Undercard: Trump vs. Wynn

by Vic Williams and Darin Bunch

Meeting of the Moguls

How could we resist pitting two of the West’s most outspoken, inventive, visionary and hard-charging developers against each other? They’ve long gone head-to-head in several gaming markets and found their own singular paths to a seat at Vegas’ business buffet.

We could write a book on how Donald Trump and Steve Wynn have altered the gaming and real estate landscapes in the late 20th and early 21st centuries (maybe somebody already has), but here we’ll concentrate on their golf products — where they started as golf developers, where they are presently as far as the West goes, and where they may choose to go in the future. Call it Tee Time With the Titans, played out in five quick rounds, concentrating on golf only since Trump National Los Angeles has no hotel on the premises. Not yet, anyway.

Round One: The Water Question — Let’s get the waterfall thing out of the way. Both guys love ’em, employ them with impunity for better or worse (we think better, though we know many disagree), and both guys are unapologetic about erecting water features on landscapes that would never develop them on their own — in Trump’s case, a pretty promontory a few dozen feet above the Pacific on Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula; in Wynn’s case, his current baby, former Desert Inn Golf Club just off the Strip that now occupies a $500-a-head Tom Fazio design. Experienced in the context of who paid for them and dreamed them up in the first place, these waterfalls work at both courses. However, at Trump, they actually improve the course. Just look at No. 1, which went from worst opener in SoCal to one of the best. Advantage Trump.

Round Two: Raw Materials — Trump gains a major advantage here from the get-go. He’s got views of the Pacific (and, if it’s clear, Catalina Island), on every hole, with several holes on both nines coming close enough to the surf to hear its ancient, constant murmur and crash. The ocean is there with you on every shot, with nary a tree or building to block its 180-degree sweep. As the chief designer of record — who took Pete Dye’s original Ocean Trails routing and made it his own — Trump raised several tee boxes to afford even more mega-views and, at the same time, give the player a clearer sense of where to place each tee shot. But as long as there’s water in the Pacific (probably more of it, if Greenland keeps melting), the big blue will always get top billing at Trump. That’s tough to beat.

Wynn and Fazio do their best to match such visual majesty. Too bad we can no longer give Wynn credit for Shadow Creek, where there are no skyscraping hotels or surrounding condo towers to impinge on the wall-to-wall lushness, as is the case at Wynn. Southern Nevada’s denuded desert mountains are visible from several points, but most of the time it’s an insular, foliage-driven experience, more mildly alpine than anything resembling desert golf. That’s the point, of course — given a flat canvas and unlimited budget, Fazio went to town with the bulldozers, carving out a near-miracle. Trump didn’t have to worry about that. The real miracle worker gave him his slab of land ready-made for greatness.
“With two miles on the ocean, you’d have to really screw it up to say something is better,” Trump told us back in 2004. He’s right, and he didn’t screw it up. In fact, after maturing for a couple of years, his course is even better now. Advantage Trump.

Round Three: Challenge — While the Wynn course probably won’t find its way onto any resort golfer’s “tough as nails” list — it’s crammed onto a relatively small square of expensive Strip real estate that many believe will give way to condos someday — Trump and his charges pull no punches when they talk about how brutal their course can be on a scorecard, especially if the breeze is up. Trump National faces south-southwest with most breezes coming directly off the ocean, and if they’re blowing straight out of the west, several holes are downright nasty. No. 18, for instance, plays nearly 500 yards from the back tee, one of the longest 4-pars in the state. Into the wind, it’s an instant 5-par. And the winds swirling around the waterfall at No. 17 or toying with tee shots on the short 4-par No. 10 can do some damage, too. And even in calm conditions, Trump exacts his price on crooked tee shots onto often tilted landing areas or into deep, blinding white, flashed bunkers. That said, on most holes he gives players several options, the sign of a guy who knows how to play the game.

The Wynn is pure Fazio, who loves to place target bunkers in just the right spots, all but scream proper aiming points with deft use of landmarks and hazards and put a lot of emphasis on your short game, especially with his large, signature potato-chip greens. Sometimes he sacrifices difficulty in favor of cosmetic beauty and design balance, and that’s why he’s one of the hottest architects working today. Better players can score on him. Not so at Trump, which has already hosted an LPGA event and promises to attract more marquee events. If you want to see how good you truly are, you head for the coast. Advantage Trump.

Round Four: Access and Affordability — Playing the Wynn represents the height of Vegas largesse: It’ll set you back five bills either way, just as Shadow Creek did when Wynn owned it, and usually that’s with at least a one-night stay at the adjacent hotel (which is, admittedly, one of the city’s best), although recently the resort has begun to open the course to some outside play. The pro shop is connected to the casino; you can literally go from craps table to first tee in five minutes.

Meanwhile, Trump takes a little more effort to get to — about 35 minutes from LAX and close to an hour from downtown — but you can simply make a time and show up with your $165 to $375. No hotel stay necessary, because there’s no hotel. It’s a public course through and through, with flashes of private club-level service and amenities throughout the clubhouse and grounds — a fine locker room and pro shop, wonderful food in two restaurants, all the elements that should make a day there one to savor. Draw.

Round Five: Amenities + Intangibles — Though Trump National is ostensibly a non-resort course and really shouldn’t be compared to what Wynn offers when the round is over, we have to acknowledge that both magnates are trying to attract golfers in very different ways — Trump with a pretty-much-pure golf product that hole to hole competes with any oceanside course in America, and Wynn with a course that, even with its extreme design pedigree, is really a novelty of Vegas artifice. That said, the Wynn hotel and all its charms — high-end shopping and dining, entertainment, a casino that, while huge, takes a backseat to the property’s overall elegance — must figure into the equation. After all, without the hotel, the golf course wouldn’t exist. Advantage Wynn. FG

Trump National

Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.
www.trumpgolf.com
Green Fees
$165-$250 Mon-Thur $215-$375 Fri-Sun
Open to the public

Wynn

Las Vegas
www.wynnlasvegas.com
Green Fees
$500 Any Day
Although general policy at The Wynn is that tee times are only available to hotel guests, the resort was offering golf to outside guests in November and December.

DONALD TRUMP            STEVE WYNN

10    Setting/Atmosphere    9
10    Course Architecture    10
9    Course Conditioning    10
10        Memorability        9
10            Service              10
10    Waterfall Wow Factor    9
10            Dining            10
10        Practice Facility        X
X            Lodging            10
10        Big-Name Buzz    10
89            Final Score    87