Page 41 - LVGL Magazine Spring 2021

HISTORY

“The course was built in the sixties and has stayed true to the original design. It is a
traditional course with wall-to-wall grass, hundreds of mature trees and it remains
like that to this day. Tradition is a huge part of the Las Vegas National experience
and is what sets us apart.”
-Joe Kelly,
director of operations.

Story by Brian Hurlburt, LasVegasGolfInsider.com
Photography provided by Las Vegas National Golf Club
P ossibly one of the most little-known facts about golf a 1-under 70 at National, which was then called the Las Vegas

in Las Vegas is that the area is a former host to a
Hilton Country Club.
major championship on a major tour.
Now you know.
Most golf fans realize that Tiger Woods won his
first PGA TOUR event in Las Vegas—the 1996 Las Las Vegas National Golf Club opened as Stardust Country
Vegas Invitational—but you’d be hard pressed to find folks who Club in 1961, the brainchild of Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame
know that the LPGA Championship was played in Las Vegas member and Vegas visionary Irwin Molasky. His partners
from 1961-66. Hall of Famer Mickey Wright won the tourna- included Merv Adelson, Moe Dalitz and Allard Roen, each
ment twice, including the first rendition in ’61. The event was Vegas legends in their own rights.
a major championship on the LPGA Tour and remains on the It was one of the first, if not THE
LPGA’s schedule to this day, now known as the KPMG PGA first, courses built to be the cen-
Championship and played in Georgia. tral feature of a golf course

What golfing fans of Las Vegas also may not realize? Wright’s neighborhood. To this day, homes
win (in addition to the subsequent three LPGA Championship in the Paradise Palms community
events) AND Tiger Woods’ Las Vegas Invitational victory hap- line National’s fairways, and in
pened at what is now known as Las Vegas National Golf Club, the heyday many were lived in by
arguably the Las Vegas Golf Region’s most historic layout. All Vegas and international notables.
four rounds of Wright’s win were played on the course, while Among those who owned homes
just one of Woods’ five rounds were played at National. He shot in the area were Bobby Darin,

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