The Las Vegas Strip at 6:30 a.m. is a strange cocktail. With the heft of partiers, hustlers and families from Iowa still sleeping off the evening previous, what’s left in the pre-dawn calm are those trying to suck one last gasp from an endless night.

And then there are the driven, those in caps and slacks starting the day at this aberrant Vegas hour: The golfers.

For what the foreground Strip presents in morning leftovers, the backdrop of Nevada beyond is actually quite beautiful, with the peach sunrise spreading across sentry mountain surrounds and ceaseless desertscape. It is this latter landscape that the golfer seeks at 6:30 a.m. in Las Vegas, away from the clatter and din of a 4.2-mile stretch of party pavement that has forever defined what this place is all about.

Today’s Las Vegas traveler seeking green turfgrass in lieu of green felt now has ample options to make the destination much more than a mere gamble getaway.

CARDS DOWN, TEE UP

Compliments of a pair of Rees Jones-designed sister courses owned by VICI Properties and managed by CDN Golf (an affiliate of Cabot), a Sin City getaway can now be more “Open Doctor” than Dr. Gonzo. And, since the debut of the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020, the SoCal pipeline taking a swift four-hour drive or 45-minute flight across the desert has only enhanced the prescription.

Located 25 minutes southeast of the Strip, Rio Secco GC in Henderson presents an escape from the noise nexus, while offering elevated Vegas views to still provide a sense of connectivity. Carved through the Black Mountains’ desert-style, rock-lined residential communities, the routing’s nouveau riche architecture stands high above bowled fairways, and the oft-impressive homes never encumber play.

As for the city’s NFL home — the pigskin addition has seen an increase in of SoCal’ers on the Rio tee sheet.

“There’s a large contingent, especially since the debut of the football stadium, with a lot of fans still remembering the old L.A. Raiders,” says Adam Handren, assistant general manager at Rio Secco. “It’s a huge portion of our business, people coming out for the weekend, especially from California.”

Perennially included in the state’s “Best You Can Play” lists, the Rio routing includes a full-on Strip view from the burly and elevated box on the 452-yard par-4 second hole. While straightforward on its latter side, Rio’s elevated second begins an instant wake-up call on a tough, target-style run of holes that extends to the par-4 seventh.

“The holes aren’t all that long, but this stretch from Nos. 2-7 is particularly demanding; they all push you a bit more to get something in play,” details Handren. “And then, when you get to the eighth, it’s like, ‘Alright, I got through it,’ and then you can let it rip.”

Players arriving with cobwebs from the Vegas evening (or early morning) preceding will find some pre-round salve.

“Yeah, we have no shortage of people with the ‘Vegas Flu’ who show up for an early tee time,” smiles Handren. “So, what we’ve done is made these ‘Rally Packs.’ When we see a customer come in like that, we have these custom pouches which have a liquid I.V., a Honey Stinger Waffle, two Advil, a mint and then this thing called a Caffeine Bullet (caffeine chews). It’s like, ‘We can tell you’re hurtin’; here you go, and this will hopefully get you back on track.’”

A PLACE OF REFUGE

Ten minutes further south in Boulder City, the bold, open mountain bounty of Cascata GC wastes little time making a high-end impression. An annual and deserved entrant in the rankings of the nation’s Top 100 public courses, the comely club makes an impression from the deal card.

Guests are led to and through a main gate, a bag retriever, a caddie grotto, a reserved locker space and
the pro shop adjacent to the club’s indoor/outside waterfall. Throughout the pre-round journey, well-trained, ear-pieced staff guide the way.

“We just want to know where everybody is,” says Andy Elliott, general manager at Cascata, “in case a guest needs anything. The birds are chirping, you’ll see some wildlife out there. It’s just calm and peaceful. Maybe your previous night was crazy with a show, dinner, gambling; but then the next morning you come out here … and you have all this quiet space. A lot of our regulars come out a few hours before their round, just to chill, have lunch, hit balls, hang out and get away from the noise.”

Impressively set amid the River Mountain Range and cast with the privacy of individual/non-parallel holes throughout, the elevated grounds and stately round (which includes a well-needed forecaddie to navigate) narrate a Vegas getaway with an entirely different vibe. Quiet replaces cards; wildlife usurps whiskey; streams take the place of Strip solicitors.

“Tight and fast, from fairway to green, and the mountain views are special,” says Elliott of heights reaching 3,200 feet. “From some of the elevated tees, you can see for miles and miles to other mountain ranges and open desert.”

Playing uphill across the front side before the latter nine sports the inverse topography, scoring hopes should be kept in check for first-timers working with unsubtle lies and trying to read the pull of the mountain slopes.

“Even for low handicaps, to score out here, you need to have every shot in the bag,” says Elliott. “Yeah, you can pull driver all you want on the par 4s, but you have to be straight. That’s why you’ll see a range of clubs, from driving irons to hybrids to 3-woods, just to get in good positions.”

Akin to the Rio tee sheet, Elliott has seen Cascata’s SoCal connection grow even stronger since the Raiders’ debut.

“For our normal daily bookings, it’s about 13 percent of our play that comes from California,” says the GM.

And with everybody visiting Vegas on the hunt for a tip, the golf scene is not immune. To get in the know: Those seeking to play both Rio Secco and Cascata will find a solid bet with the dual grounds’ “Double Down” deal; to make the most of a group trip, avoid the toils of a personal course commute and prep a shuttle/Town Car/rideshare to escape the Strip/highway’s seemingly omnipresent construction and encumbrances; and, following a Sin City stay and play, don’t be a rube and get caught in the Sunday traffic slog driving back to SoCal.

“The shuttles of, say, 12 to 20 players, that’s really common in our busy season,” concludes Elliott of the Strip-to-Boulder City commute. “People can hang out, ready their bets, get their pickup at the hotel, hop on, Solo cup in hand and not worry about driving. It’s actually pretty rare in our busy season to even have a lot of private vehicles in our lot. We see mostly Ubers, limos and shuttles.”

Whatever the vehicle or mode, getting away from the Vegas Strip for a handful of hours and trading greenbacks for green grasses is the best wager most will make the whole trip.