Columnist Dean Juipe: Venue change hurt Senior Classic

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2001 | 9:23 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.

On behalf of the city's pro golf fans, here's an open letter to tournament manager Charlie Baron pertaining to the recent cancellation of the Las Vegas Senior Classic after a 16-year run.

Dear Charlie:

It's bad enough to have it confirmed by the Senior Tour that we've lost our annual event, but your comments in the newspaper(s) only accentuated the wound.

It was almost amusing. Well, actually, it was offensive, yet the ridiculousness of your remarks did manage to bring a sarcastic smile.

Charlie, the excuses you trotted out bordered on the absurd. And the one about the increase in interest in Las Vegas' minor-league baseball team this season after its switch in affiliates (from San Diego to Los Angeles) really took the cake. Hadn't you noticed (or read) that fewer people than ever care about the team or go to its games?

To propose that the 51s are one of the reasons the Senior Tour is withdrawing from Las Vegas is the height of folly. As you well know, nothing could be further from the truth.

Nor do the broad range of entertainment options that are available to valley residents on a daily basis factor into this equation. Those same options have been available for years and aren't just now impacting the status and health of the Senior Classic.

No, Charlie, you simply didn't address the real reasons attendance isn't what it once was for the tournament stop in Las Vegas, as anyone with even a modicum of insight into the situation realizes. (It has nothing to do with the tour losing its appeal, either, as you somewhat implied.)

So knock off the denials.

The root of the problem is, of course, traced directly to moving the tournament from the Desert Inn to the TPC at Summerlin. Maybe that was outside your control, but it's at the heart of the matter in that the event was running smoothly and with a great deal of community support when it was at the D.I., and the situation has done nothing but deteriorate since the 1994 move to Summerlin.

Beyond the fact the people of Summerlin haven't shown any outward interest in tournament golf, the course is well out of town and has absolutely no amenities of interest to the average fan. Parking remains abhorrent. The clubhouse and corporate suites are off-limits to all but the privileged few. And the course, Charlie, the course is absolutely unwalkable.

Whereas the D.I. allowed fans to conveniently jump from a given hole to another with ease -- and therefore pick up a different group of players or give the spectator some variety -- doing the same thing at Summerlin is flat out impossible. It's a hilly, winding course that completely discourages foot traffic.

As a result, all but the heartiest fans at a tournament there have nothing better to do than congregate around the 18th green. Without a special pass, fans have no place to sit and eat or get a drink, and standing 10 deep with nowhere to go and little to see is boring, boring, boring.

Given that you haven't been offering much bang for the buck, it's no surprise a corporate sponsor didn't step forward to rescue the event.

May the Senior Classic rest in peace. But to those of us familiar with its demise, you should at least take some of the responsibility for wrecking it.