Byline: LINDA BRIEN
JUST got back from a five day trip to Las Vegas where I lost more than a few dollars.
Not on the gaming tables or slot machines, I hasten to add, but on the golf courses.
You only have to look at Augusta this weekend to appreciate the special quality of a top class American course. But boy do they know how to charge for them too.
A round at the Stallion Country Club 10 miles from the Strip cost a cool $525 for two. Ok, so that included clubs but it sure didn't leave much for a cool beer from the refreshment trolley that whizzed tantalisingly around the perfectly manicured fairways.
Things looked only marginally better at The Royal Links as the club honoured a previous booking made at a cheaper sister course. It cost $475 for 18 holes -- a ' bargain' said the caddie who probably didn't realise that it would be cheaper and easier for us to play the real Turnberry and Royal Troon than the dodgy Las Vegan replica.
But we simply had to draw the line at $365 per ROUND per PERSON at the Bali Hai -- a delectable course in a tropical setting whose website blurb neglected to point out was on the flight path right beside McCarran airport with jumbos landing every other minute.
In fact the money saved on forgoing that pleasure paid for a chopper ride over the Grand Canyon, a champagne brunch inside it, with change for a night at the Blackjack table in Caesars Palace after.
Lumpy and bumpy they might be but suddenly our wee municipal courses this side of the pond don't seem so bad after all... TUNING into the NCAA top four basketball finals made a pleasant change from Premiership drudgery last weekend.
Even cringing at the typical American hyperbole, it was incredibly easy to get sucked into the drama of the play-offs where the Florida Gators and the Ohio State Buckeyes
