Mesquite, Nevada—
Tournaments, Casinos and
Scenery
By BRUCE VITTNER
We’ve found a new place to go for a vacation during the winter. A place where it
is warm, can wager a few pesos, and most importantly can compete in a golf
tournament on excellent courses.
The Mesquite Couples Championship is a three-day event using full handicaps and
the Stableford scoring system. The second annual event was held February 13-15,
and this writer had the good fortune of competing in it. I couldn’t convince my
better half to be my partner, so Marty Rapson, Director of Marketing for the
CasaBlanca, Oasis and Virgin River Casino and a board member of the Mesquite
Resort Assn., agreed to be my partner. Thank goodness.
Notice the dates of the tournament. It is always held around Valentine’s Day and
there are themed dinners for two evenings and an awards luncheon at the end of
the tournament. The entry fee includes a practice round and two rounds of
competition with carts, the dinners, boxed lunches during the competition and
thousands of dollars in credits for golf products and equipment as prizes given
to the top ten places in each division. That’s for both of you!
“We want couples to have a great time, and also see how they do in competition,”
said Rapson, who proved to play better than her handicap and helped carry us to
an eighth place finish in our division. I didn’t help much. Must be the winter
rust. Maybe just a lack of talent.
The couples are divided into groups by combined handicap of the two players. “We
had men and women who were scratch handicaps up to quite a high number,” said
Mark Lynch, Tournament Director for the Mesquite Couples and the Mesquite
Amateur, a five-day event held every May, who went on to say that the average
handicap for men was 13 and the average for women was 23. There were people from
18 states and two Canadian Provinces competing. We played with a couple from
Utah the first day and a couple from Vancouver the final day.
“This was our first Mesquite Couples tournament,” said Carolyn Collins from
Motaque, Cal. “We played in the Mesquite Amateur last May and heard from some
who played about what a wonderful event the Couples tournament had been, so we
decided to play. My husband and I love Mesquite. It is a small town with
beautiful courses and the elevation changes are so pretty to see,” she added.
Mesquite is known for the RE/MAX World Long Drive Contest held annually and
carried on ESPN. We could see the grid lines still set up on a flat piece of
land next to the Virgin River. What a unique place. Mesquite is 85 miles
northeast of Las Vegas, but it only takes a little over an hour to get there
from Las Vegas airport. The drive is through barren land along the interstate,
although Lake Mead sits just a few miles east of the highway. When you get to
Mesquite it seems like an oasis. In fact one of the five casinos in town is
called the Oasis.
John Marshall of Georgia, who is a long-drive champion and does marketing for
Mesquite Golf, said when I asked for directions, “You’ll know when you are
there, and you’ll know if you missed it. There is an exit at the beginning of
town and the next exit (two miles away) is the end of town.
This small size did not keep the townsfolk from building beautiful golf courses.
“There are six courses in town and we use three courses in St. George, Utah as
part of the Golf Mesquite package,” said Marty Rapson who diplomatically said
that she didn’t have a favorite. “They are all a little different, and all fun
to play,” she added. The only course in town not on the Golf Mesquite package is
Wolf Creek, a new design carved out of the sandstone in the highest part of the
fast-growing Town of Mesquite.
We managed to get to Utah for a practice round. Mesquite is one mile from the
Arizona border and twenty miles from Utah. St. George is only 45 miles from
Mesquite on the Interstate and you travel through the Virgin River Gorge that
took eight years to blast out to complete the highway. The views are
spectacular. We played Coral Canyon (www.coralcanyon.com)
and it was true high desert golf. The rock formations, shades of color as the
sun hit the mountainside, and the pretty layout makes this a must play. Just be
careful when you make your tee time, Utah is on Mountain Time.
The CasaBlanca Resort-Hotel-Casino-Golf-Spa was our host for the tournament. A
fine restaurant, excellent buffet, great spa, pretty golf course and a full
casino make this an excellent option if you want to get away from the hustle and
bustle of Las Vegas. We flew into Las Vegas directly from Providence on
Southwest Airlines. We visited and toured the Hoover Dam and were still in
Mesquite four hours after landing.
We will go back, maybe even some day to play in the Mesquite Amateur. The
relaxed pace and well-run tournament makes for a delightful vacation. You can
find out more about the tournaments at
www.CasaBlancaResort.com
or
www.golfmesquitenevada.com, or calling 1-800-459-7529. For the
Mesquite amateur visit
www.mesquiteamateur.com or call
1-888-711-4653 ext. 5-1.
Bruce Vittner is a member of the Golf Writers Assn. of
America and can be reached at
bruce@oceanstategolfinc.com.
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