January 2, 2009--Robert Gamez, who grew up playing on Las Vegas golf courses, was the 1990 Rookie of the Year on the PGA Tour. He won two events that year, including his first official start on the PGA Tour, the Northern Telecom Tucson Open, but then didn't win again until the 2005 Valero Texas Open. But back in 1989, Gamez fired a 10-under par 62 at the new Painted Desert Golf Club. That round still stands as the official course record.

October 14, 2008 {UPDATED Oct. 15}--Four golfers with strong ties to the Las Vegas golf community are being inducted into the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame in a ceremony that coincides with the playing of Las Vegas' PGA Tour event, the Justin Timblerlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Tommy Armour III, a PGA Tour player who is teeing it up this week, heads the list that also includes longtime Las Vegas golf professional Jerry Roberts, superb amateur player Louis Redden (pictured), and player and administrator Eric Dutt. All four attended a touching and inspirational ceremony October 14 at Las Vegas golf course TPC Summerlin.

September 21, 2008--The 1997-98 University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) golf team was inducted into the UNLV Hall of Fame over the weekend. The team won the National Championship during that fateful season, and was headlined by Las Vegas golf stars future PGA Tour and Nationwide Tour players Charley Hoffman, Jeremy Anderson and Bill Lunde.

September 18, 2008--Paul Azinger, the 2008 United States Ryder Cup captain, recently made Las Vegas golfer Chad Campbell (he was an All-American at UNLV) a Captain's Pick, but Azinger's ties to Las Vegas golf and Las Vegas golf courses go back a lot farther than that. During the final round of the 1987 Panasonic Las Vegas Invitational, Azinger stood on the tee box of the par 5, 18th hole at Las Vegas Country Club with a goal in mind. He was tied with Hal Sutton and Curtis Strange. "'I wasn't thinking of eagle, but trying to make a birdie,'' Azinger told the media following the round. But eagle is exactly what Azinger made, rolling in a long and breaking 30-footer. He then narrowly avoided falling in the lake that fronts the green during his post-putt celebration. "'I can't believe that putt went in,'' he said later. For his efforts, Azinger won $225,000, the largest first-place check in PGA Tour history to that point. The Las Vegas event debuted on the PGA Tour in 1983 (Fuzzy Zoeller won) and quickly made news by becoming the first event with a million-dollar purse.

June 9, 2008--Las Vegas National Golf Club has been the site for numerous big-time Las Vegas golf tournaments and events, including Tiger Woods' epic first PGA Tour win in 1996 at the Las Vegas Invitational. Las Vegas National Golf Club was in the three-course rotation with TPC Summerlin and the Desert Inn Golf Club. This Las Vegas golf course has also played host to other PGA and LPGA Tour events, and saw champions such as Mickey Wright, Jack Nicklaus. Al Geiberger, Davis Love III, and several others host trophies after teeing it up at one of the most historic golf courses in Las Vegas. And now there is a resurgence at Las Vegas National Golf Club with new management that is  honoring the past while embracing the future. “It’s an honor to now be the caretaker for this living legend of Las Vegas golf,” says Eric Dutt, Harrah’s Vice President, Las Vegas Golf Operations, the new operators of the layout. “We take very seriously our responsibility to continue the traditions and build on the history that has taken place on these fairways and greens."

February 18, 2008--Many leaders of the free world have been golfers, and many of them have teed it up on the best Las Vegas golf courses including Las Vegas Country Club, Desert Inn, Southern Highlands Golf Club, Bali Hai Golf Club and Shadow Creek. Bill Clinton (pictured with Michael Jordan) sometimes walks right down the Las Vegas Strip to his Las Vegas golf round while George Bush #41 is the only guy allowed to fish on the hallowed grounds of the Tom Fazio Las Vegas golf course Shadow Creek, the exclusive golf course owned by MGM Mirage. And John F. Kennedy and Gerald Ford were said to have tee'd it up at the old Desert Inn, one of Las Vegas' most historic golf courses that was razed to make room for a new Tom Fazio and Steve Wynn masterpiece. For more ...

February 4, 2008--Now that the New England Patriots' quest for perfection is over--much to the chagrin of Las Vegas sports books--there is just one pro sports entity left that can ever successfully negotiate a completely undefeated season in sports. It's our humble opinion that no NFL team will ever match the Patriots' miracle run this year--or the 17-0 Dolphins of 1972--but there is this golfer out there who could go 16-0 in a single year, no matter how far-fetched it sounds: Tiger Woods. He is off to a 2-0 start this year, has won seven of his last eight (with a second-place finish thrown in) official and unofficial events, and if history is any indication, he is just hitting his prime. Nicklaus and Palmer won about half of their total career tournaments after turning 32 years old, as Tiger just did, and were at their peak between the ages of about 32 and 38. What happens now that Tiger is in this 'peak zone'? Perfection, that's what. And luckily for us Las Vegas golfers, we can say that this storied run began in 1996 over three Las Vegas golf courses, as Tiger Woods won his first PGA Tour golf event--the Las Vegas Invitational--in the city that glitters. For more ...

January 5, 2008--Although this Las Vegas golf course is no longer around--the fabulous Wynn Golf and Country Club now stands where it used to be--there is no denying the history that unfolded at Las Vegas golf's venerable Desert Inn Country Club. Many people might not know that the Mercedes Benz Championship, these days the PGA Tour's kick-off event and formerly called the Tournament of Champions, dates back to 1953 when the very first event was played in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn. A chap named Al Besselink earned $10,000 for winning that event, but he is also said to have bet $500 on himself to win at 25-1 odds. That lucky ticket earned him $12,500, more than the first prize that was delivered to him in a wheelbarrel of silver dollars. For more ...

May 23, 2007--Course records are to golfers what celebrity hotties are to the general population. Mostly untouchable, but we can dream that one day we score one or both. We all probably have a better chance of hooking up with Britney Spears or Brad Pitt (yes ladies, we care about you here at GLV Now) as we do of shooting 59 to break Tiger Woods' course record at Shadow Creek. But that doesn't mean we all can't fantasize about the day when we do go so low that we enter territory that even the best of the best haven't reached (and then we wake up and play the 12th hole).