Course Review My Epic Las Vegas Trip with a Review of Cascata Golf Club

lauzgolfer

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Hi Fellow Hackers,

I just wanted to share my awesome trip to Las Vegas with you folks, I'll clearly mark the review of Cascata Golf Club so anyone that is purely interested in just the review of the course can skip down to that.

***TLDR - Sharing my amazing time in Vegas. Charged $7,000+ to the room, all comped and somewhere in here is a review of Cascata golf club.***

This trip was an out of the blue, non-anticipated trip. Long story short, my timeshare gave me bonus points without notifying me, by the time I found out, it was too late to deposit the points for use next year so had to force a trip. Told wifey to try to find some girlfriends to go away with because I had been on several one or two night getaways with the boys since we had our son March 2018. She wasn't able to find anyone on short notice so she suggested I take my best friend Dave, who is always down to go to Vegas and has the money and job flexibility to pretty much drop everything at his whim. So far everything is pretty normal and mundane, right? Here's where it gets good...

Dave proceeds to tell his dad, who is an uber high-roller at Caesar's Palace, about this plan of me taking on the accommodations for Dave and my Vegas trip. I guess he thought to himself, you want to treat my son well? I'll do one better for you both! Dave's dad ends up calling his Vegas VVIP concierge/host (I did not type an extra "V", that apparently exists) and tells him "J.R., my son and his friends are coming to Vegas from this day to this day, take care of them". Took care of us J.R. did.

As we land and exit towards the baggage area, there is a driver waiting for us with a sign with Dave's name on it. J.R from Caesar's had arranged for limo pick up from the airport. Upon checking in, about 5 hours too early, we did not have to wait a second even though the assigned rooms we had were not ready, they quickly got us into rooms that were ready and were similar. Check-in desk has a message from J.R. for us before they let us leave. We are to charge everything to Dave's room, not my room and everything except gratuity will be wiped off the bill! I've been to Vegas 7 times now and this is the first time, I've had the pleasure of riding the "private high-roller" elevators. It's a regular elevator, but it only goes up to the penthouses. On the way down, if no penthouse guests are using the elevator, then it acts like a normal elevator picking up other guests on the way down. But if there is a high-roller, it once again becomes an express elevator straight down to casino floor.

We order some room service to settle in before we start gambling. Hit the tables and had some decent luck, doubled my money in about 3 hours, before heading to Nobu for dinner where we ate like kings! Amazing food over at Nobu. We tried a little of everything, but the highlight was the hot stone wagyu beef. Do a little more gambling, lose about half of my winnings back to the casino and call it a night cause we had an early start the next day.

Dave isn't really a golfer, but he's usually more than willing to go out for a round. For him, spending $100-200 to spend 4 - 5 uninterrupted hours with the boys while joking around and having drinks is nothing. He loves the outdoors and smokes like a chimney so it all works out for him. He's also a giant kid at heart and loves driving the golf cart around. So a couple of days before we leave, I ask Dave whether he wants to see if we can get J.R. to comp a round of golf. He shoots out the text to J.R. and next thing we know, we're booked to play Cascata with limo transfer arranged and club rental was up in the air. Either way, we decide we're going to play it purely based on it's exclusivity regardless of whether the rentals would be comped or not.

-------------CASCATA REVIEW SECTION---------------------

The Clubhouse:

We wake up early in the morning, go down to grab some coffee and pastries for breakfast and head over to the limo check in. We request an earlier departure which is arranged immediately. Have a smoke and then ready to go. Enjoyed the scenery as we headed out of the city to Cascata. Pull up to the front iron gates and limo driver announces us. When we pull up to the clubhouse, the shop manager and our caddie are already waiting to greet us and grab our non-existent bags from the trunk. Caddie tells us he will deal with the rentals, load up the cart with water, etc, and that when we're ready just to head downstairs where he'll be waiting. We go inside the clubhouse and I'm instantly in awe. The 400+ ft waterfall that runs from the top of the mountain ends up running into and through the clubhouse. The sound and feel of rushing water under your feet when checking into a golf shop is weird, but amazing. We get ready and head downstairs. The carts are set up indoors. Caddie greets us again and says when you're ready, just drive towards those doors and they'll open up to the practice facility. It felt like we were embarking on a ride at an amusement park, in a good way.

The Range:

Absolutely beautiful. Extremely well maintained and could hardly notice any damage from others. Definitely noticed mine when I chunked a couple, but I blame those swings on getting used to the rental clubs. Before anyone asks, no idea what kind of rentals they had for me, but they were Callaway and brand new cause I'm a lefty. They hit nice, but I was missing my clubs during the round. Best part of the range is it is set up right in front of the waterfall coming down from the mountains. Probably the prettiest driving range I've ever seen in my life!

The Course:

This is really sad to say, but the course itself was not amazing. Don't get me wrong, it is a beautiful setting, great scenery, lots of wildlife and immaculately maintained. But the course just wasn't anything to write home about. I get that this is subjective, but I have been fortunate in my life to play some really spectacular courses. The greens were amazing though, everything rolls true, if your caddie and you pick the right line, and you hit it straight, it's going in the cup.

The Caddie:

We had Ryan and he was amazing. Super chill. As mentioned, Dave isn't really a golfer so Ryan tailored his approach to us respectively. Was very encouraging of Dave and his newbie swing. Not forcing him to play when Dave wanted to pick up, but also not forcing Dave to not play when he wanted to and was being slow. Very thoughtful of our enjoyment of the entire experience. He was always on point, gave great advice as to where to hit, what the safe play is, what most people want to do and what to watch out for if I'm going to take the high risk shot, etc. Only gave me a bad read once out of 18 holes. No one's perfect. He was harder on himself than I was about that. Never had a dirty club face, typical caddie role was filled to perfection. Couldn't ask for more regarding his personality and attitude. Matched Dave and my style very well.

The Experience as a Whole:

If you go just for the course and the golf, you will probably be sorely disappointed with how much you have to pay to play there. There is much better golf to be had in Vegas for $400 USD - two rounds to be had in fact! However, it was an experience and a half. Right from when you arrive, you are treated like royalty. They seem very good at tailoring to your specific needs. Zero rush whatsoever, we didn't see a single other soul out there (other than the cart girls). We were even able to stop in the middle of the 13th fairway to eat lunch. Ryan almost yelled at me when I was walking away from the cart with hot dog in hand thinking about my next shot. He was legitimately surprised that I was ready to eat and play at the same time. Ryan also had some good stories to tell us about the times he's caddied for celebrities and actual royalty. If you had the money to spend on an "experience", I'd 100% recommend, or if you are lucky like me to get on there for just the cost of club rental!

My performance:

I actually feel I did quite well considering I was using rentals and the putter was a mallet and I use a blade (just couldn't get used to hitting it, couldn't putt straight to save my life). Ended up shooting a legit 93 (5 pars) and was complimented by caddie Ryan that I'm better than most that he's caddied for. I was surprised at that, but I guess I just need to spend less time on here with all you borderline pros...LOL!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

We get back to the hotel and get ready for dinner at Rao's. Nothing to write home about. Food was ok. We ate there because Giada's restaurant at the Cromwell was fully booked. Passed out and missed our comped show due to dying from the desert heat, we may or may not have gotten heavily inebriated while on the course.

Did a spa day at Caesar's for our final day. Their spa is awesome and has Roman Baths for use included with the massage otherwise there is a day-pass that can be purchased. Spent a couple hours in there plus the massage. Head out to Gordon Ramsay Steak at Paris for our final dinner. Really good steak, but can't say it's the best I've had. The presentation and the live steak menu they bring out were really cool. Hit the tables until 30 minutes past when our limo was supposed to take us to the airport cause Dave had won $1350 in 40 mins after dinner. Had to drag him away from the tables to not miss our flight.

All in all, we probably charged about $7000 plus the actual cost of the rooms and it was all comped. Probably shelled out about $500 in tips, but I'd do that in a heartbeat given the chance again. Now it's back to normal life. As my friend Dave texted me this morning..."Plug me back into the Matrix, PLEASE!!!"

Hope my fellow hackers have a great closing round! I've decided to stop playing for the rest of this year, don't think I could top this as my closing round for 2019.
 

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Awesome write up, and sounds like a one-of-a-kind trip!
 
Sounds like a great time and getting to see how the other half do things. Nice job on this.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The pic with the bighorn sheep on the course is awesome!
 
Nicely done. I'm excited to test this place out for myself next month.
 
Really enjoyed taking a couple of THPers to Cascata this year in Shaft Up.
 
Man that’s one hell of a trip.
 
Nice review. Cascata is nice and welcome to the high roller life!
 
Vegas baby!!! Sounds like a hell of a trip and so awesome so much got comped!
 
Got a photo of a road runner as well, but he was moving so it was blurry as hell. Those big horns though, we got pretty close, maybe 10-15 ft. Caddie Ryan said, just make sure to keep the cart between you and the sheep.
 
@Mooseknuckle....you're going to love it! Ryan was an amazing caddie, I'm sure they all are. But if you or any of your playing partners will live the "green" life while in Vegas, Ryan is good, he's cool with it.
 
Great write-up. Pretty cool that you got to see a few bighorn sheep during your round. I definitely enjoyed my round there (see below) in the Spring.


Really enjoyed taking a couple of THPers to Cascata this year in Shaft Up.

 
@Mooseknuckle....you're going to love it! Ryan was an amazing caddie, I'm sure they all are. But if you or any of your playing partners will live the "green" life while in Vegas, Ryan is good, he's cool with it.
Just might have to request Ryan for our round.
 
Looks like a great time! It’s a kick living the high life for a few days. Both of my trips to Pebble were like that. I was the client, so everything was comped.
 
Looks like a great time! It’s a kick living the high life for a few days. Both of my trips to Pebble were like that. I was the client, so everything was comped.

It's really a different world living the high life. And I fully realize that we only saw a glimpse of it. Dave was telling me that when he goes down with his dad, rather than with his dad's blessings as we did, it is not uncommon for them to charge $30,000+ to the room in the same amount of time that we were down there. The room his dad gets isn't even a room, they usually put him up in one of the 3 bedroom villas. But that is because believe it or not, Dave's dad used to be an MGM guy, but he left them for Ceasars because MGM wouldn't let him bet more than $25,000 a hand!
 
It's really a different world living the high life. And I fully realize that we only saw a glimpse of it. Dave was telling me that when he goes down with his dad, rather than with his dad's blessings as we did, it is not uncommon for them to charge $30,000+ to the room in the same amount of time that we were down there. The room his dad gets isn't even a room, they usually put him up in one of the 3 bedroom villas. But that is because believe it or not, Dave's dad used to be an MGM guy, but he left them for Ceasars because MGM wouldn't let him bet more than $25,000 a hand!

Yeah, it’s interesting to see firsthand. I was the poorest guy at Pebble by a long shot, but that paled in comparison to the member/guest tourney I was fortunate enough to play up in Flagstaff this year.

There’s “I have a ton of $ and want to impress everyone with it” rich, which is what I saw at Pebble, then there’s “I have so much $ that I haven’t really even thought about it in a long time” rich, which was the crew I played with in Flagstaff. Much more laid back, easy to be around, no one talked about work or money or seemed like they were trying to impress or whatever. Very different demographic than the Pebble crowd.

I don’t meet the financial qualifications for either group, haha.
 
Yeah, it’s interesting to see firsthand. I was the poorest guy at Pebble by a long shot, but that paled in comparison to the member/guest tourney I was fortunate enough to play up in Flagstaff this year.

There’s “I have a ton of $ and want to impress everyone with it” rich, which is what I saw at Pebble, then there’s “I have so much $ that I haven’t really even thought about it in a long time” rich, which was the crew I played with in Flagstaff. Much more laid back, easy to be around, no one talked about work or money or seemed like they were trying to impress or whatever. Very different demographic than the Pebble crowd.

I don’t meet the financial qualifications for either group, haha.

I know exactly what you mean! Not that my parents and their friends are flashy and in your face about it, but I'd probably classify them in the first group. They're all business owners and have made good money in their working years. They don't exactly flaunt it, but it's that "class" of people. They want nice cars, nice houses and are proud of what they achieved for themselves. Dave's dad is the haven't thought about it group.

I don't meet the financial qualifications either - I don't think I even meet the financial qualifications to be employed by the latter group! And for those that say, well your folks are well off so you are too. I counter with the fact that people are living much longer now-a-days and often times not in a happy/healthy way. The greatest fear for retirees is outliving their money. Plus a couple of really bad market cycles, bad luck or bad decisions will wipe out my parent's wealth pretty quickly. Dave's dad, not so much, would take a lot of each to wipe him out.
 
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