Johnny Miller called it the E- Ticket ride of a golf course at Disneyland. He said the land spoke to him during its creation; that the contours of the land and the existing features of the site told him where the holes should go, where he couldn’t have conceived of them if the landscape were flat and he were working on paper. When Badlands Golf Club opened in October 1995 on the west side of Las Vegas, it became the most unique course in southern Nevada. Not the longest, not the most expensive, not the most elegant in the resort vein for which the city had gained its reputation in golf. It was simply the most interesting. The kind of course that had you deciding on every tee, thinking with every approach, the kind of course where the disastrous round was disastrous indeed, but a successful round came with a score no one expected and a tale worth telling.
Badlands Golf Course was closed on December 1, 2016 and will never reopen. The legal controversy that had long defined the property was finalized in March 2025 when the City of Las Vegas paid $636 million for the 254-acre parcel and then sold it for $350 million to Lennar Homes. EHB Cos. Would then receive $286 million to satisfy four ongoing lawsuits, and Lennar is planning between 1,550 and 1,750 homes on the site. The course that Golf Digest listed as the #2 best course in Nevada in 1997 and 1999, was given “Best Desert Course” honors in 2006 by Vegas Golf Magazine, and sparked enough enthusiasm at its opening to spur much of the subsequent golf development across western Las Vegas Valley is now just 254-acres of dust awaiting a housing development.
Badlands Golf Course: The Essential Facts
| DETAIL | INFORMATION |
|---|---|
| Full name | Badlands Golf Club |
| Location | Alta Drive and South Rampart Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada. Near the Summerlin and Queensridge communities. |
| Distance from Strip | Approximately 15 to 20 minutes. Western Las Vegas corridor. |
| Designers | Johnny Miller (PGA Tour legend and NBC broadcaster) and Chi-Chi Rodriguez (PGA Tour and Champions Tour legend). |
| Opened | October 1995 (original 18 holes: Desperado and Diablo nines). |
| Third nine added | 1997 (Outlaw nine). Total 27 holes across three distinct nine-hole layouts. |
| Total holes | 27. Three nine-hole courses: Desperado, Diablo, and Outlaw. |
| Playable combinations | Three: Desperado/Diablo, Diablo/Outlaw, Desperado/Outlaw. |
| Par | 71 or 72 depending on combination. |
| Yardage | 6,842 yards (Diablo/Outlaw combination from back tees). Par-72. |
| Course rating | 72.9 (Diablo/Outlaw). Slope: 150. |
| Greens | Bentgrass. Large and undulating. |
| Fairways | Bermuda. Only 95 of the 254 total acres were planted with grass. The course was genuine desert golf. |
| Status | CLOSED since December 1, 2016. Will not reopen. |
| Current status of land | Sold to Lennar Homes in March 2025 as part of a $636 million resolution. Housing development of 1,550 to 1,750 homes planned. |
The Designers: Johnny Miller and Chi-Chi Rodriguez
Johnny Miller: The Architect Who Let the Land Lead
Johnny Miller, 1973 US Open winner at Oakmont, one of the greatest comeback wins of all time when he carded a final round 63 after starting the day six shots back. He also won the 1976 Open Championship and 25 PGA Tour titles. Miller became the NBC golf commentator, whose no-holds barred approach and honesty in saying what was bad was bad made him the most admired and most controversial voice on golf television for decades. Eric Dutt, a Badlands course operations manager who worked on course with Miller, remembered that his blunt, tell-it-like-it-is broadcasting made him seem like the rough individual people believed him to be, when the reality was, according to Dutt, that Miller was always “gracious, pleasant and accomodating.”
As a course designer, Miller applied to Badlands an approach to golf course architecture that contrasted dramatically with the stadium-style that dominated so many of the 1990s course projects. He was not someone that would try to “put something on the land,” but was one who thought that the “land itself was the art.” Walking the course site with his son John early in the 1990s, he heard the land “speak to me.” The ravines, the rock outcrops and the inherent beauty and challenge of the Mojave Desert at this part of the city provided a canvas that demanded restraint as well as creativity, and Miller routed holes around the natural features, treating them as hazards rather than installing them as artifice. With only 95 of the 254 acres planted to grass, the rest was desert; the golfers played through it, around it and over it, and if they went to get their balls, they were in it.
Miller promised that the player experience at Badlands would be like an “E-Ticket ride” at Disneyland, the 1990s term of the “most thrilling and most difficult attraction.” And he was right; for many golfers at the time of its opening, the Badlands was thrilling in a way that flat, manicured courses, even the most immaculate ones, simply could not achieve. Each hole provided a dramatic and memorable visual test, and each shot required a serious assessment about where you wanted to end up if it wasn’t hit cleanly; one errant swing could turn what was a manageable bogey into a double-digit hole quite quickly.
Chi-Chi Rodriguez, Co-Designer
Chi-Chi Rodriguez had a fine playing career, with eight PGA Tour victories to go along with 22 wins on the Champions Tour, where he was one of the most charismatic and loved players in senior golf. Born in Puerto Rico in 1935, he became famous worldwide for his post-birdie bullfighter-esque celebration that included him drawing an imaginary sword from his sheath, a sight that became an icon of American golf in the 1980s and 1990s.
Rodriguez’s co-designer credit on Badlands is somewhat understated compared to Miller’s due to the fame of Miller at the time the course was built and his role as the primary spokesman for the design. However, he was able to apply his many years of playing experience, as well as an architect’s understanding of risk-reward challenges, to the design of the course. Playing many hundreds of courses across the globe in his long career on the Champions Tour, he had a good player’s perspective as to what made a challenging course more fun than torturous, and combined with Miller’s ability as a course designer, they created a course that appealed to players at all skill levels without punishing them unduly.
The Three Nines: Desperado, Diablo, and Outlaw
The decision to name the three nine-hole loops at Badlands the Desperado, the Diablo and the Outlaw was strategic. Desperado, Diablo and Outlaw are words used in the American West, in the vernacular of outlaws and of the desert and danger and the names define what anyone teeing off on any of the three should expect. It was not a set up for a sweet little nine holes. It was a set up to fit the names.
Desperado: The Opening Statement
The Desperado nine was the first of the two courses to open in October 1995, with Diablo nine opening alongside it. It set the tone for the entire resort from the first hole. The fairways at Badlands weren’t the sprawling opportunities of safe landing zones for stray tee shots, they used ravines, rocky waste areas, and natural desert growth as actual hazards that would catch your ball without the kinds of relief you would have with a traditional fairway rough.
Desperado nine introduced the Miller style of playing the elevation of the land to create changes in height not commonly seen on flat ground of Las Vegas. The course sat on actual elevated terrain, and the routing made use of that terrain. A shot to a green uphill from you plays completely different, club-selection-wise, from a shot of the same linear distance to a flat green. The Desperado nine had numerous such holes where the yardage printed on the scorecard demanded a real, actual, distance-plus elevation calculation to be accurate.
Diablo: Where the Course Found Its Personality
These are the Diablo nine holes that will most likely define Badlands for most of those who play it on a regular basis. On the sixth hole of the Diablo nine, there is a steep ravine that bordered the left side of the fairway-a visual challenge that I don’t believe is surpassed at any other Las Vegas public course. Being positioned on the tee box with a 15-foot drop on your left with a fairway that you had to avoid it with you drive gave the same pre-shot contemplation that the best golf architecture naturally creates. The hazard was natural; the consequence was real; the decision was yours.
Hole number seven on the Diablo nine is a short par-4 that doglegged right into a hidden, narrow green. Hidden is not a word to be used liberally in golf-course design, but it is an appropriate word here at Badlands; The green is placed so that you have to place faith in your line to reach the pin. The tight entryway to the green leaves little margin for error on your approach shot, and this hole can play either a birdy or a double-bogey just on a single swing decision.
The back nine of the Diablo nine works back toward the Red Rock Mountains that rise from the western part of Las Vegas, the most spectacular natural setting that any Las Vegas course enjoys. In addition, these closing holes of the Diablo nine-beingplayed up the natural chute between these mountains and having this natural vista as a backdrop, and with wind often gusting from the higher elevation-present the element of chance that can so excite the skilled golfer.
Outlaw: The Third Nine
The Outlaw nine, opened two years after the first 18 holes. This completion of the 27 hole complex introduced a third pairing, Desperado/Outlaw, to the standard two pairings of all other courses playing just two sets of nine. Design, though, remained the same, the use of the natural, native desert landscape combined with carefully crafted hazards and the natural topography of the western Las Vegas corridor create a course that rewards accuracy and good shotmaking and course management.
With 3-9 combinations less the standard of Las Vegas facilities than the standard 18 hole layouts the facility was more adaptable than other courses playing a single combination of 18 holes. The course superintendent was able to remove one or two courses from play for maintenance without detracting too significantly from available play. At the same time, a player that played the course on a weekly or regular basis had three different possibilities for 18 hole rounds on the same facility that remained fresh and dynamic.
| COMBINATION | NINES | PAR | YARDAGE (BACK) | SLOPE | RATING |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desperado / Diablo | Original 18 holes (1995) | 71 | 6,171 yards (approx) | 140 (approx) | 70 (approx) |
| Diablo / Outlaw | Primary back-nine combination | 72 | 6,842 yards | 150 | 72.9 |
| Desperado / Outlaw | Third combination | 72 | 6,500 yards (approx) | 145 (approx) | 71 (approx) |
Playing Badlands: What Made It Unique
The one key number the golfer uses to truly analyze what the course was as an playing experience, is the 95 acres of grass. The entire property was 254 acres; only 95 were cultivated with grass. The other 159 were desert: rocky, vegetated, and in reality truly unplayable. This wasn’t a normal penalty rough type of course; the rough at Badlands was desert, and it didn’t return your ball easily.
Normal Las Vegas desert courses of the ’90’s played on mown natives or on playable sandy waste areas, and could still be struck on normal swings. Badlands was constructed around existing desert, and demanded both a carry or accurately placed shots. The local pro’s assertion that each hole at Badlands was a signature hole was really true. They were all quite unique visually, as they were designed on particular, existing terrain instead of from a template.
The one criticism about Badlands that appeared in reviews constantly was the tempo. Because Badlands was designed as a target course, which demanded flying a great number of balls over hazards or into precisely positioned landing areas, groups playing the course, unless familiar with playing this way, always played slow. Casual hit-and-find types could find the penalties for missed shots at Badlands frustrating, due to the lack of good recover shots. Players who appreciated course strategy and accurate iron play found it to be one of the best golf experiences to be found in Las Vegas.
The wind was a factor as well. Situated in west Las Vegas, where the desert winds funnel through the Red Rock corridor with greater consistency and force than east of it, the combined factor of the wind and the desert hazards allowed for much more complex club selection than is possible at a course with a wide fairway and controllable rough.
Awards and Recognition: What the Golf World Said
| AWARD | YEAR | GIVEN BY |
|---|---|---|
| Best of Las Vegas award | 1997 (and subsequent years) | Las Vegas Review-Journal readers vote |
| Nevada Top Ten Golf Courses | 1997 and 1999 | Golf Digest rankings |
| Best Desert Course | 2006 | Vegas Golf Magazine annual awards |
| Consistent media recognition | 1995 to 2016 | Cited across Southern Nevada golf coverage as one of the most distinctive layouts in the region |
Recognition of the Golf Digest Nevada Top Ten list in both 1997 and 1999 proved very telling, as the magazine’s panel uses courses that cover a competitive state list that includes resort courses at Primm Valley, TPC Las Vegas, and the Las Vegas Paiute courses. Being recognized as one of Nevada’s Top Ten for a daily-fee desert course twice in the first four years of existence was genuinely impressive, and it indicated a unique perception of the course from knowledgeable players.
The reader vote of the Las Vegas Review-Journal had named Badlands No. 1 for years. Reader votes were equally as telling, as the casual golfer often has just as much, if not more, say in a vote than the committed one; The sustained presence at the top of these lists demonstrated that the course was enjoyed by the regular golfers of Las Vegas, and the reading audience of the city’s paper, as much as those who analyzed architecture.
The Closing: December 1, 2016
In September of 2015, EHB Cos, an upscale retail complex developer of Tivoli Village, purchased the Badlands Golf Club. Its intentions were not initially revealed, but in November of 2015, EHB submitted a general plan amendment, rezoning application, and site development plan. The application detailed a massive housing development for the 254-acre site, using the prime location in an up-and-coming part of the Las Vegas Strip as justification, as the golf club borders two higher-end residential areas, Queensridge and Summerlin.
The neighborhood of Queensridge, which comprises a collection of high-end homes bordering and surrounding the golf club, became organized in its opposition to the development plan. The residents were seeking to retain their golf club as a permanent open space that came with the purchase of their homes. The perception that a housing complex would sprawl out over a previously designated open space threatened both the character of their community and the property values of their homes.
The city initially denied the rezoning application. The developer then withdrew its development plan, and in turn, closed the course. The course was officially closed December 1, 2016. Nine years later the legal issues continue as the 254-acre site remains in a state of abandonment and desert growth.
The Legal Battle: Nine Years, Four Lawsuits, $636 Million
The conflict between the city of Las Vegas and EHB Cos. Regarding the Badlands land is the most expensive, longest land-use dispute filed by any city in the history of the state of Nevada. The best way to grasp it is chronologically because the cost to the city increased over time, not at a constant rate, but in a way that, when the city eventually settled, the cost to the city was higher than if the city had resolved the conflict earlier.
The Lawsuits: 2017 Onward
In early 2017 EHB brought its initial action against the city asserting that, in disapproving the zoning, the city was guilty of “taking” its land within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. A regulatory taking is defined by the fact that the government action will deprive the owner of all economic value in its land. EHB insisted that by approving land entitlements but disproving the zoning, the city had rendered the land worthless for any purpose other than that for which it had ceased to be used – a golf course. Another three cases brought by EHB built the legal liability up to hundreds of millions of dollars as a succession of court decisions went against the city.
A settlement offer in 2022 which was for the cost of $64 million collapsed when EHB, buoyed by the court judgments against the city and the prospects of remaining cases, said the offer was not enough. EHB stuck to its position and continued to win court judgments. By 2024 memos originating from the city manager’s office expressed concerns that continued court challenges would cost the taxpayer of Las Vegas $450 to $500 million plus.
The 2024 Campaign and the Vote: Political Pressure Mounts
The legal battle over the Badlands grew as one of the key issues in the Las Vegas mayoral election of 2024. Shelley Berkley (winner of the election) and Victoria Seaman (working to reach an agreement since taking office on the City Council in 2019) both spoke publicly to try to resolve the issue. Political will to find a settlement existed as it became more and more obvious to Las Vegas voters just how much money the city was facing in liability exposures.
On December 18, 2024 the city council unanimously approved by a vote of 7-0 an agreement with EHB Cos that, although non-binding in nature at the time, included terms that the City would purchase the Badlands site in its entirety from EHB for $636,000,000. This purchase would be paid for with city funds from liability insurance and property damage fund. Simutaneously the city would be selling the site to Lennar homes for $350,000,000, and $286,000,000 would remain with EHB Cos. To settle all four pending litigation matter. Under this agreement EHB Cos would also drop all outstanding suits against the City.
The Final Resolution: March 19, 2025
Closing on the Badlands land was finalized on March 19, 2025. The city bought 254 acres and Lennar Homes bought that parcel in the same escrow transaction. The city and mayor, Shelley Berkley, announced a settlement of the lawsuit: “A final resolution has been reached in the Badlands litigation, bringing closure to the long-standing dispute. This conclusion clears the way for new homes to be built on the disputed parcels.”
Two payments were involved. One payment of $250 million was scheduled to be paid between March 20, 2025 and May 20, 2025 and another of $36 million was to be paid by July 1, 2026. As part of the settlement, EHB and affiliates dismissed all pending litigation against the city.
The final total settlement paid by taxpayers to EHB was $286 million, plus $64 million paid in an earlier decided lawsuit, for a total of $350 million paid out by the city. The city received $350 million on the sale to Lennar; therefore, in simple accounting terms, the total cost to the city treasury was the $286 million to EHB, the $64 million paid was replenished by the Lennar payment. Basically the city’s liability and property damage insurance fund was reduced by $636 million and partially refilled by Lennar’s payment.
| DATE | EVENT |
|---|---|
| October 1995 | Badlands Golf Club opens with 27 holes designed by Johnny Miller and Chi-Chi Rodriguez. |
| 1997 | Third nine (Outlaw) added. Facility now 27 holes across three nine-hole courses. |
| 1997 and 1999 | Golf Digest ranks Badlands in Nevada Top Ten. Las Vegas Review-Journal readers vote it Best of Las Vegas. |
| 2006 | Vegas Golf Magazine names Badlands Best Desert Course in its annual awards. |
| September 2015 | EHB Cos. purchases Badlands Golf Club. Plans for housing development not yet disclosed. |
| November 2015 | EHB submits rezoning and development applications to the city of Las Vegas for 2,000-plus units. |
| December 1, 2016 | Badlands Golf Club closes permanently. EHB withdraws its development application after rezoning denial. |
| Early 2017 | EHB files first lawsuit alleging regulatory taking by the city. |
| 2017 to 2022 | Three more lawsuits filed. Court rulings consistently favour EHB. City losses mount. |
| 2022 | Proposed $64 million settlement falls through. EHB rejects as insufficient. |
| 2022 to 2024 | City pays a $64 million judgment in one case. Remaining three lawsuits continue. |
| August 2024 | City manager memo warns ongoing litigation could cost $450 to $500 million. |
| December 18, 2024 | City Council votes 7-0 to approve $636 million non-binding agreement with EHB. Lennar Homes identified as buyer. |
| March 19, 2025 | Final closing. City acquires 254-acre property and simultaneously sells to Lennar Homes for $350 million. EHB receives $286 million and dismisses all lawsuits. |
| 2025 onward | Lennar Homes planning 1,550 to 1,750 residential units on the former golf course site. |
Lennar Homes: What Comes Next on the Site
One of the nation’s largest homebuilders, Lennar Homes, also has a sizable footprint in Nevada. The 254 acres of former golf course land located at Alta Drive and South Rampart Boulevard presents a significant development opportunity in one of the more attractive western Las Vegas corridors that includes access to Summerlin, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and existing infrastructure.
A development of 1,550 to 1,750 units on the site will bring a significant increase in residents and significantly alter the character of the neighborhood. Queensridge residents that opposed the original EHB development project in 2015 have not yet indicated whether or not they intend to oppose the Lennar project. The Queensridge residents opposed EHB’s proposal for its density and character, which were identified in the terms of the settlement and that are not part of Lennar’s different approval process.
The irony of the Badlands story is that the closure of the golf course and the legal battle between itself and the city will yield the same financial result: housing to an unmet need in Las Vegas, at the price to taxpayers of far greater amounts than would have been necessary in an early settlement. If the city had simply accepted the offer from EHB for $64 million last year instead of rejecting it in 2015 and then ultimately agreeing to the same proposal three years later, the financial result to the public would have been drastically reduced while the development of housing to fill a real need in the market would have likely been the same.
Why the Course Is Still Remembered: A Legacy Analysis
The golf course closed down in 2016. The lawsuits settled in 2025. And people still Google it, blog about it and eulogize it using the vernacular golfers employ for a favorite course. None of this is common to the history of a recently defunct municipal. Most defunct courses are soon forgotten, relegated to dusty articles of forgotten municipal histories. Badlands was not, for reasons that are both interesting and instructive.
First, the Johnny Miller association. Miller was for a generation or more the voice ofNBC golf, a broadcast personality whose commentary every American golf fan heard while watching tour events broadcast on the box at least once every week of the season for thirty plus years. His name on a golf course immediately gave it some sense of design prestige and his particular excitement over the project, the “E-ticket ride,” quote and the statement that “the land itself was speaking to me,” is precisely the type of memorable statement readers of golf literature often find indelible.
Second, what the course stood for in the Las Vegas golf pantheon. It was truly unique in the valley: no resortcourse style conditioned perfection; no flat, desert-style course offering mountain vistas with generous fairways and expansive fairways. This was raw, target-golf in true desert topography that called for real shot-making, not merely the self-assured practice of the driver into wide-open landing areas. While virtually every other golf course in the valley seemed to appeal more readily to the tourist player it was the course the local golfer could point to as his very own, primarily because few tourists would even try to play it.
Third, the lawsuits, itself an amazing, near-decade-long legal proceeding that cost the city of Las Vegas an approximate $350 million of net expense. That a golf course would become the object of nearly a decade-long civil proceeding was enough to give it lasting fame, irrespective of the quality of its design and its intrinsic value as a place to play golf.
Badlands Compared: Where It Stood Among Las Vegas Courses
Understanding where Badlands sat in the Las Vegas golf landscape requires some context about the alternatives that existed during its operational period from 1995 to 2016.
| COURSE | STATUS | CHARACTER | DESIGNER | KEY DISTINCTION |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Badlands Golf Club | Closed December 2016 | Genuine desert target golf. 95-acre grass footprint. Ravines and natural hazards throughout. | Johnny Miller and Chi-Chi Rodriguez | The most demanding and visually distinctive public course in Las Vegas. Nothing else like it. |
| Desert Pines Golf Club | Open | Carolina pine tree experience in the desert. Enclosed fairways. Bentgrass greens. | Perry Dye and Cynthia Dye McGarey | Most unique setting, but the opposite approach to Badlands: enclosed rather than exposed. |
| Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort | Open | Three Pete Dye-designed desert courses. Wide open. Dramatic. Longest courses in the valley. | Pete Dye | The benchmark for serious desert resort golf in Las Vegas. Three distinct 18-hole experiences. |
| Angel Park Golf Club | Open | Two 18-hole courses (Palm and Mountain). Well-maintained public experience. | Arnold Palmer Design | The busiest and most accessible multi-course public facility in Las Vegas. |
| TPC Las Vegas | Open | Former PGA Tour venue. Open desert. Stadium-style presentation. | Bobby Weed | Tournament pedigree. The most prestigious daily-fee course in Las Vegas. |
| Cascata Golf Club | Open | Rocky mountain waterfall course. Most dramatic visual setting in Nevada. | Rees Jones | The most spectacular and most expensive daily-fee option in the Las Vegas area. |
The Most Expensive Golf Course in Las Vegas History
Johnny Miller called it an E-Ticket ride. He said the land told him what it wanted to be. He was correct on both points. The land at Badlands, 254 acres of Mojave Desert landscape in western Las Vegas, was a place which was clear what kind of golf course it should be, and Johnny Miller and Chi Chi Rodriguez listened. The result was a 27-hole golf course the golfers of which who played it still describe with a lot of detail, 30 years later. Hole 6 with the ravine. Hole 7 with the secret green. The back nine sweeping toward the Red Rock Mountains. Ninety-five acres of grass across 254 acres of desert. The top desert golf course in Las Vegas; rated twice by Golf Digest as No. 1 in the Nevada Top Ten;closed December 1, 2016. It would become a nine-year legal dispute during which the city of Las Vegas would spend a net $350 million on an issue that could have been settled for $64 million in 2022. Lennar Homes is constructing 1,750 houses. E-Ticket is gone. The price tag attached to its removal was the most expensive golf story in Las Vegas history.
Frequently Asked Questions: Badlands Golf Course
Is Badlands Golf Course still open?
No. Badlands Golf Course permanently closed on December 1, 2016. It will not reopen. In March 2025, the city of Las Vegas completed a $636 million transaction to acquire the 254-acre property and sell it to Lennar Homes, which plans to build between 1,550 and 1,750 residential units on the site. The legal dispute that kept the land in limbo for nearly a decade ended with that settlement.
Who designed Badlands Golf Course?
Badlands Golf Club was designed by Johnny Miller and Chi-Chi Rodriguez. Miller, a PGA Tour legend and long-time NBC golf broadcaster, was the primary design voice on the project and described the land as speaking to him during the design phase. Rodriguez, an eight-time PGA Tour winner and 22-time Champions Tour winner, co-designed the course and brought his playing experience to the risk-reward architecture. The course opened in October 1995.
How many holes did the course have?
Badlands Golf Club had 27 holes across three distinct nine-hole courses: Desperado, Diablo, and Outlaw. The original 18 holes, Desperado and Diablo, opened in October 1995. The Outlaw nine was added in 1997. Golfers could play any of the three 18-hole combinations: Desperado/Diablo, Diablo/Outlaw, or Desperado/Outlaw.
Why did Badlands close?
The course closed on December 1, 2016, because its owner, developer EHB Cos., had purchased the land in September 2015 with the intention of building a housing development on the site. The city of Las Vegas denied the rezoning application that EHB needed to proceed with the development. In response, EHB withdrew its application and closed the golf course. The subsequent legal dispute between EHB and the city lasted nearly nine years and ended in March 2025 with a $636 million settlement.
What did it cost to play Badlands?
During its operational period from 1995 to 2016, Badlands Golf Club was positioned as a premium daily-fee course in Las Vegas. Green fees varied over the years and by season, but the course was generally in the $100 to $200 range for 18 holes at peak times. The course’s reputation and demand commanded prices that reflected its status as one of the most acclaimed public courses in Nevada.
What awards did Badlands receive?
Golf Digest ranked Badlands Golf Club among Nevada’s Top Ten courses in both 1997 and 1999. Las Vegas Review-Journal readers voted it Best of Las Vegas in multiple years. Vegas Golf Magazine named it Best Desert Course in 2006. The course’s enthusiastic reception when it opened in 1995 is credited with sparking much of the golf and real estate development that followed in the western Las Vegas corridor near Summerlin.
What will be built on the former Badlands site?
Lennar Homes, one of the largest residential builders in the United States, purchased the 254-acre former Badlands site from the city of Las Vegas for $350 million as part of the March 2025 settlement. Lennar plans to build between 1,550 and 1,750 residential units on the property, which is located near Alta Drive and South Rampart Boulevard in the western part of Las Vegas. The development timeline has not been publicly confirmed in detail.
How much did the Badlands legal battle cost Las Vegas?
The total city expenditure related to the Badlands legal dispute was approximately $350 million. The city paid a $64 million judgment in one of the four cases earlier in the litigation. In the March 2025 final settlement, the city spent $636 million to acquire the property and then received $350 million back from the sale to Lennar Homes, leaving a net additional cost of $286 million to resolve the remaining three lawsuits. City officials had warned that continuing to litigate could have cost upward of $450 to $500 million.
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