Columnist Dean Juipe: Senior event may be on its deathbed

Dean Juipe

Friday, April 20, 2001 | 9:51 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.

It's always startling to discover an old acquaintance is in failing health and in danger of cashing in.

You automatically think back to better days, of lively times and hearty laughs.

With clouded vision you try to accept the reality while wondering what will happen next.

Those and similar thoughts and reminiscences crossed my mind this week when the Sun reported that the Las Vegas Senior Classic that opened today at the TPC at Summerlin may be the final one ever played.

From out of nowhere, a golf tournament that has been part of the community for 16 years has been rushed into intensive care for observation, if not resuscitation. Only those in the inner most circle even knew the ambulance had been summoned.

Yet the threat of extinction is real, tournament bigwigs admit.

They say they need a corporate sponsor to survive, and they imply that the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority is antsy about continuing in its role as primary sponsor as it is doing this year.

As recently as a year ago, a company by the name of Tru-Green Chemlawn was serving as the event's corporate sponsor, but those things come and go. For instance, General Tire was an earlier sponsor, just as Panasonic once sponsored the companion Las Vegas Invitational that has a yearly spot on the PGA Tour.

Tru-Green may have discovered that its investment only goes so far, and that media outlets are reluctant to attach sponsorship names to an event in printed or verbalized references. As such, Tru-Green may not have thought it was getting its money's worth.

When Tru-Green abandoned the ship, the LVCVA stepped in and most of us thought its arrangement with the Founders Club (which coordinates the Senior Classic) would never sour. After all, the power brokers on one board are all but interchangeable with the other.

Now we find out the Senior Tour players are already talking about this weekend's tournament as the final one to be played here, as if they have a soft spot for an annual hiatus in this gambling and entertainment mecca.

If this tournament actually succumbs, Las Vegas' reputation as a graveyard for live sports will be cemented even further.

It would also be a telltale indictment of the Senior Tour as a whole and conclusive proof that the 50-and-over circuit needs to make some changes.

If people are tired of the Las Vegas Senior Classic, these would be the reasons why: Summerlin is inconvenient; the parking situation at the TPC is terrible; the amateurs in the field are a huge deterrent for the fans; and, in a harsh reality that is uncontrollable to a great extent, the lack of stars and recognizable names currently playing on the tour has sent it into a downward spiral that in recent months has cost it a major national sponsor (in Cadillac), along with sagging TV ratings and live attendance.

The tour is experiencing a personality void.

Yet it's all but inconceivable that the situation is so grave in Las Vegas that a fairly appealing tournament with lengthy roots is on the verge of being canceled.

We've all got to go sometime, but, even considering the lull on the Senior Tour, the news of the tournament's possible demise was tough to fathom.