Columnist Dean Juipe: It’s a shame but the D.I. closes today

Dean Juipe

Friday, June 28, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Of all the landmarks Las Vegas has lost in the past few years, none was as beautiful nor as meticulously groomed as the one that will be abandoned today.

The Desert Inn Golf Course, precisely 50 years old, closes to the public at noon and will be bulldozed within a very few days.

It's an arguably callous and shameful move by its owner, casino mogul Steve Wynn, yet one he is certainly entitled to do as a wealthy man intent on remaking the property in his own vision. A new megaresort will be built, and, in a bizarre if unnecessary twist, a new golf course will eventually take the old one's place.

We all knew this day was coming but that didn't make it any easier Thursday to visit the scene of the impending "crime" and check on the old girl's status.

It was uplifting to see that it still sparkled.

In fact, beyond the solemnness of the workers, there was no sign that this was the D.I.'s penultimate day. Sprinklers still watered the fairways with timed precision, and maintenance men still went hole to hole to individually water each and every green as if there was no terminal day in sight.

As always, a spectacular array of dazzlingly colored flowers drew attention at the intersection of the clubhouse, the 1st and 10th tees and 9th and 18th greens. Interspersed with red rocks, every plant, if not every blade of grass, seemed perfectly in place.

Always known for its class, this wonderful golf course has come to the end of its line without ever having fallen into disrepair or neglect. Only on the periphery of the course, where exotic homes once housed admiring residents, is there evidence that destruction is imminent.

Opened in 1952, the D.I. hosted pro golf's Tournament of Champions in the 1950s and had the honor of seeing each of the pro tours -- LPGA, PGA and Senior PGA -- make yearly stops in its heyday.

Players loved it for its tight fairways and risk/reward shot-making demands and quietly undulating greens. Spectators at the professional events loved it for its harmonious atmosphere as well as its accessibility, something sorely lacking in the courses Las Vegas fans are asked to navigate today.

Given these admirable traits, its draw as a tourist attraction and the fact the D.I. is known the world over, it's only natural to ask why Wynn would even think of burying this course and later replacing it with another.

"Well," said one employee, who confirmed those plans but shall remain anonymous given that I have firsthand knowledge of Wynn's vindictiveness, "everyone has already played this course and they've been paying only $80 to do it. The only way he can charge $300 for a round is to build a new course."

"Well put," I said in response, striving to control my venom while appreciating the fact that those who own Pebble Beach or Wrigley Field don't share Wynn's destructive habits. The employee's matter-of-factness aside, he didn't seem too pleased either.

Before leaving I spotted a local man inconspicuously wandering the grounds, taking pictures of the random sights.

Unable to get a tee time, he had made the decision to do the next best thing: He came down to take one long last look.