Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame announces ’11 class
There are a few ties that bind all three members of the Las Vegas Golf Hall of Fame’s 2011 class.
All three grew up in Southern Nevada and went to high school here. Some of the courses they grew up on no longer exist. And last, but surely not least, they’ve all been quite successful in their realms of golf.
Art Sellinger, Laurie Johnson and Craig Barlow were announced as this year’s inductees during festivities Monday at Las Vegas National Golf Club. They will be formally inducted on Nov. 5. All three have unique stories worth telling.
ART SELLINGER
If there’s one thing almost any golfer wants to do, whether that golfer is a touring pro, a scratch amateur or just a weekend duffer, it’s hit the ball farther. Seriously, have you ever heard anyone utter, "I wish I didn’t hit the ball so far?"
Well, very few people have ever hit the ball farther than Sellinger. In fact, the 1983 Chaparral grad turned it into his passion, his career and a few successful business ventures.
"I was very blessed to have the (club) speed I was given," said Sellinger, who moved to Las Vegas when he was 5 years old and learned the game with his brother, playing Las Vegas Municipal and Black Mountain, but also Winterwood (now Desert Rose) and the extinct Craig Ranch. "We didn’t have instruction, nothing like today’s junior golfers. We just rared back, hit it as hard as we could, then just went and found it.
"It’s fun to hit it as far as humanly possible, and back then as kids, that’s what we did."
Sellinger moved to Texas in 1986 and went on to win two U.S. national long drive championships. In 1994, he co-founded the Long Drivers of America, and he assumed full ownership of the organization in 2001. The LDA puts on the annual RE/MAX World Long Drive Championship, which culminates each fall in Mesquite.
Sellinger, who returned to Vegas in 1995 but has since moved to Southlake, Texas, with his wife and two kids, also owns The Art of Long Driving, which conducts exhibitions and clinics. And he’s operates Sellinger’s Power Golf, which has two stores in the Dallas area.
He never expected to get as much as he has out of golf and said he was surprised to reach the Las Vegas Hall.
"I honestly didn’t know I was up for consideration. I was shocked," said Sellinger, 46. "But I’m grateful. I really take this seriously. The roots of everything in my life are tied to golf and Las Vegas."
LAURIE JOHNSON
Like Sellinger, Johnson also moved here when she was just 5 years old, in 1963. But she didn’t take quite the same path to learning the game she now loves — and dominates on the amateur scene in Southern Nevada.
Johnson went to Clark High School and, as the sister of two older brothers, she said she always played sports. But she didn’t get into golf until she was in her 20s.
"I started playing in the early 1980s at the old Tropicana course, where the MGM now sits," said Johnson, 52. "I used to play out there every weekend. I took lessons, got to know everybody, and we just became a family." And she became a great player. Earlier this month, Johnson won her seventh Southern Nevada Amateur crown. She won the Southern Nevada Senior Amateur last year, and she’s got 11 appearances in the Silver Cup — a Ryder Cup-style event between Northern and Southern Nevada. Johnson captained three of those teams.
Though her work as a certified public accountant and her tournament play keep her plenty busy, Johnson still finds time for charitable golf events, serving on the committee for Safe Nest’s annual tournament.
Perhaps the biggest thing she got from the game was time with her father late in his life.
"It was a game I could play outside, I’ve gotten to meet great people and play great courses wherever I go. And it was something my dad and I could do together, for three years," she said. "I could never imagine I’d do what I’ve done over the last 20 years. I know my dad is smiling down on me right now."
The Hall induction was a feather in her cap.
"It’s such an honor. I was shocked and quite surprised," Johnson said. "It was just not something I ever expected."
CRAIG BARLOW
Barlow, a 1990 graduate of Basic High School, grew up in Henderson long before the sprawling suburb included Green Valley, Green Valley Ranch, Seven Hills and Anthem.
In fact, a good bit of his first golf experience didn’t even come on a golf course.
"We lived real close to O’Callahan Park. I’d go hit balls there," Barlow said of the park that sits catty-cornered from Black Mountain Country Club, where he also cut his teeth.
"My dad was an avid golfer. I took it up when I was 10," he said. "Like most kids, I wanted to do every sport, and I wanted to do what my dad did."
Barlow made a rapid, steady progression after starting junior tournaments with the Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association at age 11.
"I felt like I was always pretty good, but as a junior, I was never the best," he said. "But I did get better every year, and I won state my senior year of high school."
Barlow played a year of junior college golf, then decided it was time to focus entirely on the sport.
"I got serious about amateur golf. I made a goal before too long of winning all the (local) amateur tournaments, and that gave me the incentive to turn pro." He played in the U.S. Open as an amateur in 1994 — "That was the turning point," he said — and turned pro in October 1995. The 38-year-old is still a touring professional and has earned more than $5 million on the PGA Tour.
But he’s stayed true to his humble, old-town Henderson roots — which is easy to do for a guy who spent five years as a Pizza Hut delivery driver in order to support his golf pursuit.
"I’d deliver pizzas at night and practice and play tournaments during the day," he said, laughing at the memory. "Golf is my job, it’s what I love to do. I’m thankful and happy to be a golfer, but it’s not any more important than anything that anybody else does. I’m thankful for all I get, and I’m lucky to have it."
And that includes his spot in the Las Vegas Hall.
"I’m honored. Obviously, golf in Southern Nevada means a lot to me," he sad. "The depth of my golf is Southern Nevada. When I was playing golf as a kid, I never thought that I’d reach such accomplishments.
"You’re lucky if you’re one of the few who can say, ‘I get to do what I want to do for a living.’ "
He’s also pleased to be entering the Hall with two more great representatives of local golf in Sellinger and Johnson.
"It’s pretty neat that all three of us are from here," he said. "A lot of tour players live here now, but that’s what’s really neat about this class — we’re all from here."
