Falcon Ridge Golf Club - Mesquite Trip

If your looking for a place to lose lots of balls either in the desert or in the water, then look no further. Falcon Ridge Golf Club is located in the remote southern region of Nevada's Virgin Valley. Only an hour drive from "sin city", it is pretty accessible to play and drive back to Vegas, although I would recommend staying in Mesquite.

I had the pleasure of playing here twice last November during an annual tournament (Colorado Hackers) that Adam Ray and I have been going to for the past 4 years. So Adam and I arrived early Thursday morning into Vegas and grabbed our rental car and made the haul to Mesquite. As we pulled into the Falcon Ridge parking lot and checked in it was clear that the course would play tight with a lot of elevation changes. The practice facility could not be any worse so don't really plan on warming up. After a short delay on the first tee-box Adam and I decided to play from the back tees, which measure 6,546 yards compared to 5,976 yards from the next tee-box up. After our tee shots it was clear that we hadn't really warmed up, oh well, we were off and rolling. The course is very challenging if you are not hitting the ball straight. There's not a lot of room for bailing out and if your ball goes into the junk it is extremely tough to find.

The 6th hole is very picturesque but requires a very accurate tee shot from the high elevated tee-boxes. There is water on the right and junk on the left, but it is downhill so if you find the fairway your ball is going to roll, leaving you a short uphill wedge to the green. The front 9 plays a little easier than the back, although the back has a few holes that are a fun challenge. Holes 11, 12, and 13 can either play extremely tough or extremely easy. The signature hole #12 is a par 5 that measures 525 yards and has a huge elevation drop off the tee-box. Followed by either going for the green over water or laying up to the left of the water, both are fairly difficult.

After the 5 hour round we were both exhausted and were very unhappy with our scores but enjoyed what the course had to offer. It is a benefit to play here multiple times and understand how the fairways and greens role. Some of the greens have 3 tiers so knowing where to put the ball sometimes helps. Falcon Ridge is definitely worth playing if you come to Mesquite and for the money is not too bad, especially when compared to nearby Wolf Creek. I booked online through a 3rd party and saved about 50 dollars.

I played this course again two days later from the next tee boxes up and only shaved 3 strokes off my score so don't let the short yardage fool you. It is nice that the course is located so close to the hotel/casino so you can hurry back after a bad round and begin drinking.......or jumping from bed to bed like your 7 years old........or both.