LVCC makeover not only cosmetic

After 42 years, the old lady looked weary and worn. That could no longer be denied. Restoring her long-lost beauty was going to take more than touch-ups.

This job called for an extreme -- and expensive -- makeover.

Las Vegas Country Club members will get to view the results Friday.

At first glance, after an eight-month renovation that cost $5.4 million, the venerable 18-hole, par-72 course will reopen with a fresh, modern and healthy look.

Architect Mark Rathert oversaw a top-to-bottom overhaul of the 7,203-yard course, originally designed by Ed Ault in 1967, that abuts Joe W. Brown Drive across from the Las Vegas Hilton. The goal of Rathert, course superintendent Kent McCutcheon and the latter's staff was to give the club's 600 members a layout as good, if not better, than the one that hosted PGA , LPGA and Seniors Tour events in the 1980s and 1990s.

"We're thrilled with the results," general manager Ryan Shaw said. "We've been able to maintain the history and legacy of the course while giving it a modern look. People are raving about it."

Getting the project off the ground wasn't easy. A membership vote was needed to appropriate funds, and members would have to subsidize the project with a monthly dues surcharge for the next 15 years. And they wouldn't be able to play the course for eight months.

Several members who voted against the project wanted to leave the club. Shaw said 48 people were able to sell their memberships. Another 12, who also wanted to sell, sued the club over the terms of their membership contract. The lawsuit is pending.

Two-thirds of the members approved the expenditure. The course shut down in April and Rathert, who had designed Boulder Creek Golf Club's two courses, went to work.

"My challenge was to make it contemporary but maintain the integrity of the course," Rathert said. "My vision of the course was that it was pretty tired and rundown. Not much had been done to the greens. There was no irrigation system to speak of. So the solution was to rebuild all the greens, put new bunkers in, change the tee boxes and still make it fair for the high-handicap players while at the same time, make it challenging for the low-handicap players."

McCutcheon said pythium, a fungus that is prevalent on most golf courses, had taken over at LVCC.

"Once it stops becoming dormant, you've got problems," he said. "It was destroying all the greens and something had to be done."

Shaw said the alternative to renovation would have been constant patchwork maintenance that would have ultimately forced a makeover.

"We had lost the greens," he said. "So we went to the membership and asked, 'Do you want to put a Band-Aid on it and wait for it to happen again in a couple of years? Or do you want a permanent fix?' "

Trying to appease members, Shaw sold water rights owned by the club to a private firm for $2.4 million. That reduced the debt on the project by more than a third and cut the monthly dues surcharge to members from $77 to $48.

"Over the course of the 15 years of the agreement, each member will save several thousand dollars," Shaw said. "We were able to bring this project in on schedule and under budget by several thousand dollars. Nobody's complained."

Cliff Buckley, who pushed for the makeover, said the club members really had no choice.

"We didn't want to lose the course," said Buckley, a 14-year member who served as chairman of the club's greens committee. "Ultimately, the love the membership has for the course and the club won out."

Dan Albregts, a local attorney who has been a member for 15 years and supported the renovation, said the money was well spent.

"We needed to bring the course into the 21st century," he said. "What I'm most happy about is we delivered what we said we would deliver -- a classic course with a modern look and feel. And we did it on time and under budget. I can't wait to get out there Friday and play it."

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913.