Las Vegas isn’t as ridiculously cheap as it used to be. You can still find those $5.99 steak & egg dinner specials, but you have to search them out. And sometimes go off The Strip to Fremont Street.

Still in the land where everyone wants to live the high roller life for at least a weekend, there remains one deal that’s so absurd it could only happen in Vegas. That’s the $5 PGA tournament ticket.

It’s happening right now at the Frys.com Open. OK, this isn’t a major tournament. But it’s still a PGA Tournament. And it costs less to get in than a fancy coffee can at Starbucks. Heck, this is Vegas. You could drop $5 on a small bottle of water in a hotel gift shop. Easy.

The Frys.com Open has the best deal in town. The organizers are desperately trying to draw people after only 11,000 - an almost unfathomably low total - showed for the tournament last year. The PGA Tour hasn’t done them any favors by putting Vegas in the late Fall, Tiger-and-Phil snooze season part of the schedule. PGA Tour comissioner Tim Finchem treats Vegas like a $2 hooker while NBA commissioner David Stern courts it like a lovely lady.

Still, you have to like the new charitable host organization - Shriners Hospital for Children - and the way they’re trying to bolster the tournament. There’s new parking much closer to the courses, which means much shorter shuttle bus rides. There’s a new big VIP tent center - entry to which takes a whopping $15 ticket (ask anywhere else in Vegas for the “VIP treatment", hand over $15 and see what you get).

Have some locals got into past Vegas tournaments for free by turning in coupons they received in the paper? Sure, but not close to enough of them showed for there to be any whining now. It’s $5 to watch PGA Tour players now. That price is worth it just to see TPC Summerlin and TPC Canyons, a Top 10 Vegas course.

And you might just happen to run into Jason Gore while you’re strolling the courses.

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