The word about Bali Hai Golf Club in Las Vegas is that the course here is the easiest to get to from the Strip, one of the most challenging in the area, that the staff here was recruited from the roster of hotel showgirls and that it’s among the best to play if you have the time to tee it up just once on the trip to Sin City.
After getting in 25 holes of golf on a steamy afternoon this summer, I can attest to all of the above (except for maybe the showgirls part) and add this about Bali Hai – it might be the most fun course in Vegas.
In fact, a round at Bali Hai is worth the trip all on its own. And our base of operations for our trip, Resorts World Las Vegas, made the visit even more fun and memorable.
A Las Vegas standout
Bali Hai epitomizes the glitz and glamor of a visit to Las Vegas. Unlike some of the high ticket price private options in the area, Bali Hai is a public-access course, and it’s the most visible golf option for those that fly into Harry Reid International Airport.
With planes flying into and out of the airport that is just south of the facility, there are times that they are so close you can see faces in the windows. If you are an airplane buff, it’s a cool aspect that accentuates the golf.
When you tee it up at Bali Hai, the Vegas experience is around every turn. The course is located at the south end of the Strip, with its clubhouse in the shadow of the golden glare of the Luxor and the Mandalay Bay Casino Resorts. Just across the highway and to the southwest of Bali Hai is gleaming Allegiant Stadium, the new home of the Las Vegas Raiders.
Bali Hai is certainly an oasis in the desert, and that’s what it was designed to be by Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley. When it opened in 2000, it was almost at the edge of town – in fact the famous “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign at the end of the Strip is on Las Vegas Boulevard as it runs alongside the course’s fifth fairway.
Breaking down the course
Schmidt and Curley routed a course with a seven-acre lake and directed the planting of more than 4,000 trees and over 100,000 Balinese tropical plants to help define the fairways on the routing and distinguish the path that often brings side-by side holes into play. The edges are accented with Augusta white sand and black volcanic rock outcroppings – all of which make Bali Hai unique among the courses in the Vegas area.
The course has mostly wide fairways, with its edges built up to help wayward shots stay in play and keep the round moving as briskly as possible. It’s carded at 7,002 yards from its back set of four tees and plays as a par-71.
After opening with a short par-4 and a 538-yard par-5 that can be attacked in two shots, the par-4 third (nicknamed Shipwreck) hits you square in the face. Nothing to the right is good on this 468-yard dogleg right. You can likely get a shot back at the drivable 324-yard par-4 fourth but be careful not to be distracted by the traffic near the Las Vegas sign to the left as you play the aforementioned 392-yard par-4 fifth, which ends at a green guarded on the right by a pond.
You’ll play over that water hazard and slightly downhill on the 168-yard sixth, a par-3 that’s built into a bowl. Grip it and rip it on the 550-yard seventh; on the approach here play your shot dead into the forehead of Teller on the billboard that’s along the highway to the rear of the putting surface here.
The front-nine ends with a bang with the 482-yard par-4 eighth and the 208-yard ninth, a par-3 that ends hard against the clubhouse.
The back-nine at Bali Hai plays considerably more difficult than the front. The 10th is a reachable par-5 at just 526 yards, and then comes the 190-yard par-3 11th that features a deep bunker on the left from tee to past the green. From there, you’re onto three straight tough holes from the 12th to the 14th, par-4s of 440 and 468 yards followed by a massive 250-yard par-3.
No. 15, a 546-yard par-5, is one of the few places on the back-nine to really gain a shot but beware of the deep bunker on the right about 25 yards short of the greens complex that seems to swallow up shots.
The 16th is just 141 yards from the back tees but has a huge slope on its putting surface that moves balls back toward the pond that fronts the green and to the left. The all-or-nothing hole is in the shadow of the clubhouse so expect a little pressure from the folks watching on the deck behind it.
Bali Hai ends with back-to-back par-4s – both of which are carded at 486 yards. They couldn’t be more different though as the 17th runs downhill and away from the clubhouse and the closing 18th is a little flatter and usually downwind with an approach over a pond to the shallow green, the final full shot of the round.
The course conditions were excellent on our trip, and the experience as a whole was top shelf. The facility also sports a plush, 32,000-square-foot clubhouse that includes the Cili Restaurant & Bar, which serves gourmet cuisine for lunch and dinner with spacious indoor and outdoor patio seating that can accommodate 450 people.
The facility’s Cabana restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and on-course beverage/snack carts are staffed by attendants ranked as the “Best Cart Girls in Vegas” on a consistent basis.
All in all, Bali Hai is a great place for a round, or to host tournaments, banquets, wedding receptions or special events. It’s the place to head if you are in Vegas for a bachelor party, or just a short getaway.
Resorts World Las Vegas brings luxury to every price point
Our visit to Vegas included a stay at Resorts World, set about 15 minutes north of Bali Hai on the old Stardust site on the Strip’s northern confines. Resorts World offers stay-and-play options with Bali Hai, with costs depending on availability, the date of your trip, and on which of the three hotel properties at Resorts World you stay in.
The facility opened in June 2021 and was the first new resort to be built on the Las Vegas Strip in more than a decade. Resorts World is the home of three lodging options in the Hilton family: the Las Vegas Hilton (with 1,774 rooms), the mid-level Conrad (1,496 suites) and the luxurious Crockfords, which is its own lavish boutique hotel and offers 236 rooms and suites with upscale amenities.
Resorts World’s casino is bright, spacious and new, and it offers ample gaming space for you to enjoy after a round of golf. The resort’s 5.5-acre pool complex is the largest in Las Vegas.
There are also 40 restaurants on site and the luxurious Awana Spa, which features a handful of unique treatments and experiences.
This place is so big and so fun you’ll likely not want to go anywhere else in Vegas, except, of course, for the golf course.
