Tuesday, April 27, 2004 | 9:19 a.m.
Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4088.
My initial thought upon seeing the exclusive Cascata golf course for the first time Monday was that it was even more spectacular than I'd imagined.
My second thought was that somebody better get Kenny G a hairnet before this weekend's Michael Douglas & Friends Presented by Lexus celebrity golf event at the pristine layout behind Railroad Pass, just beyond the welcome sign to Boulder City.
The 450-acre, Rees Jones-designed track tucked between the arroyos and canyons in the River Mountains Range foothills just might be the Salma Hayek (who won't be playing) of local golf courses. It's stunning in its beauty. It's so gorgeous, in fact, that you'd hate to see it blemished by a wayward hotdog wrapper, much less a lock of curly hair from a clarinet player.
It's a respect and reverence thing, sort of like golf fans have for Augusta National.
"When you go to the Masters, you might see a piece of paper on the ground, and your first instinct is to pick it up," said Brian Hawthorne, the director of golf at Cascata, which Golf Magazine recently saluted as one of the top 20 courses built in the U.S. since 1959. "You see a little of that here."
Hopefully, the fans who take advantage of Sunday's open gate policy for the celebrity benefit will remember to wipe their feet before joining the gallery. It will be just the second time that Cascata, reserved exclusively for guests of Caesars Entertainment resorts, will be open to the public after roughly 1,500 spectators accepted the invite to last year's outing featuring Douglas and his golf pals.
Admission is $30, with tickets available at Ticketmaster and the Caesars Palace box office. Those who scale the elevated No. 3 tee, from where you can almost see downtown Searchlight across a breathtaking desert vista, will have considered it money well spent.
As a bonus, there's also a chance that Alice Cooper might sign your CD (or for music fans of my era, your 8-track tape). Hawthorne said the celebrities are pretty good about interacting with the gallery.
Other A-listers expected to tee it up in the benefit for the Motion Picture & Television Fund charitable health program include Heather Locklear, Shelby Lynne, Kyle McLachlan, Leslie Nielsen, Haley Joel Osment, William Peterson, Richie Sambora, Martin Sheen, Robert Wagner, Mark Wahlberg and Luke Wilson.
The event will be taped for TV. It will air on ABC following the final round of the British Open on Sunday, July 18.
Denver Post columnist Woody Paige on colorful Colorado State quarterback Bradlee Van Pelt, the Broncos' final round draft pick: "Van Pelt could be a quarterback with the Broncos for 10 years. Or 10 minutes." ... Jeff Garcia's tough year got a little tougher when the academic senate at San Jose State, his alma mater, recommended the school withdraw from Division I and the Western Athletic Conference by a 21-11 vote. That doesn't necessarily mean it will happen, but there's no question one of UNLV's former PCAA and Big West rivals has seen brighter days. ... Former Las Vegas Thunder fan favorite Clint Malarchuk recently completed a two-month stint as Florida Panthers goaltenders coach, but he's not sure how long the assignment will last. "It's good for right now, but I just can't see it happening for the long term," the always mat ter-of-fact Malarchuk told the Idaho Statesman newspaper. When he's not offering Roberto Luongo advice between the p! ipes, Malarchuk spends most of his time looking gift horses in the mouth -- he's an equine dentist in Gardnerville. ...
This may come as bad news to many of his former UNLV players who didn't much care for him, but Jim Schlossnagle is having a pretty good run as TCU's first-year baseball coach. The Horned Frogs, picked for sixth in Conference USA, are 26-15 overall and 12-6 in the league, and from the looks of things, are only going to get better. Schlossnagle's 2005 recruiting class was ranked No. 9 in the nation by Baseball America. ... I haven't had a favorite baseball player since Ron Santo retired, but I may have to adopt the Rangers' Kevin Mench. Having already hit a home run, triple and single, Mench returned to first base after making a wide turn, resisting the temptation to stretch a drive to the power alley into a double during Sunday's 14-4 victory against Seattle. Only one player in Rangers history (Oddibe McDowell in 1985) has hit fo r the cycle. One can only hope that Michael Strahan, Brett Favre and Bob Sura were watching.
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