Columnist Dean Juipe: Smooth run for Invensys debut in LV

Dean Juipe

Monday, Oct. 16, 2000 | 10 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

With weather ordered straight from the Chamber of Commerce and a competitive tournament from start to finish, the PGA Tour's Invensys Classic at Las Vegas had a cohesive and smooth flow to it.

It played out as it was designed to do, with the drama peaking as scheduled for Sunday's final round at the TPC at Summerlin.

Potential drawbacks such as the blustery, almost rainy conditions that surfaced last Monday and Tuesday failed to materialize. Likewise, the new course in the rotation, Southern Highlands, proved acceptable to the pros and amateurs alike and was tough enough to withstand any threats to the sport's integrity.

Assuming its developers don't renege, Southern Highlands will stay in the Invensys' three-course rotation. But tournament manager Charlie Baron is mystified as to where to go and how to replace the Desert Inn Golf Club, which will have been plowed over by the time the tour returns here in 2001.

"I don't know what we're going to do, really," he said. "We'll sit down and look at our options, but I'm not sure just what they are."

Ideally, the tour would replace the D.I. with the soon-to-open Bali Hai course being built on the Strip near the airport. Yet that won't happen for one simple reason: Bali Hai doesn't have a driving range.

"Aside from that, it would have been a natural," Baron commented.

He may be reduced to pleading with Las Vegas Country Club members to reconsider their decision to deny that gracefully aging course to PGA players for one week a year.

Another option, Canyon Gate Country Club, isn't as viable as it may seem despite hosting an LPGA event a few years ago, as it is an insufficient 6,800 yards from the back tees.

A new course being designed by Jack Nicklaus won't be ready until at least 2002.

If LVCC members remain steadfastly opposed to hosting the tour, Baron may have no choice but to toss the TPC at the Canyons into the mix. "They're remodeling a few of the holes," he said of a course the pros have come to dread, given its susceptibility to the influences of wind.

The golf-course dilemma aside, Las Vegas appears to be an anchor on the PGA Tour after 18 consecutive years. The tournament's debut association with Invensys, a British firm in the computer industry, is secure for a minimum of two more years and the event draws a decent field of players as the result of its late-season position on the tour schedule.

Last year the tournament donated $24,000 to local charities and it is expected to exceed that total this year.

About the only thing the tournament could do better -- aside from improving its spectator parking situation -- is luck into a local winner. It hasn't happened yet, and many thought this would be the year.

"To have a native son win this thing would be really great for us," Baron said. "We're sure rooting for 'em, but maybe there's more pressure on local guys when they're playing a 'home' tournament, although Jim Colbert won here twice (in Senior Tour events)."

The bottom line is good news for churches and synagogues in the valley, as tournament officials -- while having many of their prayers answered this year -- still have reason to pray a little more.