TPC Las Vegas is a Las Vegas golf course that I have played many times in the past and I always jump at any chance to play this course. On Saturday, October 13th, the facility hosted several tournaments in conjunction with the Frys.com Open tournament. I had the opportunity to play this course in the exact condition that the professionals had experienced over the past few days. The hosting responsibilities of the Frys.com Open were shared between the TPC Canyons and TPC Summerlin, but I find TPC Canyons to be the more challenging of the two. TPC Canyons is the only PGA Tour-managed public facility in Las Vegas.
As we headed out onto the golf course I was expecting something totally different than I had seen before. But as we played I realized that this course is always in tournament condition. The only real difference that I noticed was that they had allowed the rough to grow much thicker than usual. There were several times when I had a hard time finding my ball in the rough. I am not the most accurate driver of the golf ball, so this happened several times during the round.
One area where I really noticed the difference was the first hole. This is a short par-4 measuring 359 yards from the back tee. This was our 15th hole of the day and I decided to hit a driver off the tee. From previous experience, this club would leave me short of the fairway bunker on the left hand side in the middle of the fairway. Perhaps the wind was blowing or I just hit a career shot, but when I got to my ball it was in the rough short of the bunker. At this point I was just hoping my ball would be in the bunker.
As I looked down my ball was sitting at the bottom of 5 inch high rough. Although I was less that 70 yards to the hole I knew I had little to no chance of hitting the green. I pulled out my 60-degree wedge and was going to swing hard. The green on the 1st hole is elevated with a false front that will reject any ball hit into this slope.
As I swung down leading edge of the club slashed through the grass but the ball only went about 60 yards and landed short of the green into the false front. I was horrified to see my ball running off the green leaving me with a difficult chip. I ended up hitting a career chip and made par on the hole.
As we finished our round, I reflected back on the condition of the golf course and realized there was not much difference between tournament week and every other week of the year. The grounds crew at this golf course needs to be commended for the fantastic condition they keep the golf course in year-round.
If you are looking to play a tour-quality golf course, TPC at the Canyons should be on your list for your next visit to Las Vegas.
