Wynn Golf Club
UPDATED 10-2021 BELOW.
I played Wynn in 2005, the year it opened. It has since closed, was considered for replacement by a lagoon, has been squeezed into an even tighter parcel of land, redesigned and finally re-opened in 2019. I’m glad it’s opened as it gives you the Shadow or Cascata option but right on the Strip. No limo ride into God’s country and back. Simply shoot out the back of the Wynn and voila, you’re looking at the 18th green and waterfall.
While Shadow Creek shuts out the surrounding area, Wynn embraces it. Views of the Wynn casino (there was no Encore when I played it), the Stratosphere and other Strip landmarks remind you around every corner where you are. The course, like Shadow, is manufactured but also like Shadow that is a good thing here. You know the waterfall is a phony but it is still memorable backing the 18th green. The mounding and trees accent the course, shuts the course off from the part of the world you don’t care to experience and it keeps the holes separated which is necessary on such a tight piece of land.
I read a couple of articles about the reopening, how they had to shorten the course by about 700 yards, with six par threes now, there were five when I played it. Eighteen is now a par three, below and to the right is the 18th I played – which was a 425-yard (from the white tees) monster finisher and certainly one of the most memorable holes on the course.
Like the Desert Inn course before Wynn, I always thought they would bring the PGA back here but I guess the redesign has put the kibosh on that idea. They just updated Google Earth/Maps since the re-do so I added it to an old Desert Inn layout and have that against the Wynn I played to show how different that transformation was.
I used to come to Vegas – a lot! Back in the late 90’s and all the way through the 2000’s I would average about three trips a year here for various conventions, golf trips, etc. LV is definitely a town you can only take in small doses. I’m not a huge gambler so for me it’s four days max. Since about 2010 or so I only come back here about once a year and haven’t been back now since 2017 which is over three years. Anyway, in the early times here I never played the old Desert Inn course. On or around the strip, I’ve played Bali Hai where you can actually smell the jet fuel at McCarran, hook a ball onto I-15 and the whole coquina shell hazards are stupid. The LV Country Club is meh. LV National is sub meh. So when they opened Wynn I thought it was perfect for the area. It was pricey then and worse now, so it was nice to play company golf here. Otherwise, you have to take a good long ride to play some nice courses.
Eagles play a road game in Vegas in 2021 so if fans are back then (and the team doesn’t implode in the 2021 off-season), I plan on coming out to see that spectacle (I already got to enjoy the Flyers play the Knights which I wrote about in my Cascata write-up), There are three courses in the area I still haven’t played so would try and do one of those: Southshore, Southern Highlands which was tough to get on last time I was out here, and if the group I’m with is up for the ride, Wolf Creek.
Finally, the Strip has every food option available and restaurants change more than Philadelphia police chiefs so I’m not sure what’s listed there now is what was there when I went. The steakhouse at the Wynn clubhouse used to be great (is that the Country Club Wynn?). Bouchon, Delmonico’s, Jean George’s, Lago and Prime are all my favorite eats on the Strip.
UPDATE: Came back in 2021 as I said above for the Eagles-Raiders game at Allegiant Stadium. Was interesting playing the Wynn as I was able to compare the course with the one I played almost 20 years earlier. See photos below.
First they upped the cost to play to $600 + forecaddie. That is way too much for what you’re getting. I’m expecting Pebble or St. Andrews for that. Not the Wynn. I get it that the real estate is expensive and you need to pay for the privilege of proximity but wow. Conditioning was great. We played the second back tees which was fine distance wise (about 6,300 yards) but the slope was only 117 from there. There are 6 par threes. Our forecaddie told us that when Fazio completed his redesign and presented it to the Wynn group they told him there was only one thing wrong. There were only 17 holes. So he squeezed in another short par three.
So whether the course plays harder than a 117 slope or it was that I had the hangover shakes for the first seven holes at our 7:45 AM tee time, I played a brutal front nine (50). Played better on the back. Conditioning here was great and it is a marvel to be on the Strip and to see the difference that 20 years has made. One cool – though incomplete – new feature (and the reason they shortened and rerouted/redesigned the course) is the MSG Sphere. This is a concert hall where the exterior and interiors will be spheres of lights than can be lit so it appears like it is transparent or as you see below like earth has crashed into earth.
Anyway, it will be super cool to see once completed. For the rest of the course, you get $15,000 if you get a hole in one on 18 from the tees we played. I heard no one has gotten the cash yet except one golfer playing the forward tees ($10,000). I was short and right avoiding the water. For the other holes there are an abundance of creeks, ponds and sand to keep you engaged. I talk about the latest trip and restaurants in my Cascata update. Final verdict: Still one of my top 100 courses but slipped a little since I played it in 2005. If you’re staying at the Wynn and win some money, play it. If you’re forking over the cash from your own wallet, you will disappointed (not in the course but in the value proposition). I wouldn’t play again for the freight but glad I did twice 20 years apart.
2021
2005
Golf Scrapbook 