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Keegan Stokes of Walnut Creek, Calif., tees off at SouthShore Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010 | 2 a.m.
BY THE NUMBERS
$17,500
Once the price of first-year membership fees for SouthShore Golf Club. In a deal with Loews Las Vegas, the club is now allowing hotel guests to use the links. Lake Las Vegas and valley residents also can play.
$299
Package deal price for Loews hotel guests. Package includes the room, a round of golf, greens fees, and club and shoe rentals.
200
Number of golf members signed up since the course reopened in October under new management.
Timeline
Lake Las Vegas ad from 2006
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
An advertisement for Lake Las Vegas from 2006.
Surrounded by multimillion-dollar mansions and such neighbors as Celine Dion, the SouthShore Golf Club has long been one of the most exclusive courses in the valley — so exclusive that it almost turned away Vice President Joe Biden in November.
Biden eventually got in as an “owner’s guest.” The club’s original members had to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars, at a minimum, to get access to the course. The first year of membership fees alone cost as much as a new car, and to be eligible for membership, you had to own a lot in the guarded, gated custom-home community. SouthShore’s roster touts the likes of pro golfer and model Natalie Gulbis.
But the walls of exclusivity are crumbling under the weight of the recession.
The club quietly signed a deal with Loews Lake Las Vegas last month allowing the hotel’s guests onto the course for the first time. It means a round of golf that used to cost $17,500 just in first-year membership fees now can be had for $299 — and that includes a hotel room, rental clubs and a glimpse of what remains of the good life at Lake Las Vegas.
The nearly 7,000-yard, lakeside course was designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus. Golf Magazine lauded it in 1996 as one of the top 10 courses in the country.
But last year, like so many other businesses, the course fell on hard times. After it was foreclosed on in August, it was acquired by Rhode Island-based Textron Inc. The course reopened under new management and new rules in October. The greens and fairways once only open to SouthShore residents became available first to any Lake Las Vegas and eventually any Las Vegas Valley resident who was willing to pay a year’s worth of $625 monthly membership fees. The $10,000 initiation fee was waived.
Since it reopened, the club has signed up 200 golf members and 45 social members (people who use the course restaurant and other amenities), says its director of membership sales, Mark Barrett.
“Golf courses need to look at how they can do their business differently, especially private courses,” Barrett says. “We need more rounds and more revenue.”
That’s why the course signed its 18-month deal with Loews Lake Las Vegas in late February. It’s also why the SouthShore Homeowners Association, “after much discussion,” agreed to crack open the gates to its once-private course. The group approved the deal after winning some concessions regarding how golfers would access the course within the gated community and designation of certain times for resident-only play, association President Vicki Hafen Scott says.
“It’s a benefit to the community to have a healthy, vibrant golf community,” Hafen Scott says.
The course needs the golfers and Loews needs the course. Lake Las Vegas’ two public courses, The Falls and Reflection Bay, went into foreclosure and closed last year. Loews and the soon-to-close Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas rely heavily on meetings and small conventions, spokeswomen for each of the properties said. And where there are meetings and business deals to be had, there are executives looking for golf courses.
“It’s definitely going to help with groups that are golf-minded, but I also expect it to help our leisure business just as much as our meeting business,” Loews spokeswoman Jennifer Duffy says.
Other private courses in town say they don’t need to partner with local hotels. A spokeswoman for Southern Highlands Golf Club said it is remaining private, and the Anthem Country Club, one of three clubs in the valley owned by its members, said it’s also doing just fine without the public guests.
Anthem Country Club, which has a $41,000 first-year membership cost, currently has about 400 golf members and 700 members who use the club for dining and social events, Paul Anderson, its general manager and chief operating officer, says.
Last year, in fact, was the club’s most profitable yet, he adds.
“People stayed home and used the club instead of going to San Diego for the weekend or taking a trip to Europe.”
Sun Archives
- Lake Las Vegas: A shining lakeside oasis loses its luster (3-1-2010)
- Population dearth doomed Casino MonteLago at Lake Las Vegas (3-1-2010)
- Casino MonteLago at Lake Las Vegas to close next month (2-16-2010)
- Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas to close in May (2-8-2010)
- Current, past owners spar in Lake Las Vegas bankruptcy case (9-21-2009)
- Lake Las Vegas proposes bankruptcy plan (9-5-2009)
- Judge approves bankruptcy for Lake Las Vegas golf course (6-29-2009)
- Another golf course to close at struggling Lake Las Vegas (6-25-2009)
- Lenders seek control of Lake Las Vegas hotel (6-4-2009)
- Ritz-Carlton bought amid financial woes (3-24-2009)
- Residents of bankrupt Lake Las Vegas face uncertainty (3-23-2009)
- Lake Las Vegas can abandon golf course, judge says (1-15-2009)
- Resort golf course’s fate spurs debate (12-16-2008)
- Bridge over troubled water (5-24-2008)
- Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas spa and golf resort opens (2-11-2003)
sorry celine you have to play with us scum. oh by the way your show stunk.
actually with the reality in property prices hitting, this golf course is not surrounded by multi million dollar properties, it is actually surrounded be chicken wire, timber, stucco and big egos
Fore!
I wouldn't even think about paying $300.00 bucks to play on that golf course! And this course is surrounded by soon to be vacant multi million dollar shacks!! and formervegas76, show some respect Celine, she's my girl!!
Kinda looks like Afghanistan out there. Is that a strip mine in the background?
He needs to roll his right hand over just a tad...
Cargo shorts(I'm guessing),shirt not tucked in,shoes dont look like golf shoes to me,but I'll give the guy benefit of the doubt there.Hey the guy has $300 bucks to spend on a round of golf, so he may not look like the "country club type" who cares,$$$talks .
And he needs to shift his weight forward and off of his heels...
Someone mentioned that lake las vegas was being maintained as it has in the beginning.
Is that a burned out golf course I see in those pictures?
what a shame
It is my understanding that guests of the Montelago Village (Viera and Luna) can also play golf at Southshore as well.
I'm not sure what high temperatures dipstick is taking about? Hmmm...it's barely 80 degrees in Henderson right now. Perfect golfing temperatures. Goes to show, something positive happens and the usual peanut gallery is there to bring their negative opinions on just about everything.
The photo gallery Amanda put here (old non-current)is also the usual yellow negative slant reporting. (remember the dead turtle photo from another recent LVSun desert article) The Southshore Club was over seeded in the fall. The Reflection Bay and Falls were not. However, the dormant Bermuda Grass is now turning green again. It is not burned out.
Do you think Amanda would actually put in current photos in the gallery of the green courses which are STILL being maintained, watered and mowed. Of course not. In the LVSun usual manner, they still show dormant grass and a lock & chain. However, I do have to thank Amanda and the Sun for the nice cover photo showing the awesome view from the Southshore Course. How about adding more of those kind of photos to the gallery? :)
This change in the Southshore Golf Club membership just goes to show you that Lake Las Vegas is changing and adapting to the current times.
Pretty soon, the rising cost of "partially treated waste water" to make the grass grow will bring this golf course to its knees. Then the death total will be 3 golf courses, the only Ritz to fail in the US plus the late Casino Monte Lago - all in the dumpster. Maybe the Loews will become a Lowes, as in a hardware store.
The end is not in sight for this failed development located in the middle of nowhere.
As far as Biden goes he does his best work in a bar so leave him there.
You can get a full equity membership right now at Anthem Country Club for $6,400. The reason the club was "profitable" was due to extreme cost cutting and a tremendous amount of public play.
Good move. I have always hated the concept of private country clubs. Anyone with the money should be able to play, not only hotel guests.
that tee looks pretty ghetto to me,more like a "gasp" muni-course
They were promised "steak" and fed "beans"! Smart move on Loews. Don't want to be the last rat on a sinking ship.
Art where is your buddy BlondeinGV? I thought she would come out of the woodwork on this post!
Blows me away that some of you idiots have nothing better to say than to BASH anything that is printed...At least these guys are smart enough to work a plan to generate cash flow - or do you all NOT KNOW what cash flow is...?? At least give them credit for doing something - anything, is better than nothing...GGEEZZ sometimes, you all can't see past your TV set while you're trying to read your unemployment check!
Cut them some slack!!! Whatever they do is better than going out of business...Las vegas has plenty of that and you all seem to find the joy in watching your communities close up. It ruins lives, business and even your families - although you won't know it for sometime,,..
that $299 fee also includes a hotel room and clubs! No wonder the guy playing looks like he bought his clothes as Salvation Army!! (Does Gilligan know someone stole his hat?)
@Det_Munch
His attire is pretty standard for Walnut Creek. Unlike here, where ostentatious display is the rule, the laid back people from the East Bay don't need to flaunt how much money they have.
retiredyoungster :
Just want you to know that I am rolling on the floor laughing at you recent post up there!! Don't listen to fossimons, that was hilarious!! especially the part about the unemployment checks !! Hahahahahahah!!!
Art, I think this is an epic moment in history. You agreed with me. I'm doing just peachy! ( I hope the word peachy isn't too gay) :) Thanks for asking how I'm doing. :)
For the few posters that think the South Shore Club is bottom feeding and giving away the farm. I imagine the $299.00 is a starting "from" price. The room standard room at the Loews is probably $150.00, so the round of golf is still $150.00, not $50.00 or $25.00. $150.00 still isn't cheap, but probably more than 1/2 off the normal rates. This is a top 10 course. I'm sure many golfers are excited about being able to play for this price... and will.
I do take my hats off to Loews and Montelago Village for creating this ability to golf, which benefits everyone. I also just read on the Montelago Village website that the Loews and the Village are providing free shuttles to the strip for the hotel guests. Another way they are adapting to the current market conditions.
The Southshore Golf Club appears to be doing pretty solid. When the economy improves, I'm sure the current no initiation fee and $625 a month for golf will be history, so a good time to join.
An BK update for those interested. The April 15 exit date has been continued to 6/21. (you know delays the legal system) Carmel Land and Cattle, the owner of the Falls and Reflection Golf courses seem to be the constant cog in the wheel. (which is probably why the courses haven't been reconveyed to new owners)
They are doing what they have to do to survive in the current economic environment and I wish them the best of luck. It would be a shame to see this development not succeed.
Is this what they mean by trickle-down economics?
I have had the Priveledge of playing this course about 10 yrs ago when it was fairly new and if you're not a low handicap golfer you have no business on this course, it's that tough. I have seen the pros fall apart on this course, I wouldn't pay 3 dollars to play this course again. And the million dollar stucco castles that the rich people live in are UGLY .
I really love LLV and I am sure the area will pull through. I live on the opposite side of the city (Rainbow and 215) and still go to the village for a lot of their weekend events. I remember after 9/11 everyone thought this city would close down, but only 4 years later, the huge building boom hit; yes, I know, maybe a few too many hotel rooms and condos went up, but everything goes in cycles and if anything, I think this shows a road to recovery for LLV. Best of luck to Loews and hopefully someone will purchase the foreclosed properties and get the area back to what it is intended to be. Also, I went to eat sushi at Loews this weekend and the whole hotel was packed with people.
I just wonder how "retired youngster" is now defending the failed resort. Gotta' think he is stuck way underwater. Gurgle, gurgle, RT. It's ovah'.
"I really love LLV and I am sure the area will pull through."
Wrong
Another negative article by Amanda. Has she ever printed anything positive about llv? Being new to the area, that is my question. I noticed the negative articles and she doesn't do a lot of homework. She writes about the quiet negotiations with the Loews. Has she printed any articles about the companies trying to purchase Reflection or the Falls? If those deals get done, the golf courses are to open mid summer. The negotiations are ongoing and may be completed soon. A lot of work is going on with the courses right now. They look great. There is a lot of activity maintenance wise. I noticed that all of the pictures in her article are old and have been used before. Must be to lazy to go out and see it for herself and collect new ones. In regard to the comments by (fedup2here), they probably would not accept your 3 dollars and usually a deprived and jealous person would be part of a group that would not like the million dollar houses. I can't afford one either but they look good and the area is quite attractive.
I spent this last week traveling the las vegas area and it is by far one of the most attractive areas in the valley. Probable not for you. Did notice that (most all) golf courses in the valley have reduced their fees and have special deals. When trying out these courses, one would have to wonder if they are all as difficult as the lake or if its the negative person swinging the sticks. Picked up a used las vegas sun paper and noticed the ads reflecting the pricing. When traveling the valley, we often wondered how people got caught up and spent so much for these stucco houses that you speak about all over the valley. In doing the survey, we figure that most of the houses in the valley are overpriced by 40 percent. The fools that spent that much for rock and sand lots and then built overpriced houses that fools then purchased for stupid prices would make some wonder why. Basically, 80 percent of the houses have no views and have no space. The only reason most of these houses sold were do to the fact of low down payments and loose credit terms. It created the false demand and now it is reflected in the high volume of inventory. Doing research, you would find that houses that sold for say $ 450,000 can be purchased for
$ 275,000 to $ 300,000 and in some cases less.
There are houses in llv that sold for 1 million to 1.3 million that are in some cases $ 400,000 homes in other areas of the country.
I would like some background on why so many people have a negative view of llv. Also, why so much negative reporting from the lv paper.
Have a great Easter.
Was out at LLV on Easter. Great job to everyone that put the easter egg hunt together!!! Alot of happy little faces...
I too was in the village this past weekend. The village was hopping with Wine Walk Saturday night and the jazz concert on the lake.
And really "hopping" on Sunday with the Easter egg hunt. There were several thousand adults and children there throughout the day. The parking garage was full and cars parked where ever they could find places. The restaurants were packed and Saxby's Coffee had a line out the door all day. I agree, great job by the Village at Lake Las Vegas for coordinating this wonderful family event. (and the future ones as well)
The Loews was sold-out over the weekend too!
bouvier and woobert its only the beginning.
Now that they are broke they want me to play? forget it.
to frommidwest....I have also questioned why? It certainly does say alot for their character. They have a misconception of the residents of our community. How sad that people prejudge...Could it just be plain envy? I am posting this as a question, as I would never accuse or make this assumption. Why do certain individuals get pleasure out of all this? hmmm...so sad that they have to live their life with such negativity. Anyway...could not be happier with purchasing here. It truly is like being on a vacation year round. I choose to look at LLV's future with the glass 1/2 FULL! Thru all of this, the master association has been maintaining the grounds beautifully! We can only expect brighter tomorrows! Hopefully, the newspaper can help it's community by printing some positive & encouraging comments and pics!!