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Matt_Cohn

  • Karma: +0/-0
Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« on: February 26, 2024, 12:44:25 AM »
Kind of a random one, but they're hosting their annual, highly-regarded college tournament this week. I heard that the fairways had been narrowed, so I did some looking on Google Earth. I have never seen a course narrow their fairways like this unless they're hosting a US Open. These seem to be ongoing changes, not just for the tournament. I wonder why they did this? Some of those crazy bunkers are 20 yards out in the rough now.


13-15 before:



13-15 after:





10-11 before:



10-11 after:





6-9 before:



6-9 after:

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +3/-1
Re: Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2024, 06:25:20 AM »
Two possible answers:


(a) They're trying to make it harder, and some former [or wannabe] PGA TOUR setup guy gave them the dimensions to follow.


(b) Maybe it saves them a bit of water to not mow so much grass so tight?

Don Mahaffey

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2024, 08:50:51 PM »
Or they only have one fairway mower working  ;D   Actually not beyond the realm of possibility as equipment is still crazy impacted by supply chain issues.


Hard to believe anyone would think fwys that narrow are a good idea.

mike_beene

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2024, 11:39:45 PM »
Some very creative street names.

Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2024, 01:50:18 PM »
I've tried to find a good reason for narrowing the fairways that much. I can't. I played the course once and didn't find it difficult, but it was enjoyable. Now it will be more difficult be less enjoyable.


Thanks for the pictures. It took some work to do them.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2024, 08:05:51 PM by Tommy Williamsen »
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Steve_ Shaffer

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2024, 03:53:08 PM »
Here is a news article on the tournament:Oklahoma won the team event at 8-under. Auburn finished three strokes behind Oklahoma to secure second place and Texas finished in third at 2-over. Florida’s Ian Gilligan won the individual competition at 8-under.Read more:https://thedailyaztec.com/116984/sports/mens-golf-places-sixth-at-southern-highlands-collegiate-in-las-vegas/
« Last Edit: March 02, 2024, 03:55:18 PM by Steve_ Shaffer »
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AChao

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« Reply #6 on: March 03, 2024, 02:46:20 AM »
I can probably add some to this as I'm reasonably familiar with what is going on there.  All of the above suggestions are all good, logical, but mostly not what drove this change (except making it harder which was a goal).
Yes, the golf course has gone from one where you would hit almost all the fairways to now being so narrow that it's extremely difficult to hit the fairways off the tee.  Think going from 11/14 to 5/14. 

The club does have some very good players, but they did not have a say in this, and they are not behind the super narrow fairways.  The developer had hoped for a major championship to be held at the club many, many years ago, but the largest tournament he was offered wasn't big enough so the club has not and will not host a tournament.  The club did host one round of the Las Vegas PGA Tournament for a while, but that created many problems with the overseeding schedule, so that will most likely not return.
Tom is correct in part of his (a) in that greater difficulty was a goal.  The fairway lines were actually done by an architect (not PGA Tour or wannabe type).  It is a little odd that some bunkers seem like the are just hanging-out in the rough.

One of the generally accepted reasons for this fairway narrowing was to save water, but this really isn't the case.  If you look at grass width and all the other opportunities to reduce water use, the narrowing of the fairways has not had much of an effect on that.
One fact of the rough is that it has actually been substantially longer than it ever has been, and it was cut-down and was relatively short for the college tournament that occurred last week.  The scores were relatively high because it was windy, not because the rough was tough.  Also, some hole locations were pretty difficult.  The course played pretty firm and fast.

With respect to the one mower theory, the owners are pretty good at sparing no expense to make the golf course luxuriously maintained.  If the superintendent wanted another mower or 20, I'm pretty sure the question would just be which ones?  Before the Covid boom, I would say the course was maintained as well as The Quarry in La Quinta or Shadow Creek on a daily basis.  Rounds have gone up from 12,000 ish pre-Covid to something over 30,000 now probably.

Lastly, with respect to street names.  The person who did the street names wanted them to have golf themes ... part of the development is called "Augusta Canyon", and another "Masters", but there area actually very strict rules on naming streets in Las Vegas with a large driver of whether a street can be named something or another being that an ambulance driver or firefighter needs to unambiguously know which street he or she is going to.  If you go away from the course, there are streets named after great golf courses.
Historically, many people on tour who played in the college tournament have loved the tournament when they look back on it.  The club/staff really goes all-out to put-on a great tournament and kudos to the owners as they really want to give-back to UNLV and the community. 

Matt_Cohn

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Southern Highlands (Las Vegas)
« Reply #7 on: March 03, 2024, 12:21:01 PM »
Thanks. It’s funny that as they’re going from 12,000 rounds to 30,000 rounds they’d want to make it more difficult. You think that would be a good reason to make things easier to keep up the pace of play. If they decide to stick with those fairway widths, I wonder if they’ll do some bunker work in the future to match.