Cascata
UPDATED October 2021 (below)
Played Cascata in 2001, I think. When I played it, it was still exclusive to Caesars properties high rollers ONLY. The combination of course and experience here really is just about unbeatable. This was one of our Coattails Gary trips where my buddy Gary just got us connected and we rode his coattails right in.
Let’s start with the experience. The only way into the unmarked property is via a Caesar’s limo. I think this is still the case today. We were greeted by the club manager and – I think – a player development manager outside the front door. They took us for a quick tour of the clubhouse. If Baltusrol and Winged Foot are amazing clubhouses for the history, Cascata is just flat out spectacular. A cascading waterfall (hence Cascata) runs through the clubhouse. Literally right through the clubhouse.
After the tour we went to the locker room. We each had lockers with our names engraved onto them. Impressive. The locker room attendant asked for our golf shoes to clean BEFORE the round and after looking at mine said, “Hmm let me see what I can do with these.” These shoes, mind you, looked like I had just taking them for a 200-mile trek through the desert. So we have breakfast upstairs, come back down and the attendant hands me back my Foot Joys, all gleaming and everything. I said, “Wow how the hell did you do that, these look brand new.” He said, “They are brand new, I threw those other pieces of shit in the garbage.”
Outside, we hit the range. Pro-V’s of course. Then we are getting to the tee and the cart girl is by the first tee. So we start ordering drinks to stock up and she asks what we’re doing. We said, stocking up because not sure when we will see you next. She told us, “I am your cart girl. I will be with you the entire round.” The only time she left was to get our lunch order. We were thinking hot dogs or whatnot but no, she brings out a full service menu with lobster, steak, etc. We place the order and she comes back, we pull over, she snaps custom-made trays into our carts and we dine like royalty on the ninth fairway. Hell, we found out we were the only group out there except the governor and some PGA pro who played through us and she said to take whatever time we needed to enjoy.
To the course. If not playing on the ocean (or other large body of water), I am partial to mountain and desert courses. Cascata combines both of those into one spectacular course. Eighteen is one of the most beautiful finishers in all of golf. But every hole is a beauty here and for many of them the cascading stream that goes through the clubhouse is in play. I don’t have a ton of photos here as this was early on and before the thought of taking photos and doing this even popped into my mind. I had some images which I added below but these may be from the website or other.
On this trip there, we stayed in the Rain Man suite (where they filmed the scenes from the movie) at Caesars. By the way this is on the second floor so the view is not quite what Dustin Hoffman was looking out on. Part of the magic of a Coattails Gary trip are the luxuries that the casino foist upon you. We got to stock the Rain Man suite bar with Opus One and Patron. Ate at the nicest restaurants in Caesar’s. There was another trip we took there for my brother’s bachelor party (or maybe it was this one and we played Cascata twice. Don’t remember). The picture below shows my brother in the middle. That’s right, he’s not there. Imagine missing your own bachelor party with these accommodations. I forget his reasoning but we said “Screw It” let’s go anyway. Who needs a bachelor.
UPDATE: So we came back to Vegas in 2021 for the Eagles first game against the Raiders. I’ll start by saying that the Eagles looked horrible and Raiders kicked our asses but the stadium is awesome and we played Cascata and Wynn and I was able to snap some pix and update the reviews.
Since I’ve previously played and reviewed above, Cascata has opened its doors to public play. Mind you it is still outrageously expensive but anyone willing to pony up nearly $500 can play. Now that it is no longer uber-restricted to get on, the service (somewhat) and conditions (somewhat more) have deteriorated.
To the service. OK this is still no local muni so you get treatment that you would more or less expect for paying the freight that you do to get on. The clubhouse is still a spectacle that you have to see to believe. You get a forecaddie and there is a cart girl but unlike before the cart girl is not YOUR cart girl. There’s no steak and lobster for lunch (though the steak tip sandwich is amazing) and no custom trays for the carts. No names were engraved on the locker. No pre-game shoeshine. All of the above originally pushed Cascata way to the top of my rankings and without them, this is like any other high-end club. But what really drops Cascata down the rankings was the conditioning. This was a world below what we enjoyed previously and in fact was pretty disappointing compared to Wynn or what you would expect for the Franklins. Now mind you, this is still a top 100 ranked course IMO but it’s just no longer a top 50.
For this trip we stayed at Resorts World – at the Crockfords – which is across from the Wynn. Meh. Even the suite (Coattails Gary was here) wasn’t over-the-top. We ate at SW at the Wynn overlooking the water show there – highly recommended. We also ate at Wing Lei at Wynn which is the only Chinese restaurant to earn a Michelin star. If you like spicy I highly recommend. Finally we did Hell’s Kitchen. If you’re a fan of Gordon Ramsey, you’ll love. If you’re not, you won’t. I’m indifferent and liked HK but would put SW ahead.
Since I droned on and on above, I won’t go into a hole-by hole description. I’ll post some updated photos before the older ones. I also – where I could remember – posted back to backs so you can see the difference that nearly twenty years can make.
2021
2001
Golf Scrapbook 