Bill Walters Golf course devloper's lawsuit targets two companies owned by Robert Lewis. Robert Lewis' companies, Las Vegas Golf Adventures and Travel Golf Media, are targets of a defamation lawsuit filed last year.

Robert Lewis says he is a journalist.

But a lawsuit filed by golf course developer Bill Walters is challenging that contention, and the resulting court battle could test the reach of a Nevada law protecting journalists from having to discuss the news gathering process in the state's courts.

The defamation lawsuit was filed last year by Walters against Lewis' two companies, Las Vegas Golf Adventures and Travel Golf Media.

Lewis' companies are involved in golf course advertising and the syndication of golf news, including reviews of golf courses, on the Internet.

According to the lawsuit, Walters' company, Walters Golf, paid Travel Golf Media from March 2003 to February 2005 to refer Walters' courses to golfers on the Internet through golf course reviews and advertisements.

Walters said the Internet reviews of his Stallion Mountain golf course were glowing during the business relationship.

"This course is noted as one of the best in Las Vegas, and I have to agree," said one review of Stallion Mountain appearing on Lewis' LasVegasGolf.com. "The views are magnificent with Sunrise Mountain supplying the backdrop."

But Walters said that when the business-advertising relationship between Walters Golf and Lewis' companies soured, Travel Golf Media demanded a 300 percent increase to the monthly fee it was charging Walters Golf.

Walters' suit alleges Lewis then threatened to make the Internet golf course reviews of Walters' courses negative if a new deal wasn't reached. When the contract couldn't be renegotiated, the scathing reviews of Walters' courses started to appear on the Internet.

"And you thought the Exorcist was scary?" wrote Chris Baldwin regarding the Stallion Mountain course on LasVegasGolf.com in May of 2005.

"Stallion Mountain is a run-down muni that charges high-end Las Vegas prices ($155.) It is the Las Vegas round to avoid at all costs. ... Just don't. That's the best advice you could take on Stallion Mountain."

Another posting on LasVegasGolf.com by Baldwin reported on multiple complaints about the quality of the greens at Walters' Desert Pines Golf Club.

Walters sued Las Vegas Golf Adventures, Travel Golf Media, Baldwin and others last year, alleging defamation. The suit also said the Web site reviews of the Stallion Mountain course were accompanied by photographs that were not of Stallion Mountain.

Baldwin said last week that he was simply fulfilling his journalistic role as watchdog for unsuspecting golfers who face high greens fees to play subpar golf courses.

"I'd heard from people in the community it (Stallion Mountain) wasn't in great shape," Baldwin said. "I wanted to go out and see.

"I'm just a journalist," Baldwin said. "I go out and review courses and I write honestly.

"In the golf industry, there is a hesitation to tell the truth," Baldwin said.

Lewis said last week that he, too, is a journalist, and that the reviews on his Web site were independent assessments of Walters' courses despite the fact that they came shortly after the business relationship with Walters faltered.

"Advertisers come and they go," Lewis said. "If I was angry about every advertiser that came and went, I'd be out of business."

However, Walters said in an interview last week that Lewis is not a journalist.

Lewis said in defending himself against Walters' lawsuit he plans to invoke Nevada's shield law, which prevents reporters from having to answer questions or disclose information culled during the news-gathering process. Lewis said he should be offered protection under the law in the courts because the reviews presented on his Web site were good, honest journalism.

"It has to protect me," Lewis said. "They sued me in Nevada and they are claiming this is a Nevada case. It has to apply to me.

"Publishing is publishing," Lewis said. "What's the difference between me (an Internet publisher) and being physically in print?"

But Walters is not the first in the golf industry to complain about the business tactics of Travel Golf Media.

In 2004, Travel Golf Media was sued by Resort Suites-Scottsdale, amid allegations Travel Golf Media violated the Scottsdale resort's Internet domain name.

"It was along those same lines," said Resort Suite's Phoenix-based attorney Brad Hartman, referring to the contents of the Walters' lawsuit.

Hartman said his client, Resort Suites, was in business with Travel Golf Media, and when their business relationship went south, the company's Web site domain name ended up going north -- literally.

"He (Lewis) was managing the domain name and Web site, but when things fell apart the domain name was suddenly registered to a Canadian individual," Hartman said, "an individual with an address in Canada."

Chris Smith, president of Tucson Golf Vacations, said he has sued Lewis as well. He said he was in business with Lewis, and then when they parted ways, Smith found his golf travel Web site had been duplicated.

"The site was identical to my site, but the phone numbers are changed," Smith said. "It even still has my picture and everything. It had all our literature on there except it says, 'Please call us now,' and it has a new phone number.

"This guy ... should be put out of business," Smith said. "It's one after another with this guy. He's not even close to a journalist."

But Lewis said Walters himself has acknowledged the golf course reviews were journalism because Walters flew reporters out to his courses to conduct reviews.

"Billy Walters met a number of my writers," Lewis said. "He flew them out and had them at his golf courses. ... He's recognized us as journalists."

If Lewis does invoke the shield law, the decision on whether the law applies to him will eventually be made by District Judge Jennifer Togliatti, who is overseeing the case.