Bali Hai Las Vegas Trip Report

[FatalError]

I'm a pretty bad golfer by the standard of most people i play with but i can break 100 on a good day at a decent course and feel good about myself

I've played about 100 18 hole rounds in my life (i'm 23), bali hai was my first experience on a course of it's caliber, We payed 145$, it's 99$ after 1 pm (108 degs) which includes everything you need

My partners were two investor buddies who are lifelong members at congressional and have a pretty sharp resume and around <10 handicappers

First Impressions, i pulled up at 7 am for our 7:40 time, a valet and bag boy pop out immediately i pop my trunk and before i'm done giving the valet my name they have my clubs and ask if i'm the third in our party. I say yes and he tells me the clubs will be in my cart i meet my parteners and we grab our snazzy carts. They come with and ice chest which is important because in this heat you should be drinking about 5-6 bottles of water or powerades or you'll feel dead at the end.

We go to the driving range which is just a 50 yard net, but the system is incredible, it's and automatic tee, everything is underground, you can set tee high and other things with a few buttons. It's really convient to just stand that and crush a few driving real quick before you hit #1. The Putting green was standard if not above average. The Starter was incredibly friendly and offered to make us bag tags if we just gave him some info.

We hit the first hole which is a wide open fairway with just 1 bunker really in play on the way to the green, a good hole to get started with a par or better and not look bad with a whole gallery of people watching!

I won't bore with details of every hole but as we hit the 7th green we notices a marshall looking for tags on our bags and stuff so we're obviously confused, turns out he's putting our new tags on our bags, They're really well done i'll definately keep mine, he also gave us all cold towels which feels great after 8 holes of golf, by that point it was 100 degrees

The food at the turn seemed above average, but i judge courses by their hot dog, bali hai has a 1 pound foot long+ dog, which really isn't convenient when you've got to rush to the 10th tee. So i was dissapointed in that regard.

On to 16 which is my favorite hole on the course, the island green with a little waterfall looked over by the patio of the restaraunt which i'm sure is a fun place to sit and watch people slash all day, The pin placement was absolutely sick today in the back right corner with not much around it but water and sand. We all par it succesfully though.

The 18th is a mid length par 5 with a lot of obstacles on your way to the hole which finishes on a green with a beach bunker on the approach side

A lot of the holes have sick views where you are hitting directly into the mandalay bay, luxor, and mgm

**** +EV OPPORTUNITY ****
there is a par 3 on the back 9 where they offer that you can put up any amount of money up to 100$ which gets a gift cert to the golf shop if you hit the green they double it. So if you were gonna buy something anyways it's free EV

Planes flying overhead was annoying but we quickly became used to it. Saw a few military personal transport planes take off that were signifigantly louder though. The other major issue was that the greens had been recently airated so it was a little bumpy and made putting difficult but apparently we weren't told when we booked. When we pulled up we were immediately greated by name by another bagboy who put told us they'd have our clubs cleaned and ready to pick up


Afterwords we went to the restaurant which was booked inside, so we sat in the bar area to eat instead of outside, the inside seating area looked really nice and i recommend making a reservation for your group before you tee off. The menu was expansive and everything looked good, i'd probably enjoy 90% of the items myself, definately A+ for that. Everyone liked everything they ordered but their arnold palmers aren't the best.

Out the front door a valet grabs a ticket and someone else grabs my bags. My 2 friends going back to bellagio somehow end up in a plush tourbus with leather seats and a plasma for their trip back. I was really amazed by the quality and quantity of service provided from the moment you enter to the moment you leave

Oh, i shot a 101

[riverdance]

i played there back around wsop time (120 degrees) and had a great time. everytihng was first rate.

they had the "double your money" wager also, which goes to show you how much markup there is in the proshop.

i found the course somewhat easier than i thought it would be. most of the fairways were valleys, in that if you hit it right or left, the hills would push it back toward the fairways.

i am 5 handicap and shot 76. what did your <10 friends shoot?

[tuq]

I am intrigued by this course mostly because it's the one in that "amazing flash game" thread. Also, it's lame that a course of that caliber doesn't have a full driving range but it probably has to do with the cost of land on the Strip. Then again, it's probably where it is because it's adjacent to the airport and they couldn't put a casino there.

[Clarkmeister]

Played there once, was undererwhelmed, especially for the price.

[FatalError]

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Played there once, was undererwhelmed, especially for the price.

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on this not i would'nt play bali hai during peak times when it's 300$+ a round

[moayer]

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I am intrigued by this course mostly because it's the one in that "amazing flash game" thread.

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good TR. thanks