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The Rawling Financial Las Vegas Trip 2000
Sunday November 5 to Thursday November 9
Click here for pictures from the trip
Story below picture
The Vegas Warriors
Top L-R: John Newman, Doug Maus, Randy Hicks & Hugh Rawling
Bottom L-R: Chris Newman, Bob Maloley, Bob Keegan & Craig Henderson
We arrived in Vegas around noon and drove our vans 80 minutes northeast to the growing golf Mecca in Mesquite, Nevada. After checking into the Casablanca Resort we went out to their range and hit balls. That's what Tiger Woods' book said to do. The hotel was of a smaller scale to Vegas, but had a great pool area. We especially enjoyed visiting the hot tub, which became a ritual after a stressful day golfing.
The first course we played was "Casablanca Golf Club" and it was challenging with its new design. Often a section of 50-75 yards of desert had to be cleared to make the fairway. On the second day golfing, you can see in our pictures the dramatic change in elevations at the brand new course "Wolf Creek". This was a $50 million dollar US (Is that a billion Canadian?) gem that was discovered while Craig was reading an article about it during our van ride to Mesquite. Being flexible, we cancelled our plans to play "Oasis G.C.", which we plan to catch next year, and booked into the "Wolf" and it almost ate me. Can you find the 2nd tee where we tricked by our un-named foursome ahead of us? They convinced us to play from the "pro tees" instead of the "regular tees". They were 1100 feet above the fairway and 280 yards of carry to the fairway. Chris made it by a few feet and three of us will never see our balls again.
The final 2 nights were spent at a classic strip hotel "The Mirage". The Samba Grill was the perfect choice for growing boys after 2 rounds of golf. Unlimited beef, chicken, lamb and ham carved off a spit at your table, Brazilian style.
The 3rd and final round was at the "Desert Inn Golf Club." Which has been a fixture of the pro tour since the 1950's. It was gentle after the 2 first courses. I managed 5 pars, which is amazing considering my golfing ability. By September 2001, this course is scheduled to be bulldozed to make room for a new hotel. It was nice to play for the last time. These are the last golfing pictures with Vegas landmarks in the background.
The final day came as tears welled up in everyone's eyes. (That's not true.) We had such a nice time that half our group ended up spending an extra day in Vegas.
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