The Vegas Trip Report : The courses nearly blew me away... literally.

I drove up to Las Vegas this past weekend mainly because a friend of mine, Bill Zimmerman, was going to be there for a wedding or some such nonsense. All I saw in that fact was an excuse to play golf, so that's what I did. Mission accomplished.

I drove up on Saturday to play in the afternoon at Chimera Golf Club in Henderson, which is southeast of Vegas proper somewhere. If you didn't already know the Las Vegas area is generally a bit breezy, moreso in the summer. On this day "breezy" would not be the correct word. When I arrived at the course the wind was literally howling, I heard noises from somewhere as it blew around the parking lot. The fellas in the pro shop assured me that even for Vegas this wind was on the extreme side. Not to be deterred (and considering I drove four hours to play) I was paired up with two locals and ventured out.

Now I don't know how to gauge wind speed and such but I'm guessing it was 25-30 MPH on a consistent basis with gusts up around 40+. The flagsticks were being bent into strange shapes on every hole. Leaves and even branches were being thrown around. I'm shocked I didn't see any animals or small children go tumbling across any of the fairways. My ball shook while sitting on the tee at times and more than once I saw it shake while on the green. If the greens were faster I'm sure I would have seen a few roll away.

Fortunately the course was forgiving since it was designed with the wind in mind. The fairways were wide and there really wasn't a whole bunch of trouble spots to be found compared to other courses. I ended up shooting 78 in that wind, often aiming to one side of the huge fairways and hope that it stayed in on the right side. I hit drives anywhere from 210 yards to 340 yards and had to adjust iron shots by as much as three full clubs.

So what did the place look like, you ask? I did take pictures though I'm not sure how stable I was able to keep the phone. If you take a closer look at some of the palm trees in these pictures you might get a little idea of what the wind was doing :

On Sunday I met up with Bill and ventured out to Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, which is also southeast of the Strip. While the wind had died down somewhat from Saturday it was still a factor and it was a bit cooler than the day before. This course has 27 holes but we were lucky enough to play the original 18 on this day. I had read that they were probably the best combination to play so I was happy about that.

Boulder Creek was definitely the tougher track of the two. The course had wide fairways on most holes, however the crossing arroyos and big, hilly greens certainly made you pay attention to what was going on. I shot 82 despite not having the best day with the driver, though there were a number of holes where either 3-wood or even 5-wood had to be used off of the tee... well, at least for me, Bill just mainly bombed driver all day... probably the more exciting choice.

I can't help but feel that my 82 could have been so much better. I hit a bunch of good putts that just refused to go in. I also had three double bogeys, at least one of which could have been prevented if I had a better idea of the layout of the hole. I will admit that I had a few fun little chip and pitch shots over the course of the day even if it sometimes seemed a bit overwhelming with the big breaks and the speed of the greens. The wind also seemed a bit more consistent than it was the day before, though it was at least a club of adjustment, occasionally up to two on certain shots. Overall I think we both handled it all pretty well.

Here are a few pictures from the course. Its generally in the same area as Chimera was so the surrounding terrain was fairly similar :

All in all the trip was as good as I could have hoped for. Overall I hit the ball pretty decently and, which could be weird to say, the wind was probably the reason why. I'd also say that it was especially true on Saturday. I was a little more concerned about just making solid contact and having the ball start in a general direction since I had no real idea what such a strong wind was going to do to my ball. Florida can get downright windy at times but it is rarely, if ever, like that... outside of a passing hurricane or something.

The best news just might be that my elbow held up pretty well, in fact I'd even say that it felt better on Sunday afternoon than it did on Saturday night. I'll likely try to hit the range on Tuesday night and see how it feels there. Assuming we are a go I'll be playing twice more this coming weekend. Hopefully I can build on these last three rounds and gain a little more confidence in what I'm doing. The process continues.