Simply said, there is no place in the United States that is quite like Las Vegas. And in my book, that’s a good thing. I just got back from Sin City and, while still a little jet-lagged, am finally returning to normalcy. Myself and seven of my traveling golf buddies reveled in four wonderful whirlwind days of golf, gambling and partying.

The flight: Despite some whining on these pages lately, we took Southwest Airlines because a) it has non-stop service to Vegas from our Washington D.C. area and b) the flight was reasonably priced. All went as well as any other flight I’ve ever taken, including two very soft landings – kinda like a three-quarter lob wedge.

The accommodations: We stayed at Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino which has just about everything you would want or expect in the way of amenities. The rooms were exceptional for standard rooms, spacious and modern. I had the Happy Gilmore room, which was decorated with some real memorabilia from that movie. The staff was courteous & professional and took good care of our group. There is a marvelous Sports Book there which we used as our home base. It made for a great rendezvous spot as someone from our group was always there when we weren’t playing golf, especially my boys “Raisin” Cain and Hutchie, who both lived at the bar and must have played 10,000 hands of video poker apiece. All of the expected gambling opportunities present themselves at PH and we availed ourselves of them, from blackjack and other assorted table games to betting on college basketball, horse races and the Masters.

The golf: Course conditioning was outstanding. The greens were very firm at every course and varied in speed from fast to lightning fast. Billy was nicknamed Trey because he never quite mastered the greens. And Gino earned the temporary nickname of Quad after a 4-putt on day one, until he started imitating Ben Crenshaw on day two. We played Badlands, TPC Las Vegas and both courses at Revere Golf Club and enjoyed them all. The TPC Course which has hosted the Champions Tour was far and away my personal favorite. It was virtually flawless in every way imaginable. Besides the perfectly manicured course, the amenities and service could not have been better. I wish I could say the same about my play that day. My second favorite was the Lexington Course at Revere. While being a notch below TPC, it’s not a huge notch. I preferred it over the Badlands course because, while similar, it seemed ever so slightly more roomy. All of the courses had varying degrees of good routing and pacing, but what they each shared were absolutely stunning mountain views and that on much more than just a hole or two.

Next up: Lessons Learned

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