Columnist Victoria Sun: Former Desert Inn members say goodbye to an old friend

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2000 | 9:06 a.m.

Victoria Sun is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. Reach her at 259-4078 or victoria@lasvegassun.com.

Before the Desert Inn Golf Club did away with private memberships in the early 1990s, it was a booming place for those fortunate enough to gain membership.

"When it was a membership club, it was limited to about 250 people," said Ken Land, a D.I. member from 1983-89. "There was a waiting list.

"You worked your way up the list only when people left. It was definitely a privilege to be a member."

For Land, the D.I. was more than a place to golf and socialize.

In 1958, he married his bride, Christa, there and spent his honeymoon at the resort.

Because the D.I. has such sentimental value, Land and former members Vince Fallon and Dan Keiserman organized the Desert Inn Country Club Members Reunion tournament, held Monday at the famed golf course on Las Vegas Boulevard.

About 100 former D.I. members and their friends gathered to play the course one last time before it is demolished. Casino mogul Steve Wynn bought the Desert Inn this past summer, then closed everything but the course. Wynn plans on leveling the 50-year-old resort (including the golf course) and building a new one.

Land played with longtime friend and former member Dayton Blaine. To honor the D.I., Land dusted off his old golf bag embroidered with his name and the D.I. logo, his old D.I. head covers and his member's tag. He also wore a D.I. sweater.

"It's probably my favorite golf course around town," Land said as he surveyed the course. "It has more history and tradition than any other.

"It's an oasis around all these hotels. On some parts of the course, you can't even see a building. The parties and the camaraderie we had here were really special. Everybody loved it here."

As Land and Blaine walked together up the fairways, they reminisced about who lived in which house along the course and remarked how much prettier the course was than when they were members.

Both eyed the picturesque D.I. with a fond look, as if they were visiting an old friend.

"It is the best golf course I ever played in my whole life," Blaine, 72, said. "It is the best kept and we had some great parties here.

"I'm glad I get to play it one more time."

Marilyn Burke moved to Las Vegas in the 1970s.

She joined the club in 1985 after her friends Paul and Deena Wolfsohn took her as a guest and taught her how to play.

Burke was told she was the first single woman allowed to join.

"I felt kind of honored," she said. "I learned how to play here and I've met so many great people."

Burke, now a member of Stallion Mountain, called the D.I. one of a kind.

"All in all it was just fabulous," she said. "There's no place like it here in town."

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