Las Vegas Golf

Sin City is less sinful than it used to be — even the town's old mantra of what happens here stays here has been reduced to a cutesy commercial tagline. But golfers looking for an illicit high still can find some action. Staying in one of MGM Mirage's 37,000 hotel rooms gets you through the gate of the most famous — and formerly the most exclusive — course in town.

Shadow Creek Golf Club
7,239 yards, par 72;
Greens fee: $500
866-260-0069, shadowcreek.com

Shadow Creek is golf's Brigadoon — a mythical place that precious few have actually laid eyes on. There are two reasons for this: For years it was open only to high rollers at Steve Wynn's Mirage casino, and even now — when the course is open to guests at all MGM Mirage properties — the fee is a high-rollin' $500. But despite its infamous $40 million price tag — in 1989 dollars — Shadow Creek is no typically gaudy totem of Synthetic City.

True, the course offers not a hint of the surrounding desert. (The only sand you'll see is in the bunkers.) Instead, Tom Fazio's design conjures a Carolinas feel with treelined corridors and more rises and falls than a novice's chip stack. But what you get for your five notes is one fine hole built upon another until you reach a show-stopping finale at Nos. 17 and 18.

The strong holes actually begin at the fourth, an eye-catching par 5 that curls around a lake, followed by a 206-yard par 3 at which your tee shot is played across the roof of a mini-forest. One interesting quirk here: The course has no UGSA handicap or slope rating because it's designed to be a match-play track. This is Vegas, after all, home of the $1 million Nassau.

It's easy to dismiss Shadow Creek as a mere feat of engineering, a symbol of what you can do with flat desert if you have an unlimited bankroll. It's surely that, but much more as well. Perhaps the best tribute to Shadow Creek is that the finest course in Las Vegas — one designed as a playground for the town's biggest bettors and still the pinnacle of glitter-speckled golf — makes you forget where you are. It's simply great golf. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less.

Bali Hai Golf Club
7,002 yards, par 71;
Greens fee: $245-$295
888-427-6678, balihaigolfclub.com

Located right on the Strip in the shadow of the Mandalay Bay casino, Bali Hai is known for its South Seas feel and Augusta white-sand bunkers. Designed by Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley in 2000, it's a tropical test of accuracy. If you want a quick 18 before dashing back to the tables, there is no better location. Bali Hai is operated by Walters Golf, which has an affiliation with the MGM Mirage to ease passage for resort guests onto its four courses.