Travel bucket list idea:
Shadow Creek is a tribute to excess. Tom Fazio was given nearly $50m to sculpt this beauty out of the Nevada desert, and the result was a pristine track with carpet-like fairways, plenty of water features and a gorgeous mountain backdrop. It has all the qualities of Augusta, but you’re only 15 minutes away from the Vegas strip.
Build it and they will come; ‘they’ being the big-money players staying at the big hotels in Vegas. The locker room has all the names – Jordan, Gretzky, Clinton, Bush etc. In 2018 it hosted ‘The Match’ between Tiger and Mickelson.
The course is open to MGM hotel guests only Monday to Thursday – weekend tee times are reserved for high rollers and invited guests. Book your tee time through the hotel concierge with plenty of advance notice. Your green fee includes limo transport and a caddie.
The course is open all year round, seven days a week, but try to avoid the searing hot summer months (July and August); if you can’t, book a really early tee time.
Round-ups that include this experience
Multiple countries
Spectacular landscapes, impeccable fairways and greens, brilliantly-designed holes and plenty of golfing folklore – we asked golf expert and journalist Fionn Davenport to recommend his top 30 golf courses from around the world.
