Royal Links Golf Club

Golf Course Review Royal Links Golf Club Las Vegas Nevada

Reviewed by: roarksown1, Playa del Rey

Was very excited to play Royal Links for the first time, especially after reading recent reviews that were quite positive. What a difference a week makes? Everything was fine upon arrival and we got our cart and proceeded to the small but adequate driving range.

We tee’d off with a 2pm start time and there was a horrible smell and excavation work going on in the middle of the first fairway between tee and green. Sewer main broke perhaps? Either way, the landing area was a muddy, smelly mess. After that the course was okay, but it was certainly more dried out than I expected and the rough tall grass is almost impossible to find your ball in unless it’s just dumb luck.

The Review

Layout is of course very linksy and quite different to the standard fare. I actually enjoyed all of the hidden pot bunkers and trying to avoid them based on my phone GPS (carts really should have a GPS for those without their own – what are you actually paying over $100 for if you can’t play the course well without that knowledge?). Tee boxes were in pretty good shape (played the gold tees which were often hard to see since the grass was dried out), and the bunkers were okay but certainly not great.

Greens were definitely super slick and in great shape. Very fast, a lot of ‘turtle-back’ green complexes which made approach shots difficult, and fine coverage. It was very easy early to misread putts and simply tap them 10 feet past the hole. But with a few strokes, the speed became more apparent.

I enjoyed the tributes to The Open courses and the hole descriptions for each one – that’s a nice touch and makes it far more interesting. I was surprised that the Postage Stamp from the gold tees was playing at 165 yards! I though the whole point of that hole was the short distance?

Parting Thoughts

Cart service came around a few times on a perfect afternoon for twilight golf. Still, can’t help but feel that the price would be just fine if conditions were a little better than what they are right now. Are they letting it dry out for reseeding soon? If that’s the case, then poor planning on my part. If not, they should spruce the place up a bit IMHO.