Gotham golfers now seeing Sin City as weekend getaway

By Chris Baldwin,
Contributor

NEW YORK - Hitting ball after ball down a narrow, net-enclosed artificial turf fairway, Brad Wertzer could not help but dream of Las Vegas. Here he was, stuck inside on another rainy, windy November day in Manhattan, reduced to swinging at green mats. They were nice green mats. This was the Chelsea Piers driving range after all.

But green mats nevertheless.

The scene certainly did not resemble Reflection Bay on Lake Las Vegas or Desert Pines Golf Club or any of the other dozen Sin City courses Wertzer has fallen in love with on his trips to the desert. Forget the temperature (the heat was already cranked up at Chelsea Piers to make the practice conditions bearable). There wasn't a beer cart girl in sight. Let alone a Vegas cart girl.

At that moment, Wertzer had an epiphany. It wasn't Ben Franklin with the kite, but it was seize the day worthy.

Wertzer pulled out his ever-present Blackberry and started surfing the Web. In minutes, he found what he was looking for: a $218 round trip flight from JFK. He was going to Vegas this weekend! Suddenly, five more days getting in his swings at driving ranges around the New York City area did not loom as a chore. Now, it was preparation.

"Why not?" Wertzer said of his sudden Vegas plan. "With the prices you can get on flights to Las Vegas from New York now, a week or even three or four days in advance, it can be a last-minute weekend trip. I know a bunch of guys in the office who do it. You get sick of being stuck in the city, you're dying to get in some real golf where you won't catch pneumonia from being out there...you book the flight to Vegas."

Wetzer is part of a growing number of New Yorkers who view Las Vegas as a quick decision weekend getaway. And we're no longer just talking the Donald Trump set flying off on their personal jets. No, these are average everyday people who suddenly no longer see the 5,000-mile roundtrip journey as so daunting or restricting.

New York to Las Vegas is probably not an every weekend option. It's not Los Angeles to Las Vegas after all. But recent changes in the New York travel market have made it more convenient and less costly than many weekend trips from New York to Maine.

The appearance of JetBlue in the New York market a few years ago changed things significantly. JetBlue's frequent and, maybe even more importantly, high quality flights from JFK airport to Las Vegas did not just force other airlines to lower their own short-notice rates. They altered many New Yorkers' view of what low-cost, last-minute travel could be.

Before JetBlue's personal satellite TVs and leather seats, discount airlines in the New York area were regarded with covered noses. From ATA's hronically late and inept ways to America West's spotty service, the perception was that you really had to be desperate to go somewhere last minute. The only other option was trekking all the way out to Islip, Long Island to take a Southwest flight that connected three or four times.

Once more and more New Yorkers tried JetBlue, realized the stories touting its service commitment were legit, it went from being regarded as a discount airline to an airline of first choice in many cases. Suddenly, you could take a last-minute flight to Las Vegas and get there somewhere around the time you expected in a decent mood.

Golfers followed -- as quickly as they do anything.

"It took a little while," Wertzer said. "But more and more on my trips out there, I'd hear more and more guys talking about making a golfing weekend of it. Friday afternoon you're in the office, Friday night you're in Vegas at the tables, pumped up for your morning tee time.

"Now it's almost become a fad. If you're restricting yourself to those weekend trips to Hilton Head or Myrtle Beach, you're sort of out of the loop."

Area golf pros have also noticed the shift. Michael Vevchak, the pro at Pine Barrens Golf Club in Jackson, NJ, hears more of his club's players plotting last minute Vegas getaways.

"I think a number of golfers are changing their definition of what a weekend trip is," Vevchak said.

Several New York area airlines are now accommodating of that change. A recent Internet search of a five-day advance purchase fare -- shorter notice than the used-to-be essential seven-day advance -- to Las Vegas yielded nonstop round trips for $206, $235 and $264 depending on the airport and travel time. It is an attitude revolution as much as a fare war. Flying away for the weekend from New York is considered shrewd rather than a needless extravagance.

"I think people have really gotten over the stigma of airline travel," Wertzer said. "I drive up to Vermont to ski with my buddies a few weekends in the winter and that's five, six hours in the car each way for two days. What's the difference between that and direct flight to Vegas except you don't have to do the driving?"

Wertzer put down his BlackBerry and picked up his club. Next weekend was set. He really had something to swing for now.

November 28, 2004

Chris Baldwin keeps one eye on the PGA Tour and another watching golf vacation hotspots and letting travelers in on the best place to vacation.