Coach wants a UNLV golf course

Dean Juipe

Wednesday, Oct. 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Examining a list of the nation's top-ranked collegiate golf teams, UNLV head coach Dwaine Knight read downward and made his point. Virtually every one had its own private course.

And while the Rebels have the luxury of access to almost every golf course in Southern Nevada, Knight envisions the day UNLV will have a course to call its own.

"I think it's a real possibility and to put it on something of a five-year schedule is probably realistic," Knight said Tuesday before his team split into groups to practice at three area courses, Sunrise Country Club, Lake Las Vegas and at the Paiute resort north of town.

A UNLV-owned and operated golf course may sound grandiose, yet the ball is already rolling.

"It's being kicked around," Knight said. "It's gone from no thought at all, to where a lot of people think it's a very good idea whose time has come.

"All the funds would be privately raised and the expense to the university would be minimal."

It is, of course, a tribute to Knight and the stature of the UNLV golf program that such a project could be privately financed. The cost estimate varies from $5 million to $12 million, with the key variable being land acquisition.

"Believe it or not, getting the money might not be the most difficult part of it," Knight said. "What we need to get first is the land. We could get it by donation, or maybe from the BLM (Bureau of Land Management). If it's BLM land, we might have the opportunity to buy it or maybe get it in a land swap with the university."

Knight emphasized that a UNLV golf course would be available to all members of the university, from students to faculty.

"It's an add to, not a take away," he said. "It would enhance the university's ability to attract professors and faculty. It's a big perk. It's something we as a university don't have yet because we're so young, but it's something that we need to add down the line."

Knight said specific sites, in relatively close proximity to the university, are being discussed although he declined to elaborate at this early date.

"This isn't just wishful thinking," he said. "We need a golf course for the total university. I've heard it over and over.

"I'm pretty sure it's going to get done."