The Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort bills itself as a “pure golf” destination and after visiting the property and playing its three Pete Dye-designed golf courses over two days this summer, it’s easy for this journalist to concur with that designation.
Yes, there is golf and plenty of it – all really good – and that’s the initial draw.
But Las Vegas Paiute is a whole lot more: a getaway during your getaway to Sin City. It also offers isolation and quiet that gives respite from the crowds and cacophony of the Strip and the myriad other “loud” Vegas destinations as well as serene natural beauty that diametrically differs from the flash and manufactured substance the region is so famous for.
There is a time and a place for everything in Las Vegas, but if you are a golfer you need to make the time to play the courses here.
Set just about a half-hour northwest of most of the Strip’s biggest properties, the golf courses at the Las Vegas Paiute Resort shine in the desert, a bastion of green grass among the greys, browns and beiges of the surrounding wasteland, all in the distant shadow of the Las Vegas Mountain Range.
One sampling of the golf here will make you want more. That’s fine because the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort has a trio of courses that helps keep things fresh. Since the courses all have the same basic DNA, if you like one you will certainly like the others – and the debate will commence (and continue) on which of the three is best.
The three courses – Snow Mountain, Sun Mountain and Wolf, listed in the order they were built – were designed to be playable yet challenging. They all bear Dye’s architecture characteristics, with mounding, railroad-tie bunkers, plenty of water in play and a distinct fairness in their routing despite their definite challenge and varying tests.
The trio books about 100,000 combined rounds per year and have become a haven for large tournaments and group getaways. With an expansive clubhouse with a cool bar-restaurant combo and a large meeting room, the Tribe has covered just about every option.
(Top) Paiute’s Wolf course and (above) Paiute’s Snow Mountain course
Snow Mountain is chock-full of risk-reward options
Snow Mountain debuted in 1995 as the first course to open at the resort. It weighs in at 7,164 yards from its back set of four tees and is highlighted by wide fairways bordered by mounding, seven holes with water, traditional Dye railroad-tie bunkers, dogleg finishing holes, and a progressive layout.
The best holes here are likely the shortest. Two par-3s – the 180-yard fourth and the 198-yard 16th – are attacked over long water carries. There are also two drivable par-4s – the 337-yard seventh and the 342-yard 13th in which golfers can drive over the desert to greens complexes set to the right and left, respectively, of the fairway.
Two short par-5s, the third and the 17th, are balanced by the massive and narrow 611-yard 11th (a true three-shot hole) and the 445-yard par-4 closing hole, which plays into the prevailing wind as it is bordered by a huge lake from tee to green.
We played Snow Mountain as the final round of our three on our trip and found it to be a great combination of the two other tracks on the property. It might be easier to say this – the Sun Mountain and Wolf courses took different aspects of Snow Mountain and expounded on them.
Snow Mountain
Sun Mountain is wide and rolling and fun
Opened in 1997, Sun Mountain utilizes its wide, rolling terrain, a monstrous mountain backdrop and natural framing of indigenous desert to entice and entertain. The course plays at 7,112 yards, with an abundance of sweeping slopes and dynamic greens complexes.
Sun Mountain puts the emphasis on a more up-and-down routing and takes the railroad-tie bunkering, the mounding, and the greens Dye employed at Snow Mountain and turns them up a notch or two.
All four of the par-3s at Sun Mountain play at 198 yards or further but only one – the 206-yard fourth – brings water into play. There are no real reachable par-4s on Sun Mountain but there are holes short enough to hit wedges into greens that can take advantage of your putting skills.
The same can be said for the par-5s – the longest (No. 3) is just 558 yards but all of them can surrender a birdie with a little course management and prudence.
Holes are routed to move both to the left and the right, with decisions on the tee centered on how much of the desert the golfer wants to try and take on to shorten the approach. Conversely, playing the conservative route here also can produce a solid round of golf – that’s the true genius of Dye’s routing at Sun Mountain.
Sun Mountain
The Wolf is a howling good time
Billed as the longest course in Nevada at 7,604 yards, The Wolf is the considered the signature offering at the Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort. It’s the newest course in the property, opened in 2001 and designed by Dye and his nephew Perry Dye.
Wolf is so much more than just a long course. It is a marriage of length and beauty, renowned for its severe undulations, its alternate landing areas, and the stunning 15th hole island green that was patterned after Dye’s creation at TPC Sawgrass in Florida.
Here the Dyes take the risk-reward options on Snow Mountain and add a serious degree of difficulty to them. The Wolf pushes the golfers’ mind away from conventional, conservative thinking and asks them to execute every shot with skill and conviction, with severe penalties if those goals are not attained. Five sets of tees allow the golfer to take on as much as he or she thinks they can tackle.
Much has been said and written about the famous island-green 15th – which actually plays much longer (182 yards) and has a much bigger, yet more undulating, green than its older sibling at Sawgrass.
But the other par-3s on the Wolf more than hold their own. There’s the downhill 206-yard eighth with its desert wasteland hard to the right of the putting surface and 40 feet below the level of the green. And there’s the 209-yard 12th, which is dead flat from the tee and plays into the prevailing wind and asks for a shot over the large pond and a bunker at the front to a shallow putting surface.
The par-4 14th plays at 492 yards and turns hard to the right, with the approach playing over a deep desert wash and to a two-tiered putting surface surrounded by six bunkers.
That hole is a prelude to the 17th and 18th, par-4s of 486 and 496 yards, respectively. The former’s fairway is crossed twice by desert arroyos, essentially creating a long, target-golf two-shotter. The closer has a pond running down the right side, and requires an approach played downhill to a green that is protected by short bunkers on the right.
The Wolf is a blast to play – try to utilize the course’s speed slopes to gain yardage and make things easier. Yes, it’s long and tough but I assure you it’s a course you want to tackle again and again. It’s truly a puzzle that can be solved in many different ways and a total test of your game.
The Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort is proud to partner with MGM Resorts International for stay-and-play packages beginning at $149 based on hotel and course choice, day, and season.
The Wolf