RELATED STORY Inferno scores DON McDERMOTT / PVT Champions in the 2008 Pahrump Valley Open Inferno Golf tournament were Chad Goins, men's; ... Brownie Brown, seniors; ... and Julie Floyd, women's. The tournament was played on the Fourth of July at the Lakeview Executive course. Advertisement

Chad Goins started playing golf at the Executive course when he was 11 years old; that was 18 years ago.

"We would drop Chad and my sons, Jack and Jeremy, off at the course early in the morning on the weekends ... they could play all day for $2," said Bob Hopkins, who has been involved in golf as a parent, a player and a coach for almost 20 years in the Pahrump Valley.

"I remember one time we dropped them off ... and they were late coming home," said Larry Goins. "We went out to the course and there they were. They had gone diving into one of the old ponds ... they had a barrel filled with hundreds of golf balls."

In 1996, when he was 17, Chad Goins won the inaugural Pahrump Valley Open Inferno tournament, played then, as now, for the benefit of the junior golf association. Two years later, he repeated and earned his third not-so-coveted red jacket.

"I don't know why it's been 10 years since I last won ... it's not that I haven't tried," said Goins, who minutes earlier was announced as the overwhelming winner in the 13th annual tournament, played on the Fourth of July.

He shot a dominating three-under par 27-28--55, an Inferno record and seven strokes ahead of Bob Hopkins, who in a match of cards was the runnerup, as well as former champion Ivar Gals and Don Lutrell. It was the fifth time Hopkins was second in the Inferno.

"I hadn't played golf in 3-1/2 months ... I've been too busy working," said Goins, who is in an electricians' union in Las Vegas, after working at various golf courses for the last four years. Said a rival player, "I watched Chad ... he hit the ball wherever he wanted to ... he couldn't miss."

For the third time, Julie Floyd won the women's title, shooting a 64. Floyd is the coach of the three-time Nevada state 3-A champion Pahrump Valley Lady Trojans. One of her former players, Rachel Lindemann, was second with 76.

Brownie Brown, one of the major benefactors for the junior golf program, shot a 68 to win the seniors championship. Brown is 81 years old, so his net score was minus 13.

A total of 81 players competed in the tournament, with a shotgun start at 7 a.m. to beat the heat. It was 104 when the tournament ended at about 11 a.m.

The next major tournament is the Gene Goins Memorial, for boys and girls 7-to-18. It will be played July 24-25 at the Executive course, starting at 3 p.m. each day.