Happy New Year, NLU fam. Thanks for being here to listen to, watch, and read all the #content. Here’s to an even better 2025!
GHIN
I’m kicking it off with a true GHIN tidbit. Here in Las Vegas, we post all year long, so I got a few more rounds before heading back east for New Year’s festivities. I hoped to tie my lowest-ever handicap of 16.7 at least, but I had to settle for 16.8 to end the year. Operation “Get to at least 13 by 2027” continues!
Since moving here in mid-March, I’ve played 22 different Las Vegas area courses. There are about 55 or so within a 20-mile radius of the city center, so I feel like I did a good job getting around to most of the better public courses and a few privates. I visited one other Las Vegas “public” course a few times this year, not to play but to spectate: Shadow Creek.
Shadow Creek is the USA’s most expensive “public” access course at $1250 for your tee time. I use public in quotes because it’s only available for MGM Resort guests who are big-spenders/high-rollers. I live about 15 minutes from the course, and while I haven’t been able to play it, I have taken advantage of going to see the LPGA Match Play tournament in the last two years.
The course is totally insane. Tom Fazio took a flat blank slate of desert and moved all kinds of earth to build rolling hills, waterfalls, lakes, and creeks to the tune of $60 million. It weirdly makes perfect sense in Las Vegas, the city with replicas of Paris, New York, and ancient Rome on the strip. Here’s a golf course that looks plucked from a mountainside in the southeast and dropped down in this perfect rectangle in North Las Vegas, across from warehouses!
It’s fun to walk around that course and marvel at the number of trees and plants that had to be planted to make it look like it’s been there forever. So, when The Showdown was announced, I thought it would be fun to walk it again.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from an in-person viewing of one of these made-for-TV golf matches: Who would be there watching? How many people would actually be there? Would it be easy to follow around from hole to hole? What happens when it gets really dark? The practice round day had Scottie getting a bit chippy with Bryson – would there be any fireworks between them during the actual competition?
We arrived just after 2 p.m. for the 3:15 p.m. tee-off. (Important context: I had a clubhouse hospitality pass, so my experience differed slightly from the general public’s.) We rode the shuttle to the clubhouse with guys wearing Bryson’s Crushers’ skull-and-crossbones logos on their hats. After going through security, we entered the clubhouse to a crowd of people, arms full of Crypto.com Showdown merch. There was catering by the Bellagio in the main room before you exited through a tunnel to an outdoor viewing tent.
Hello, large Brooks, Bryson, Rory, & Scottie
The viewing tent was decked out with large screens, branded Crypto.com The Showdown everything, and a gifting station for the merch everyone had in the clubhouse. In the middle of it all, there was a circular bar. Outside, there was a viewing platform overlooking the 18th green. I joked to my husband, Jon, “Will they even get to this hole at the end?”
We grabbed a drink and headed out.
There is no need to discuss the Xs and Os of the actual competition. Instead, I will share a few observations from our afternoon out there.
- There were way more people out there than I anticipated. Rory, Scottie, Bryson, and Brooks had already moved off the range to the putting green. The ropes around it were mobbed; you couldn’t get down to the first tee. We quickly realized that we wouldn’t be able to walk along and see the match.
- There was more LIV merch out there than I had ever seen in one place before, and most of it looked brand new. It made me think that a LIV street team was out there passing stuff out. There were so many SMASH hats.
- Bryson’s ridiculous Lambeau Field-esque parka. It was mid-60s and full sun, which always feels warmer than the number in Vegas. As the afternoon progressed, it did get a bit cooler, but never so cold that I put on my beanie or felt chilly in my hoodie and vest, and I get cold pretty quickly! I do feel like the TV broadcast made it look colder than it was, showing their cart heaters and the guys blowing into their hands to keep warm like it was almost freezing temps. It never went below 50!
- As it got darker, we realized that they wouldn’t let people walk to all parts of the course. For example, the 1st match was done after the 4th hole, when Rory buried that long eagle putt. We were almost to 5 green when that happened (we were always walking ahead after seeing tee shots or putts to get ahead of the crowd for a good spot to watch something coming up). When we realized they weren’t playing 5-6, we tried to get up to 7/8/9 but were told we had to turn around, and the next hole we could watch would be 10. Look, I get it. Shadow Creek is super hilly. When it’s dark, it’s really dark. People were drinking. I get that you don’t want people tripping, falling, etc.…
- When we were allowed to walk around, it was pretty cool to wander the course in the dark. We had a great view of the last bit of the sun setting while sitting on a hill above 10 green.
- After 10, the next best place to watch was 12 green and we were right up on the ropes near the hole. We followed along on our phones to make sure the match was going to actually GET to the 12th hole, which, thankfully, it did. After watching the tee shots, the group of us up near the hole speculated that Rory’s approach shot could be a bit dicey – it was a blind approach, and if he overshot the hole we could possibly get hit with the ball. We couldn’t really see when it left the club, since he was down way below and behind the bunker from our angle. All the sudden, a ball landed in the small strip of grass between the green and the ropes across from us and I laughed. It was a relief laugh like, “oh yay! No one got hit!” Immediately, Jon started getting texts from people who were like, “Are you at this match, I swear I just heard Casey’s laugh on the broadcast.”
- After 12, we weren’t able to get to 13—too many people were already down at the tee—so we were directed back towards the clubhouse again. So we wandered back down the middle of the 10th fairway and peeked through the trees across a canyon to see the 13th green. It was like people just broke contain and went anywhere they could to see something.
- We walked backward from 18 to catch the group at 14, then skipped 15/16 to get a good spot to watch 17, the signature hole at Shadow Creek with the Fazio waterfall and all. It was here that we struck up a conversation with a guy in a cowboy hat who had been in our orbit all afternoon. The guy ended up being a friend of Brooks who was the officiant at the Koepka’s wedding. We also laughed with the security team there, who had to keep chasing people off the actual 17 green. Once the match got to 16, they had us all move up to the tee box, but then the match literally ended, and the group never got to play 17. This seemed like a miss to me – they should have had some kind of plan to play the signature hole at the course.
- Several notables were out and about at the event, including JR Smith, Dexter Fowler, Rick Shiels, and Andre Iguodala. But the person I was most excited to see was Sir Charles! After the broadcast, he went directly to the hospitality tent bar and held court for about 30 minutes.
One more GHIN-related item for this edition is the new golf entertainment venue, Swingers, which just opened in Vegas.
It’s self-described as a club that takes “crazy golf from the 1920s British seaside—Tanqueray-infused plus-fours and all——add Vegas’ best street food, banging beats, and brings it to the iconic Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.” I was able to check it out during their grand opening party earlier in December.
They retrofitted this into the space that used to be occupied by Light nightclub. It is decked out like a British countryside estate, with an overwhelming amount of artificial flowers (and piped-in floral aromas as well). There are several 9-hole “crazy” golf courses to play and also a big area of traditional boardwalk/carnival games.
This night, being the grand opening, was a bit over the top. Atmosphere models were dancing, a woman in a gown playing electric violin over the DJ’d music, a bunch of Las Vegas social media influencers out and about, and free food, drink, and gameplay.
The courses all share similar layouts, and, IMO, were actually “boring” holes. Almost all were “hit the ball up this ramp into one of these channels that goes to the right. If you hit it down the gold chute, you have a good chance at a hole-in-one. Only a few holes had any kind of actual obstacle, like a Ferris wheel to hit through. They were all very pretty, but ultimately, I was not really that into it. Have I outgrown mini golf?
This location’s “street food” is pizza and burgers from Brooklyn’s Emmy Squared. I didn’t realize how many locations they’ve expanded to in the eight years since opening in NY (26!!). I’m not sure why they are considered street food, but the cheesy breadsticks I grabbed from the people walking around passing them out on trays were tasty.
What I actually loved here was the Carnival area. Skee ball! Water gun race! Pop-a-shot! Even a beer pong game. Like Dave & Busters, you get a card, load it with credits, and go to town. You even earn “tickets” you can trade in for little prizes like Swingers golf towels or teddy bears. I ate cotton candy and played almost every game available.
So what does it cost to play? $30 for nine holes!! Drinks range from $10 for a Modelo to $22 for a house cocktail to $50 for a high roller drink. Of course, packages are available for a small discount, including your round and some drink tickets.
I am unsure if I need to go back and play “crazy golf” again. It’s not that crazy, and it’s expensive. In contrast, Pop Stroke, Tiger Wood’s mini golf complex that opened earlier this summer in Vegas, has two 18-hole courses and costs $40 for an entire day of play. Swingers is 1) inside and 2) a 21+ venue, so it may be better for groups planning things like bachelor/bachelorette parties.
TONIC
One of my favorite things about living in Las Vegas is the outdoor activities available. Many parks and hiking areas are just a short drive from the city. When my mom visited for Thanksgiving, we took advantage of the mild weather to hike at Mt. Charleston and the Valley of Fire.
Mt. Charleston is the tallest mountain in Clark County and the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area. Almost 12K feet above sea level, the peak is snow-covered about half the year. It’s about 35 minutes northwest of where I live, and about 30 degrees colder than the valley.
As you climb up the road from the valley, the climate and scenery change drastically from Joshua Tree yuccas and brown sand of the desert to rocky canyons and thousands of bristlecone pine trees. The temperature drops, and you feel like a world away from the strip.
We stopped at the US Forest Service visitor center and did an easy out-and-back hike along Kyle Canyon.
A few days later, we set out northeast to the Valley of Fire State Park, about 45 minutes from the house. It’s an entirely different experience from Mt. Charleston—tons of desert and red rock and all desert vegetation.
We were a bit more ambitious that day and headed to the top of the park to do the White Domes Loop Trail. It’s only a 1-mile loop, but on soft sand with stretches of steepness. It was worth getting through the first third of the hike down the steep rocks. When you get to the narrow slot canyon, you get to walk through it. I didn’t realize how steep it was until we got to the bottom and looked back up!
Mom at the top of the trail (for scale).
We climbed down that!
Slot Canyon!
We spent about 4 hours in the park, driving around to different short trails and scenic overlooks. It was wild how different this place was from Mt. Charleston – the weather, the terrain, everything.
The coolest thing we saw, though, were these desert bighorn sheep. Just CHILLIN on the side of a freaking giant rock. Not falling off at all.
This is one of the reasons we moved out west – to explore and see things you don’t have on the East Coast. The next thing to get to on my list – the Utah National Parks (Zion and Bryce Canyon, specifically).
