The Club at Sunrise has blossomed to life
This is a new course but with a deep tradition. The Club at Sunrise has risen on the land where the historic Desert Rose Golf Club once was and even before that the really historic Winterwood golf course. Desert Rose and Winterwood are the courses where many locals grew up playing the game and both have a soft spot for many golfers in Las Vegas and Southern Nevada.
The Club at Sunrise is brand new with a nice sparkle and local golfers are again heading to the northeast part of Las Vegas to tee it up on the layout, which has kept some of the old Desert Rose character while complete reshaping the layout with new bells and whistles.
Plus the course has released new rates for residents. Seniors can play for $32 on the weekdays while non-seniors are $35 on the weekdays. Weekends are $42. The rates include cart and green fee, two bottles of water and a $10 credit in the Winterwood Bar and Grille.
The Club at Sunrise also offers annual memberships that include reduced green fees, discounts in the pro shop and bar and grill and monthly short game clinic with a PGA teaching professional.
The course is owned by Clark County and was created as part of the overall Las Vegas Wash Project.
“It’s important to remember that this a regional flood control project with a golf course in it,” said new general manager Matt Kalbak, who is employed by Kemper Sports, the management company. “The project was designed to take 1,700 homes out of the flood zone. This is huge for this area, and the golf course will be a great benefit for the surrounding community.”
Today, longtime local golfers still see and feel some of the Desert Rose mystique, including many of the original pine trees, but there is a new clubhouse, and several holes are completely different. Plus, the old 6-foot “ditch,” a true course landmark that ran down the middle of the course between fairways, is now a massive, winding, grass-banked flood channel. Kalbak said 350,000 cubic yards of dirt was removed to create the channel.
The course opened as Winterwood in 1964 and locals of every level played there and some of the top amateur tournaments were decided on the course. Current Web.com and PGA Tour player Craig Barlow and 1990 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Robert Gamez each won the Clark County Amateur at what was then Desert Rose.
The course is being praised by locals and will once again host a tournament on the Southern Nevada Golf Association schedule. The Throwback Amateur, aptly named, is scheduled for April 1-2 and spots are still available.
Now is the time to check out The Club at Sunrise. It’s a fun trip back in history but on a nicely renovated course that serves a very important purpose.
Call 702-207-7501 for more info or visit TheClubatSunrise.com for all information and tee times.
