course designed by George Fazio in 1968, Edgewood is located in Stateline. It makes you work hard with long climbs uphill and longer drives towards the casinos. It is a testing course but there is something in here for golfers of all skill levels and at $150 it is a must have on your golf package.

Other courses that would add to your golf tour bulk are the Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder city, a 27 hole facility designed by Mike Rathert ($200) and The Falls at Lake Las Vegas, a Tom Weiskopf design ($260).

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Showtime Golf tee times Las Vegas, San Diego, Palm Springs and Phoenix. www.showtimegolf.com