Vegas Shot: Home of Hackers and Haymakers

by Jack Sheehan

Whether the game requires one glove or two, or a punch-out means escaping the rough and low-hanging branches or being on the wrong end of a technical knockout, boxing and golf are not as dissimilar as one might think. Certainly there’s a commonality in the spicy language shared between rounds in each sport.

In Las Vegas we have an unparalleled passion for both pastimes, and both have become an integral part of our economy and our culture. Big-ticket fights are staged at the major hotels along The Strip mainly as a lure to high-rollers, who will use any attractive boxing card as an excuse to fly to Vegas. And in the few hours a gambler may spend outside the casino, a round of golf at any of our 65 courses can be a welcome respite from a hot dealer.

In the last quarter century, as this Byzantine epicenter of castles and pyramids and Eiffel towers and Roman Colosseums and pirate lairs has charged forward as the fastest growing destination in the country, Las Vegas has become home to dozens of stars in both boxing and golf.

The fight game’s two biggest promoters, Bob Arum and Don King, both have homes here, as do Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Oscar de la Hoya. So too do professional golfers Ryan Moore, Chris Riley, Charley Hoffman, Bob May, Butch Harmon, Craig Barlow, Natalie Gulbis, Erica Blasberg, In-Bee Park ... and the list goes on. The boxers like training in a climate and locale where they are likely to have their next bout. And golfers like the number of well-designed and maintained courses that open their fairways and practice facilities to them, and a climate that offers 12 months of uninterrupted play.

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I’ve had great and not-so-great experiences with practitioners of both sports in my time in Vegas. On the positive side would by my interview with Tiger Woods for the mob surrounding the 18th green following his first-ever PGA Tour victory in 1996. I asked the 20-year-old Tiger whether he was surprised to get a victory in just his fifth professional start.

“To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long,” he calmly answered. Some 60 victories later, it appears he wasn’t blowing smoke.

Also on my “great” list was playing Shadow Creek on the day the course opened in 1989 and marveling at the miracle that Tom Fazio and Steve Wynn had sculpted from a flat plot of land that Wynn had originally described as “the ugliest 300 acres of dirt in America.”

Seven years later, I played Shadow Creek with President Bush (No. 41) and had a great laugh as he scooted down a steep creek bank to fish out some golf balls. In the process, he scared the bejeesus out of his two Secret Service agents, who from their vantage point on a nearby mound saw only the Commander-in-Chief’s head disappear from view. One of the agents immediately screamed into his ear-phone, “Eagle down! Eagle down!”

We had a good laugh when the President ascended a moment later, proudly displaying four grimy balls he’d fished out. It was all the visual evidence you’d need to understand that he was a true, unspoiled golfer.

On the “not so great” list in the boxing-and-golf memory bank would be an occurrence on a calm spring morning in 1985. I was playing at Las Vegas Country Club, and on the eighth hole I hit a low screaming pull off the tee. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a dark-hooded creature emerged from behind an oleander tree running directly in the path of my scud missile.

I screamed Fore!, but it was too late.

The ball actually brushed the sweatshirt of the man jogging toward us, but it didn’t slow him down. He just started throwing punches into the air. I was certain he was preparing to use one of them on the errant driver who had almost beheaded him.

As he whisked by and leveled me with a daunting glare, I realized that my near-victim was Tommy “The Hit Man” Hearns, who two days hence would engage in a classic confrontation with Marvelous Marvin Hagler.

The fight, which has been called “The Three-Round War,” was the most action-packed battle I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve seen more than 50 title bouts in Vegas. And to think I almost ended the fight earlier than Hagler by getting too much right hand into my tee shot. FG

Las Vegas author Jack Sheehan once interviewed Oscar de la Hoya, who told him he found golf to be
a great escape from the ring. “I enjoy it because the ball doesn’t hit back,” Oscar said.