by David Eldridge
Royal Links Golf Club offers the experience of playing eighteen holes from the British Open rotation. I always wanted to play the famous 'Road Hole' at St. Andrews, and the hole with the 'Postage Stamp' green at Royal Troon. I just never imagined it would happen in the Mojave Desert, only fifteen minutes from the Las Vegas Strip.
For golfers unable to make the pilgrimage to the birthplace of the game and retrace the footsteps of Old Tom Morris, Royal Links Golf Club is absolutely the next best thing. The only thing the British Open courses offer that Royal Links doesn't is overcast skies, a cold driving rain, and sheep droppings in the fairways.
The gray stone clubhouse with the prominent clock tower is the prelude to a unique experience. The central theme is found throughout the castle like edifice, where art and golf artifacts from the British Isles are on display.
A complimentary yardage book gives you a brief history of each hole, but more importantly, it shows every unseen pot bunker that is waiting to devour your dimpled orb. Your driver, or whatever club you elect to use from the tee may be the most important club in your bag on this course. If you stray too far from the fairway the fescue will claim your ball like a gull nestling an egg.
With so many great holes, it's difficult to select a favorite. But without a doubt the most unique is the par four 422-yard tenth. This replication of St. Andrews' enchanted 'Road Hole' requires a blind tee shot over a huge scoreboard. A stone wall on the right side of the fairway follows it's contour the entire length of the hole; any ball over the wall is out of bounds, and a cavernous bunker guards the front of the large green. The entire course is a beautiful dunescape; only it wasn't shaped by gale force winds.
The sights, the smells, the weather and the experience of golf in the British Isles can't be replicated. But Dye Concepts has constructed golf holes in a desert enviroment that would flatter the originals. A good single malt Scotch at Stymies Pub and I can almost hear the pipers.