Golf

Rio Secco Golf Club Details

• Opened:
  1997.
• Course designed by:
  Rees Jones.
• Course Management:
  Harrah's Entertainment.
• General Manager / Director of Golf:
  Eric Dutt.
• Head golf professional:
  Charles Packard.
• Course Record:
  Tiger Woods and Nick Watney, 64.
• Tee Time Policy:

  Reservations can be made up to 90 days in advance. Guests staying at a Harrah’s Entertainment hotel and casino property receive preferred rates and tee times. Green fee includes golf, shared golf cart, divot tool, and access to the practice facilities.

• Course Map:
  Click here.

Rio Secco Golf Club Review

Rio Secco Golf Club, designed by world-class architect Rees Jones, unfolds beautifully in the foothills of the Black Mountain Range. The layout can stretch out to 7,332 yards, but even from forward tees, there's more than enough challenge even for the best players in the world.

Just ask Adam Scott or many of the other pros who often stop in to play or to get a lesson from Butch Harmon, whose school is located on the north side of the huge practice facility.

Though primarily for guests of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, Rio Secco also welcomes visitors, and it's located just 15 minutes south of the Vegas Strip.

Set some 800 feet above the Las Vegas Valley, four sets of tees make it playable for all, with each subsequent set of tees dropping about 400 yards or more off the total distance. Also helpful, many of the tees are elevated, making some of the holes play shorter than they appear on the scorecard.

Six play along the tops of plateaus, six through canyons and six on level terrain. All are played on plush Bermuda grass tees and fairways and impeccable Crenshaw bentgrass greens.

The course's No. 1 handicap, the 478-yard monstrous par-4 second hole, was named VegasGolfer magazine's best golf hole in 2002. The hole plays from tee boxes set more than 60 feet above the fairway and in the shadow of canyon walls. The Strip glitters in the distance. Bunkers and waste areas catch errant tee shots, and second shots are hit into a small, undulating green.

One of many signature holes at Rio Secco is the par-4, 417-yard seventh, which Jones calls a "natural cathedral hole." The tee rises some 50 feet above the fairway, which is carved through a valley. The green is tucked into a canyon (a 40-foot vertical caliche wall) and is further protected by sand bunkers left-front, right and behind.

The Butch Harmon School of Golf offers expert instruction and many different lesson packages.

Course statistics: