Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame Spotlight – Class on 2002
Each Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame class is unique and the Class of 2002 was packed with star power, with Robert Gamez, Jim Colbert and the 1998 UNLV Golf Team.
Also, stay tuned for more information about the 2022 Night of Induction.
A little about each of 2002 inductees:
Mr. Jim Colbert is synonymous with golf in Las Vegas. Colbert owns eight PGA Tour victories and more than 20 Champions Tour wins, but his impact is even more meaningful. He was instrumental in helping to return the PGA Tour back to Las Vegas in 1983, and for creating the Las Vegas Founders Club, a group of Las Vegas volunteers that operated events on all three pro tours and have raised more than $13 million for area charities. Mr. Colbert and Ron Fogler came to town in the early 1980s to manage the Las Vegas Municipal Golf Course. Seeing the potential for a PGA Tour event, Colbert and Las Vegas Founders Club put together a plan of action and in 1983 the PGA Tour’s Panasonic Las Vegas Pro-Celebrity Classic bloomed to life as the richest PGA Tour event on the schedule. and Vegas has been a Tour stop regular ever since. The total purse was the first million-dollar purse in PGA Tour history, and celebrates its 27th year.
“Jim was the father of the PGA tour in Las Vegas,” said Charlie Baron, tournament manager for 22 years. “He and Ron had the foresight to bring the event to the city. Jim, with his contacts, made it happen and took on a monumental task. You’ve got to give him a lot of credit for making it happen.”
Mr. Robert Gamez is one of the earliest faces of Vegas golf. Born and raised here, Robet attended Clark High School where he was a standout. He won the 1985 Southern Nevada Amateur as well as the 1988 Clark County Amateur. “Robert Gamez was one of those rare individuals who had a natural gift for the game,” said Dick Huff, Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame inductee, Class of 2004, and a former teacher of Mr. Gamez.
“When I began working with him at age 14 he needed very little help with his mechanics,” Huff said. “Later in his career we worked on the mental aspects of the game I felt could make him a champion and the rest is history.”
Gamez was a dominating player in the Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association and then in the Southern Nevada Golf Association, where he won four-straight Player of the Year awards.
In one of college golf’s most dominating years, the 1997-1998 UNLV Men’s Golf Team took winning to new heights. The Rebels, led by Coach Dwaine Knight, won just about everything in sight in that magical season that culminated with UNLV winning the national championship on the Championship Course at the University of New Mexico, at Knight’s alma mater and in his hometown. The Rebels posted a four-round total of 1,118 (34-under par). That was good enough to beat Clemson by three strokes. Rebels who teed it up for the record-setting victory were Chris Berry (tied for second individually), Bill Lunde (tied for 15th), Charley Hoffman (tied for 20th), Jeremy Anderson (tied for 29th) and Scott Lander (tied for 37th). The scoring total was the lowest in the history of the NCAA Championships. Other members of that team included Daron Dorsey, Scott Wingfield and Christian Thornley.
The season was remarkable because the team won tournaments when they led going into the final round, when they were even and when they trailed.
“After not making the cut last year and losing the players we did, for this team to gain the No. 1 spot again, coming in expected to win, and with the pressure, holding on for the victory makes me very proud,” Knight said.
