Henderson golf facility produces tournament winning players

In just two years since it opened, the High Performance Golf Institute at Reflection Bay Golf Club is already producing champions. Michael Sarro and Morgan Goldstein, both Las Vegas locals, took the championship titles at their respective Men’s and Women’s 2020 Nevada State Amateur Championships this summer.

Both tournaments were held at Reflection Bay — the first time one course has hosted both amateurs within a week of each other in the history of the tournaments.

“HPGI has gained a reputation for offering high-quality instruction at some of the best facilities in Nevada,” said Eric Dutt, Reflection Bay’s manager of operations. “In just a short period of time, it has produced some of the state’s top junior golfers who have gone on to win a range of prestigious golf tournaments all over the country.”

Sarro and Goldstein train under HPGI’s two PGA Tour Pros, Craig Barlow and Jeff Gallagher. HPGI is the only student golf facility in the Western United States to have two PGA Tour pros on its coaching staff.

Barlow, a Henderson native, has made 170 cuts in PGA Tour events as of 2018 with three top three finishes and three top four finishes in his career. He has played in six U.S. Open Championships, one PGA Championship and one British Open. Noted for his ability to “go low” he holds numerous course records, among them a 61 at Las Vegas Country Club during the Las Vegas PGA Tour event and multiple 62s in other PGA Tour events.

Gallagher has been a pro golfer since 1987 and has won the Ben Hogan Tour twice, the 1990 Cleveland Open and the 2000 Web.com Tour’s South Carolina Classic. His career low round in a PGA Tour event is 62 and has made 158 cuts in Web.com events with 34 top 10 finishes. He still competes on the PGA Champions Tour.

“There is no place in Las Vegas or anywhere else in the West where there are two people in the same facility who teach what Craig and I have learned for 30 years playing on the course and at the professional level,” Gallagher said. “We both have a lot more to offer our students than the typical golf academy. We teach our students how to be more than just a tournament player. We teach them to be champions and how to play high-level golf tournaments.”

HPGI students can hone their skills inside Reflection Bay’s newly designed indoor hitting bay, with TrackMan technology used to perfect the most seasoned golfer’s swing. HPGI golfers also practice on a four-hole training area on the former Falls Golf Course behind the Lake Las Vegas Sports Club, reserved exclusively for students.

“I’ve practiced at a few other places and HPGI really has a great program going on,” said Goldstein, who works with Gallagher at HPGI and is currently playing golf at the University of Iowa. “The fact that they have a separate golf course just for their students and you can actually hit on a whole course instead of just hitting in the range is great.”

As part of its efforts to provide top-quality instruction and equipment, HPGI also regularly hosts Golf Equipment Demo Days at its student golf course facility. The academy hosted its third Demo Day this year on Oct. 17, with opportunities to try out the latest equipment from Titleist and Callaway.

For more information about the academy’s upcoming Demo Day, call 702-740-4653. To learn more about Reflection Bay’s High Performance Golf Institute, visit highperformancegolf.com.

Reflection Bay Golf Club is set on a luxurious lake located 25 minutes east of the Las Vegas Strip. This 320-acre, man-made lake is the centerpiece of the Lake Las Vegas residential resort community. Built in 1998, Reflection Bay Golf Club was designed by 18-time Major winner Jack Nicklaus. The course is designated as a prestigious Jack Nicklaus Signature Design and is one of only three Nicklaus-designed courses in Southern Nevada. Reflection Bay was host to the Wendy’s 3Tour Challenge from 1998 to 2007, showcasing the talents of such champions as Bubba Watson, Fred Couples, John Daly and Phil Mickelson. For more information, visit www.reflectionbaygolf.com.