Rhodes Ranch Golf Club grabs players' attention at its gate and never lets go. Through the club's imperial archway (a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired design that matches the clubhouse), a glance right gives a good taste of things to come. Gaps in the rows of palm trees reveal lavish variations of desert landscaping, while a waterfall and pond shimmer to accent sand bunkers punctuating gently rolling green grass.

Rhodes Ranch looks great from every angle. It features traditional, all-grass golf holes that are always in immaculate condition. The staff members are as friendly as they come, and the overall golf value is second to none; VegasGolfer readers voted the course a 2002 Fairway Award for "Best Value."

More than 3,000 palm trees line the fairways of this Ted Robinson design that winds through the lush, tropical-paradise setting; and besides the waterfalls, ponds, creeks and finely contoured landscaping, other details really make the course special. The ninth and 18th holes, for example, can be seen from the clubhouse, a work of art all its own with its booth seating, leather-padded chairs, generous floor-to-ceiling windows and broad wrap-around deck. All render wonderful course and/or mountain views.

The par 72 plays 6,909 yards with a rating/slope of 73.0/122, while subsequent tees drop the distance to 6,405, 6,009 and 5,238 yards.

No matter the choice of tees, all players are sure to be fairly challenged by Rhodes Ranch par-3 holes, which course designer Ted Robinson -- whose Sahalee Country Club hosted the 1998 PGA Championship -- called the best set of 3's he has ever designed.

No. 3 plays 230 yards across water to a green bunkered front and back. There's bailout front left of the green, and like the whole course, the hole is set up to accommodate everyone: On subsequent forward tees, the water is reduced to a lateral hazard.

The 202-yard seventh hole is the only par 3 not over water, but the green is set diagonally between back bunkers, while trees encroach from the left. The 441-yard, par-4 18th is an excellent closer. The downhill tee shot sets up a mid- or long-iron approach to a green guarded by a stream that cascades down along its right side, and there's also a bunker left just above a pond.

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