This Week at TravelGolf.com: July 31 2008

Summer heat can't touch Las Vegas golf courses' butter-smooth greens

I'm unpacking after a week of golf followed by a bachelor party in Las Vegas and one of the highlights from the trip that I can't get out of my mind is the shape of the greens there, even in the heat of late July.

Part of my assumption comes from Las Vegas golf courses' cheap green fees in the summer months, usually discounted more than half of the peak rate. Also, my current base is in the southeast U.S., where muggy air can have its way with greens. About this time in the season, I'm used to putting surfaces being a little slow and bumpy. A handful of the golf courses in Myrtle Beach, S.C. daringly use bentgrass and must keep a very close eye on the temperatures in the summer.

Turns out, it's a far different world in the desert. Most of the high-end golf courses in Las Vegas use bentgrass greens, and even in the summer they're rolling off the charts. This is due to higher and drier desert air, not to mention the lack of any thick forests to block the cooling wind from hitting surfaces.

During my trip the best greens out of the bunch were at Bear's Best in Summerlin, a collection of Jack Nicklaus' best holes in the west, where the butter-smooth greens out-shined even some of Nicklaus' best holes and the Red Rock Mountain and Las Vegas Strip scenery.

These weren't greens where you simply glance at the line before hitting your 20-footer for the likely two-putt. These are greens where you think you can drop a putt from anywhere with a good stroke. I have two witnesses who saw me drop a bomb from about 30 feet on No. 15 for birdie.

Rio Secco and the Lexington at the Revere at Anthem Club also had outstanding bentgrass greens. Those, along with Bear's Best are high-end options, but the more mid-priced courses such as Painted Desert and Aliante had greens that were smooth, green and true in their own right.

So don't assume cheap summer green fees in Las Vegas mean scorched greens. These courses are still putting their best foot forward.

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