For the enthusiastic gambler it couldn’t be better. Long days on well-designed golf courses and late nights at the poker table. In the American gambling metropolis you always have fun.

In order to understand Las Vegas in general and golf in Las Vegas in particular, you can begin in 1980. Jim Colbert, a solid player on the PGA Tour, had got the idea to attract the PGA Tour to the gambling city in Nevada. He was of the opinion that golf is a part of Las Vegas’ development; people will come here for the golf and not just for card games and strip clubs as the town has so long been famous for.

One might as well go the whole hog. That’s the motto that permeates absolutely everything in Las Vegas, where in a few hours you can take a ride on the Nile, ride a roller-coaster through Manhattan's skyline, glide in a gondola in Venice, see the Eifel Tower, and visit the Caesar's Palace ... Nothing is real, fake is praised, reality is too real.

The golf boom was born in Las Vegas close to 30 years ago. Today there are 58 courses and a few others have been designed and planned, even if land prices are getting so ridiculously high now that even well-heeled entrepreneurs in the golf industry hesitate. Golf and poker, particularly poker perhaps, is what counts in Las Vegas at the moment.

All casinos front with their poker rooms. Neon signs tell of daily tournaments and Celebrity Poker, poker for celebrities. Video Poker, online poker, poker schools, all thanks to - or because of - the great TV interest. Casinos earn much more money on almost all other games, but TV poker has made it so that it’s poker that people want…period.

Everyone knows that poker is a trend that will wane.
Golf is therefore in other ways, more important.

Besides, the golf courses attracts tourists, many people believe that golf's leap into the Las Vegas did much for the community itself. People suddenly realized that it was a place you could actually live a good life - not only spend four crazy casino days.

Tiger Woods, stellar star, has indirectly meant a lot for the golf world to understand that this is one of the world's best golf areas. When a young Tiger, who every city wanted to play at their school, picked and chose, the final selection was between Stanford in California and UNLV in Las Vegas. Tiger and his demon coach Dad had gone through the pros and cons of every school in the entire United States golf-wise. In the end it was Stanford but just knowing that Tiger almost chose Las Vegas has brought enormous publicity for golf in the area.

Three-hundred days of sunshine each year and 58 courses only in Las Vegas makes the area a paradise for the golf traveler. One understands that 30-40 million tourists go there each year and that many of them play golf. It’s hard to believe when you look through brochures or read the newspaper Vegas Golfer and drool all over the course photos.

The entire spectrum is represented in a half hour’s drive.

Many courses have been built around the resorts where you often buy the entire package of both accommodation and golf. Otherwise there is everything from cheap public courses for 24 euros to the exclusive private courses with green fees up 783 euros - if you’re allowed to play.

Text: Ola Liljedahl
Photo: Berglund Ulf
Web editor: Emma Linden