What happens in Vegas ...

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I missed Vegas this year for the first time in more than a decade. It has become one of my favorite stops on the PGA TOUR for a variety of reasons. There is the obvious: the energy, the lights and all that Vegas has to offer. The first couple of times I went there I didn't really appreciate it. It can be overwhelming.

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Sometime in the late 1990s my caddie insisted that we play Vegas. I had been planing to take the week off so the idea of playing six-hour pro-am rounds at the end of the season didn't really appeal to me. On the other hand, it is never really all that hard to talk me into going to Vegas. I called a friend of mine from home who had no real visible means of support because I didn't have anywhere to stay. He called back a few minutes later and said that he could get me a complimentary suite at the Mirage with meals and drinks included for the week but that I would have to stay and play a pro-am at Shadow Creek the following Monday. I had been trying to get into that pro-am for years and no agent or fellow tour pro could make it happen.

Leave it to the resourcefulness of a man who wins every bet on the first tee. My friend told me to call his friend when I got to Vegas and have a drink with him. After checking into the Mirage -- to this day my favorite hotel in Vegas -- I called my new friend. I won't go into details about the rest of the week but needless to say I got a perspective on Vegas that few ever do. Playing on the TOUR can be its own back stage pass to the world. I don't know what it says about me that some guys sit in luxury boxes at sporting events and I play golf and socialize with people who know people, if you know what I mean.

It probably goes without saying that I missed the cut that week, but my mother always told me to be true to my word and I had given my word that I would stick around to play the pro-am the following Monday.

At the time I didn't know much about Shadow Creek. But if you ever get the chance to play it don't turn it down. It may even be worth the 500 bucks or more they charge most people. When Steve Wynn decided that he wanted to build the most unique golf course in the desert he hired Tom Fazio and gave him a blank check. The result is quite literally something out of fantasy land. When you enter the unmarked gates you travel just a few hundred yards and suddenly feel like you're in the hills of Georgia -- complete with pine trees, water falls and rolling green hills. The only indication that you are still in the desert is the dry desert air and the red mountains off to the north that you can occasionally see through the trees.

The golf course itself is challenging and beautiful. The thing that makes the Shadow Creek pro-am unique is that there are absolutely no spectators. Security is tight and if you are not on the list you are not coming onto the property. Knowing this the TOUR players can let their hair down a little bit. The MGM folks (including the Bellagio, Mirage and Treasure Island) chose the players for the pro-am based on personality as much as record. It is not uncommon to see a PGA TOUR player in shorts puffing on a cigar with a cocktail in his hand looking and acting like one of the boys because, for a day, he is one of the boys.

That's Vegas. No matter who you are you can be whomever you want to be while you are there...even if you are a TOUR player, off duty of course.

John Maginnes is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. His views do not necessarily reflect the views of the PGA TOUR.