While I didn’t really golf in Vegas, and didn’t get a T-shirt. I did manage to golf three incredibly nice golf courses in Nevada and Eastern California for a really reasonable price. This is the tale of the annual Laughlin Nevada Golf Trip where the rooms are cheap, the food is cheaper and the average gambler is a 65 year old grandmother of 5 with a 40ft RV parked in the endless pavement campground just outside the casino. This is truly a golfer's dream trip where the price for golf isby far the most expensive cost to the trip while still staying under $50 a round.

Here’s how it works. There is one basic rule to follow when planning these trips:
SAVE YOUR MONEY FOR GOLF!!!

That’s pretty much it. If you follow that basic premise you can get a lot of golf out of a small budget. Here are some important steps that can save you a bundle of golf money.

1. Plan your flight well ahead and look for the best location to fly into; most likely it will be Vegas. Laughlin is about a 2-hour drive from Sin City, so you’ll need to rent a car. I flew out round trip for just over $200. Plus by taking a bump on the return flight, I received a $500 flight voucher. Cha- Ching!

2. Shop around for hotel deals and book ahead. Avoid staying on the weekends if possible. This is when hotels charge their highest rates. One Saturday stay cost me $50.00/ a night while the rest of the week cost $15/ a night. That’s quite a cost savings.

3. Coupons, Coupons, Coupons. Look around for food specials. The casinos use these to lure the senior citizens into the casinos. There are places to get a $.99 breakfast, or a $5.99 steak dinner. There are countless specials during the week and with the right coupon someone might be able to eat 2 or 3 free buffets.

4. Twilight Rules. Schedule Twilight tee times or take advantage of early morning tee times. There are normally specials for golfers who set up tee times during the first 2 hours of open slots. Plan ahead if you want to golf in the morning, otherwise you’ll be stuck with that 5:30 a.m. Tee Time that never seems to fill. Twilight starts around 1:00 p.m. but in November, the sun sets around 5:00 p.m. so golf fast!

5. And finally, stay away from the tables and slots! Golfing is expensive enough, do you really want to lose your hard earned money that could easily be wasted on beers and side bets at the golf course. This is just a recommendation. It works for me, but you’ll always have that jerk in your group who winds up winning big and making you regret rule 5. For that one winner though, there are normally 3 or 4 big losers who manage to remain pretty quiet, especially when they get back to the wife and kids.

There are some really nice courses out in that area. Two courses that I recommend are the Mojave Resort Golf Course, and The Emerald. The Mojave course is the nicer of the two and boasts a complimentary driving range and GPS positioning on the golf carts, which gives useful yardages on each hole. The Emerald aka “The Rock” while not quite as nice as Mojave does have more reasonable rates. $41 twilight, $35 early morning, compared to the $55 twilight rate that is charged at Mojave.

The final rule is bring your friends and family, after all golf is half about the game and half about the people you enjoy it with. Oh, and if you feel like hitting on the waitresses at the casino, stop drinking immediately and return to your room, she’s old enough to be your mother and has less teeth then your Grandpa.