About
One of the pioneers in Las Vegas golf, Painted Desert Golf Course is a 1987 Jay Morrish design has golfers shooting at targets in the desert.
Painted Desert has maintained its place in the Sin City golf community through all its changes by putting on an emphasis on course conditioning. Just because your greens are almost two decades old does not mean they cannot be in better shape than many of the new kids on the block.
The desert is the focus here, but Morrish also works in a few lakes as obstacles.
"This golf course is a very friendly layout and you can score here without having a feeling of imminent doom on every hole," John Scappatura said. "We are a bit off of the beaten path, which means that we almost always have availability for tee times. Everyone who does make the trip out here though appreciates our conditioning, the price, and the friendly atmosphere."
Course Details
Rentals & Services
Practice & Instruction
Policies
Food & Beverage
Available Facilities
Golfer Photos
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Photo submitted by Warren4181748 on 03/14/2026
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Photo submitted by Warren4181748 on 03/14/2026
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Photo submitted by u314161622535 on 09/01/2025
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Photo submitted by u314161622535 on 09/01/2025
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Photo submitted by u314161622535 on 09/01/2025
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Photo submitted by u314161622535 on 09/01/2025
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Photo submitted by u314161622535 on 09/01/2025
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Photo submitted by eyecon on 07/09/2025
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Photo submitted by eyecon on 07/09/2025
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Photo submitted by 772v8f5U02xFvMq0Nfel on 07/02/2025
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Photo submitted by MMZIP5QTUFT9uJXnPWDN on 08/24/2024
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Photo submitted by MCazper702 on 03/04/2024
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3 groups on hole 1 Photo submitted by crenzi702 on 02/15/2024
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Parking carts on fringe. Photo submitted by crenzi702 on 02/15/2024
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Made eagle on the second par 5! Photo submitted by u314160000295 on 08/10/2023
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Common Green Photo submitted by rickpiette on 07/10/2023
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Photo submitted by u000002144589 on 05/11/2023
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Photo submitted by gnagasuye on 04/29/2023
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Photo submitted by gnagasuye on 04/29/2023
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Photo submitted by u000004497322 on 03/20/2023
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Photo submitted by u000004497322 on 03/20/2023
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Photo submitted by u314161798918 on 01/25/2023
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Photo submitted by u314161798918 on 11/25/2022
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Photo submitted by u314161798918 on 11/24/2022
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Photo submitted by Kylestraz on 11/06/2022
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Photo submitted by Kylestraz on 11/06/2022
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Don’t miss the green Photo submitted by BigDaddyo on 10/22/2022
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Photo submitted by pauls123 on 07/25/2022
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Photo submitted by Jfergee on 05/02/2022
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Lovely view from the tee. As I said, Visually intimidating. Photo submitted by Pixmanvegas on 10/04/2016
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Houses constantly in view Photo submitted by u000001366249 on 03/07/2015
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Photo submitted by wjdeanjr on 06/11/2013
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Hole #4 Photo submitted by jimdallaire on 03/28/2013
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I actually birdied this short par 4 ... now my favorite hole! Photo submitted by Wally4 on 02/01/2013
Golfer Reviews
Just challenging enough to be interesting
Shot accuracy is important on this course. Just enough sand and narrow fairways to make it fun, but without making it impossible to enjoy. Recovery from missed shots was easier than many courses.
Some of the tee boxes were in rough shape. Patches of fairway appeared to be suffering. Greens were in great shape throughout the course.
Great layout
I gave this a 4 star rating based on the greens condition. Best I've played in Las Vegas so far, smooth, rolls true, and fast. Tee box and fairway requires some attention but overall fun to play.
The greens were in great condition
The fairways were a little burnt with some bald spots here and there, other than that it was in good condition.
great value, good conditions, nice scenery on some holes
one of my favorites. thanks to GolfNow, played for $30 at 11:15. almost unheard of in high priced green fee town of Vegas.
$30!
Greens were great, fairways rough, 4hours and 40minutes.
The service today was appalling. The Cart had torn seats and a brake that stuck , both woman's bathrooms on the course had burn out lights. One was ou
The service today was appalling. The Cart had torn seats and a break that stuck , both woman's bathrooms on the course had burn out lights. One was out last month when I golfed at Painted desert apparently it was not fixed and now both are out. They was large bunkers with only one rack all in my party agreed it will be a long time before we return.
Deceptive greens
OVerall course in good shape with moderate challenge. Greens seem to have very little break even though it looked more severe. Regular price is too high for the course.
Nothing Special
Wide fairways and little challenge here. Good course for beginners and seniors. The greens are hard, bumpy and slow. Pace of play was inside 3 1/2 hours on a Tuesday afternoon. I like to take pictures of nice holes but couldn't find anything here to photograph.
Nice course
This is a nice course. Fairways and greens are well maintained. Greens are consistent. The only drawback is that many of the fairways are lined with houses. It takes away from the beauty of the area. Fairways are fairly forgiving. Take a "rock club" if you are not always fairly straight off of the tees! It was fast paced the day I played but the course was not fully booked that day.
Slow play. Overbooked! 6 hour round
Facility looks tired and run down. Poorly managed.
Not a good experience
To start off, there were no range balls included w/ greens fees. There was no practice chipping area, the driving range was about the worst I've ever seen, the range itself felt so narrow so that depth perception was non existent & the ground was rock hard and wedges bounced 20 yards +. Pace of play was downright horrible, 5 hours +. The fairways were actually pretty good, the greens were not. One hole they were as slick as can be, the next it was 5 x as slow, & putts were bumpy on the majority of the holes. I had wedges into the majority of the greens and some stopped on a dime, others rolled out 10+ yards uphill. So basically, there is nothing about this course that makes me want to come back.
Poa Ana Greens
The course has poa ana that rolled great even though we played after 11 AM. The fringes on some of the greens could have used a little heavier overseeding to cover some of the bare spots. We had a great time and definitely will go back again.
Good Course and great staff
Course was in very good shape...For some reason seemed to play slow as we waited on most shots...The club house was nice and the staff was extremely friendly...We will play again on the next trip through
Fivesomes? They allow fivesomes at Painted Desert?
I played Painted Desert in Las Vegas on Saturday, March 30, 2013. I had booked an 11:15 am tee time for "a single" through GolfNow. I made the booking on March 29th and it was a $47.99 GolfNow "hot deal" (including all taxes and service fees). My $47.99 "hot deal" included a power cart, but range balls were not included and had to be purchased separately. I was teamed up with three other golfers, another single who told me that he had paid $75 through GolfNow and two guys from Saskatchewan, Canada who told me that they had booked their tee time a month in advance through GolfNow, and that they had each paid $99. The lesson to be learned? GolfNow "hot deals" are the real deal!
As for Painted Desert, the course itself is relatively flat, not difficult, in pretty decent condition, and situated in a residential neighborhood just off the 95 Highway in Northwest Las Vegas (about a 25 minute drive from the "Las Vegas Strip"). The course is an older style course, short by today's standards for scratch golfers, but ideal length for average and beginner golfers.
Our round took over 5 hours to complete. Tee times are 7 minutes apart, and we were about 20 minutes late teeing off due to the course being backed up. And why was the course backed up, you ask? My personal opinion is because Painted Desert allows fivesomes. That's right. Peak Saturday morning, and Painted Desert is sending out fivesomes. We had a fivesome immediately in front of us (several of the golfers in the fivesome ahead of us were beginners, which did not help with our group's frustration), and the on-course marshall informed us to expect "a leisurely pace", due to 3 of the 4 groups immediately ahead of us being fivesomes. Needless to say, my playing partners, given how much they had paid to play Painted Desert, were not impressed.
In conclusion, my three criticisms (and they are inter-linked) of Painted Desert are as follows: (i) the slow pace of play on a Saturday morning for a relatively flat "cart only" course; (ii) the course allowing fivesomes; and (iii) tee times are only 7 minutes apart, leading to delayed start times and congestion on the course. Given the amount of money Painted Desert charges green fee players (including the usual Las Vegas area discriminatory practice of charging non-Clark County residents a significantly higher green fee than locals pay), one would expect to be treated to a better golf experience. The problem is not the course. It is the inability of the Management at Painted Desert to figure out how to make the golf experience for green fee players more rewarding, which should include a round of golf that takes less than 4 hours and 15 minutes. Perhaps the Management at Painted Desert should spend a day or two at the Pauite Las Vegas Golf Resort, where customer service reigns supreme and rounds of golf take 4 hours (or less)? I would play Painted Desert again, just not more than once or twice a year.
Well maintained, fun course
Played this course for the first time this weekend. It was in great shape, and the price was really reasonable.
As mentioned, the shape of the greens and fairways were excellent. Most of the tee boxes were also in great shape, but a few could use some work.
The pace of play was great, until about 2/3 of the way through the round. We ran into two threesomes who were playing from the tips and hacking the ball all over the place. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no marshal on the course to let them know to keep with the pace of play or let faster groups play through. You know it's a problem when my threesome merged with the twosome playing behind us, and we were waiting for 5 minutes on every tee box and on every shot.
Other than the pace of play, I really enjoyed the course and would play again.
Well Maintained and decent value.
The cons of this course: As far as condition the bunkers were pretty bad. They were sand, but not well raked, pretty compact sand and made it tougher to get out of. And like others have said, you have a tough time teeing off when you book. We teed off about 40 minutes late.
However, once we DID tee off we played at a pretty good rhythm. We only had to wait a little here and there, but that wasn't the course's fault, the group in front of us had some pretty bad blow up holes :) Since we had to wait so long they gave my friend and I both a free bucket of balls for the range, and later when I came back to check on it, they gave another one to us. Besides the bunkers as mentioned above the course was in great shape and had some fun challenging holes. I enjoyed the course, it wasn't the greatest I've ever been to but I had a good time and would go back.