Columnist Dean Juipe: Craig Ranch deserves to be saved

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 | 9:08 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.

Golfers by nature critique the courses they play, and many a testy player has used the 19th hole to lambaste the tract that just ruined his day.

Even legendary and world famous courses have been belittled for the hardships they impose or the demands they extract from those privileged to play them.

"It would make a good farm," is a common complaint and one most sensationally attached to pro golfer Dave Hill after he toured Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minn., at the 1991 U.S. Open.

Lesser courses are routinely derided, some for their lack of imagination and others for their shoddy condition and grooming. Sometimes the bad rep is earned.

And sometimes a course deserves better than its image implies.

Craig Ranch in North Las Vegas may be just such a place.

Fifteen years ago I played out there on something of a regular basis, and it served its purpose as an affordable course with decent amenities. But when I went out Monday for a visit I was expecting the worst.

Craig Ranch is on the chopping block. The City of North Las Vegas is trying -- via the Bureau of Land Management -- to buy the course and transform it into a park.

As such, I was anticipating a ragged appearance and a figurative silo or two.

Instead, I found the course looking as good as ever, with an equally healthy clientele. And I was reminded of its quaint charm, a wooden area amid a sprawling metropolis and one with birds chirping nonstop in the background and rabbits scurrying in pursuit of the odd morsel.

This is not a golf course that is dumpy, has been let go or should be eliminated.

"Golf $19" states the big sign by the side of a road that's swarming with truck traffic and congestion. Craig Road is booming and the community is infringing, yet the golf course that bears its name remains a secluded oasis.

But the city looks at it as 132 acres of trees, grass and water. It doesn't see fairways and greens, it sees an area where it can build trails, provide a bird sanctuary and maybe toss in a ballpark.

"The city's been after this course for 10 years," said a regular, "but I don't think they're going to get it.

"I hope not, at least."

The golf course looks none the worse for wear. It's a par 70 covering 6,000 yards, its peripheral pines thinned from their once-unmanageable days yet constantly in play.

It's a course suitable for beginners, couples, retirees and anyone on a budget. It's obviously not as pristine or immaculate as many of the valley's newer layouts, yet it seems to have grown old gracefully and is everlastingly serene.

Of course golf courses here are sacrificed periodically. The Tropicana ... The Dunes ... The Desert Inn, each was torn up and paved over by a casino industry indifferent to the benefits of a plush golf course, its landscape and its appeal.

But Craig Ranch is facing a somewhat different challenge, one orchestrated by elected officials and do-gooders who feel the need for a park. And rather than build one from scratch, they'd like to convert a golf course whose only failing is its maturity and the fact it's no longer on the edge of town.