Upon arriving the first thing you notice is the beautiful clubhouse. When you walk in to the right is a service attendant who will guide you to the pro shop on the right or to the very friendly bar and restaurant on your left. I checked in with Barry in the pro shop and paid my 55 dollars, tipped him a fin (5 dollars for good luck) and set out for our adventure. We went to the practice area which is setup very well. Hit a few balls on the range, chipped a couple and made a few putts to get the speed of the greens. Okay so here is where it gets ugly. As we made our way up to the first Tee we met Gino the starter. Gino was a great guy, professional, friendly and gave us wet towels, tee's etc..(tipped him a fin as well)However he informs us that a group of 5 from the Orchard golf Group just went out in front of us and that the Orchard group also had a foursome in front of them as well. What makes this even worse is that they had no tee times but wanted to put in a practice round before a tournament so management decided to put them in front of us(2 guys) also when we called out to book our adventure an hour earlier they told us the course was wide open. So back to the story, So we go to the first tee box and the nightmare begins. The 5 guys not only are playing the white tees but are the slowest people you have ever seen play golf. It was to funny, they would all go to one guys ball, watch him hit, then go to the next guys ball and so forth..WHAT ARE YOU DOING..So I don't keep repeating myself and sound like the biggest baby ever this went on all day..They never once offered to let our twosome play through, left burning cigarettes on the greens, in short no golf etiquette at all. we called the pro shop and also talked to the Marshall to see if we could play the front again or one of their other courses(they have 3) and they said no..we would have to suffer behind this slow boring horrible group who call themselves The Orchard Group..So Shame on Paiute for letting 9 people jump in front of paying guests with Tee-times, not to mention a group of 5 on a Sunday, and not letting us replay the front 9 or move us to another course That was Empty..Not a very good move for customer service on their part. As for the rest of the staff very very good. Marshall's, bag attendants and cart girls were fantastic.
Okay so now the Course..
The Wolf is a Pete Dye designed layout and from the back tees it plays like 7600 yards, so we moved up one to The Black Tees right around 7000 yards. With the wind whipping around out there it can play out to be a very challenging course. The course was in great shape, greens fast but a little bumpy. there are many beautiful holes, the par 5's are friendly but some of the long par 4's (460 plus) make up for it and of course the majestic par 3's are awesome. The par-3 15th on the Wolf Course is Dye's nod to the 17th at TPC Sawgrass. The hole plays to 182 yards from the back tees to a true island green connected to the rest of the course by a narrow footpath. While the green complex is almost twice the size of its north Florida cousin, the prevailing morning wind is in your face and club selection is of the essence. We hit 7 irons in from the Black tees and made it over the water with feet to spare..we both missed our birdie attempts but was very happy with tap in pars. I am sure many doubles and more are recorded on this beautiful par 3. All in all it was a good experience and we will be back to play the other courses, had great company with Mike, made 2 birdies and a couple double bogeys and some funny memories(thanks Orchard Group) here is the good, the Bad and the Ugly..
Good: beautiful designed course..great par 3's and good attendant service
Bad: The drive, quite a ways out of las Vegas
Ugly: bad customer service in management, forgetting about their paying customers and not realizing they made a mistake and taking action on it. Realize things happen but take care of the customers you have and they will return and bring more with them when they RETURN.
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