Where to play golf around Las Vegas: Golfweek’s Best 2023 public-access courses

Thanks to Golfweek’s Best rankings, we break out the top courses around Las Vegas.

Ready to make a break from the casinos or hectic pace of the Las Vegas Strip? If you’re looking for the top golf courses around Sin City, Golfweek’s Best has you covered.

If you’re willing to drive a bit, there are several courses in this region that appear on the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top public-access layouts in Nevada. All the courses listed below are within an hour’s drive of Harry Reid International Airport, which sits adjacent to the Strip. But it’s not as easy as pulling up our state-by-state rankings, which list Nevada courses that might be a considerable drive away.

For this exercise, we used Google Maps and punched in each course as of a regular Saturday morning to determine drive times. Keep in mind that traffic near Las Vegas, especially around the Strip, can be slow – take all these times with a grain of salt.

Included with this list is a general map of where to find all these courses. Each one on the list below is represented with a number on the map – keep scrolling to see the numbers.

Included with each course is its position in Nevada on the Golfweek’s Best public-access list. For any course that appears on our other popular rankings lists, those positions are included as well.

A little background: The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or casino, or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required.

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Las Vegas map
(Google Earth/Golfweek)

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Nevada

Shadow Creek, the top public-access golf course in Nevada, requires a hefty green fee, but there are other options.

Shadow Creek, the top-rated public-access golf course in Nevada, is famed for being unlike just about any other daily-fee or casino-operated layout anywhere. It’s a Tom Fazio-created oasis hidden out of reach for most golfers.

In general, players must stay at an MGM Resorts International property to obtain access, and a round at Shadow Creek includes a limousine ride to the course. The layout, recently made even more famous with several made-for-tv and PGA Tour competitions, isn’t really looking to boost rounds played and boasts a green fee that can reach as high as a reported $1,000. Golfweek’s Best raters have ranked it as the No. 10 course built in the U.S. since 1960.

But there are plenty of other public-access options around Las Vegas and across Nevada. Keep scrolling to see the best of them.

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Nevada’s private offerings is likewise included below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.