PRIMM VALLEY GOLF REVIEW

jdhallissey · November 24, 2011

Sorry this is so late- I had to finish a bathroom before thanksgiving and we all know how life gets lol. So here is the review I am about a week late on!

So I was in vegas and decided to play some golf. One of the members here is the assistant out at Primm ( thanks Jon for the help) we stayed at the golden nugget and headed out in the morning to play (bright blue-55 degrees on the drive out) Perfect morning for golf. It took us about 40 mins or so from the hotel too the golf course. Not a bad trip at all for anybody thinking it is to far of a drive. Honestly and course worth it will be the same distance from the strip. Pulling off the highway and onto the service road it is desert for as far as you can see then you get to the fenced in golf course (2-18s) and it is like your not even in the desert no more sand all grass and palm trees very nice. As your driving in you look left and see a massive driving/short game area more on this later. Continue on down the road to the cool clubhouse that is kinda just perched at the end of the road. We drop our bags and head in to say hi and all.

Pro Shop--

The pro shop is kind of small but has a great assortment of clothes/shoes/accessories. Met Jon, great guy even tho he should of taken the day off of work lol. Looked around the pro-shop ended up getting the tour yardage book ( my treats are yardage books whenever I play somewhere I get one).

Food(grill)--

Kind of disappointing in the food department since they had a water issue and they had no food besides sandwiches. They had no water at all for drinking. That was a fluke so I wouldn't worry about it in the future. I can tell you the turkey/ham wrap my dad got was pretty good tho!

We made our way to the range--

I went right to the short game area. They have 2 greens and a few bunkers around both... No the greens are on 2 different sides so you can play rough/fairway/bunker shots up to 110 yards or so. I warmed up here and then headed over to the massive driving range... You could probably put 150 people out there or more warming up with room to spare. The only issue I found with the range is you were looking back into the sun and couldn't see the balls land. Not a huge issue but still a great range with a lot of different greens at a lot of different numbers. One of the starters came over and said we had a 10min warning so we headed over to the tee.

Putting green---

Very smooth very true decent speed. Not as fast as Paiute (sun mountain) but I believed they rolled a little truer. So after a few warm up putts and we were off....

The golf course-- (lakes from the tips)

We were paired with a husband and wife and away we went...

We were then informed we were going off the back then to the front. I honestly really hate starting on the back of a golf course. The 10th hole on the lakes course is a devil to start out on. More on this starting routine later..

The golf course was in decent shape, There were a few brown spots but I only found 2 things unplayable all day... I found out that 3/4 of the bunkers have no sand at all but then some have sand... the 2 I found had sand they were damn near perfect. about 1in of sand then hard pack for perfect lies all the time (much like tour courses I have played). I then found a bunker on 17 with a front pin and no sand, I still managed to get it to hit the green but just ran off down into the collection area were I had the second worst lie of the day... I was in a burnt patch that was soaking wet on the downhill. So I ended up making double and getting out of there. Finished the 18th hole (our 9th) and go to make the turn and well we hit the traffic jam....

This is where we had a slight issue... The outside starter (probably mid 20's / my age) basically told us that we played to fast... We played in a hour and 35ish mins... Got to number one and told us we had to wait for 4 more groups to tee off before we could play. Now I have worked on a golf course most my life and I have played a lot of golf all over the world and have never run into this problem. If you play to there number of 2hrs and 30 mins there will be no wait when you make the turn. I was pissed, nothing like going even on the front and feeling like and in a good rhythm to coming to a stop sign.... So we talked to the starter some more and I don't think he as ever been asked the questions I have asked before. So we went inside for the wait and sat in the front area(nice leather couches comfy) then we headed back out. Interesting coming off of a 30 min break in play to swing a driver lol. Everybody made it off of the tee decently. Then we knew we were in for the long haul... We ended up playing the back in just under 3 hours and finished on what the course set out as there time to finish 18 holes. All in all I had a blast even with the waiting around on our back 9.

The design---

The course is sub 7000 but she is no push over. The back side of the course has a few monster par 3's. 2 hard par 4's and then the others you better score on or the course can eat you alive. I loved the layout, even the short par 4's had greens that protected them very well... I was sometimes taking 1-2 less clubs and hitting knock downs to cut all the spin off because you missed in the wrong spot and I spun a ball a good 50-60 feet back. Around 15-20 on my own then it caught the hill and was not stopping lol.

I would give the course a 8.5/10 in the fun/playable factor. The only reason it is not a 10 out of 10 is the bunkers and the way they setup the front/back nine starts.

This is not a golf course you pass up in playing wen you are out in vegas. I can say I will play this course every time when I am out there. Thanks you again Jon. I will keep in touch and when I am in Palm springs I might have to make the drive out one morning to play too! Any questions comments I will be here to answer them!

jdhallissey · November 25, 2011

Yes I am a idiot -- Somehow I put this in the midwest forum lol Can a mod please move this to the Southwest---

DaSportsGuy · November 25, 2011

Primm Valley...I found a ball mark repair tool at my home course from there.

sabram · December 3, 2011

Re:This is where we had a slight issue... The outside starter (probably mid 20's / my age) basically told us that we played to fast... We played in a hour and 35ish mins... Got to number one and told us we had to wait for 4 more groups to tee off before we could play. Now I have worked on a golf course most my life and I have played a lot of golf all over the world and have never run into this problem."

This is not a result of starting on the back 9 and is not unique to Primm. It can happen wherever the course starts groups off at the front and back nines (called double teeing)and can happen whichever 9 you start on. Courses double tee to maximize rounds. Playing too fast and hitting a delay at the turn has happened to me at several courses in Myrtle Beach. I know people who go to MB and won't play courses that "double tee", but that is a minority of the courses there during peak season. Last March at TPC of MB the ranger yelled at us for playing too fast around the 4th hole and warned us that we would have to wait at the turn if we continued our fast pace. So we joined up with the group of friends behind us and played a couple of holes twice as an eightsome to spend some extra time and arrive at the turn when they wanted us there. It ended up being a lot of fun. In any event kudos for playing your first 9 in 1 hr 35 min. as a foursome on a course you hadn't played before.

Here are links to my photos of Primm

[url="http://sports.webshots.com/album/557826506HYlPLl"]Primm Lakes[/url]

[url="http://sports.webshots.com/album/557831461nMfftu"]Primm Desert[/url]