March 8, 1999

LAS VEGAS - Las Vegas' Desert Inn Country Club to host Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational for second consecutive year.

THIS WEEK: The second-ranked UNLV golf team will be competing in Las Vegas this weekend as the Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational presented by Cleveland Golf comes to the Desert Inn Golf Club (Par 72, 7,013 yards) on Friday-Sunday, March 12-14. The tournament, considered "The Masters of College Golf," will be played in Las Vegas for the second consecutive year as it was moved from Houston, Texas last year.

THE FORMAT: A practice round will be held on Thursday, March 11, and 18 holes will be played each day from Friday, March 12-Sunday, March 14. The teams will tee off from the first and 10th holes beginning at 7:30 a.m. with eight-minute intervals between groups. The groups will be staggered about three minutes between the first and 10th tees.

TOP-RANKED FIELD: Among the 15 teams participating, 14 are ranked in the top 50 of the MasterCard Collegiate Rankings. Eight of the top 10 teams in the country will be participating. The participants include No. 1 Clemson, No. 2 UNLV, No. 3 Georgia Tech, No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Houston, No. 6 Georgia, No. 7 Texas, No. 10 Arizona State, No. 21 California, No. 28 SMU, No. 32 TCU, No. 43 Virginia, No. 47 New Mexico and unranked Arizona. The rankings are as of March 3 and the new edition will be published March 11.

UNLV'S LINEUP: Competing for the Rebels will be seniors Chris Berry and Charley Hoffman, juniors Jeremy Anderson and Michael Kirk, and sophomore Scott Lander.

LAST YEAR'S GOLF DIGEST: The Rebels finished third out of 15 teams in last year's Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational. UNLV (290-284-893-867) finished 12 shots behind team champion Virginia (283-283-289-855). TCU (287-296-282-865) finished second. Individually, Charley Hoffman (70-71-72-213) led the Rebels and finished in fourth place. Bill Lunde (76-70-71-217) finished eighth, while Jeremy Anderson (73-76-75-224) was the only other Rebel in the top 25 with a 21st-place tie. New Mexico's D.J. Brigman (72-70-68-210) captured the individual championship.

GOLF DIGEST HISTORY: This will mark the 11th year of the Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational. UNLV captured the team title in 1996 in Houston, Texas with an 11-over 875. That year, Rebel Chad Campbell captured the individual title with a three-under 213. Over the 10-year history of the event, only two teams have won twice -- Oklahoma State in 1995 and 1990, and Arizona State in 1993 and 1992. A total of eight teams have won the event. The other teams that have captured the title are Virginia (1998), New Mexico (1997), Oklahoma (1994), Arizona (1991) and Louisiana State (861).

REBEL RANKINGS: UNLV began the spring season ranked No. 4, but has since moved up to No. 2 in the MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings.

MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings (As of March 3)

> 1. Clemson 2. UNLV 3. Georgia Tech 4. Oklahoma State 5. Houston 6. Georgia 7. Texas 8. Minnesota 9. Florida10. Arizona State11. Washington12. North Florida13. Northwestern14. Brigham Young15. East Tennessee State16. Nebraska17. North Carolina State18. South Carolina19. Oklahoma20. Mississippi State21. California22. UCLA23. North Carolina24. Oregon25. Fresno State

Individually, UNLV has two players ranked in the top 20. They are Jeremy Anderson at 17th and Michael Kirk at 19th.

UNLV SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: UNLV has won two tournaments this year in the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate on Oct. 20 in Birmingham, Ala., and the John A. Burns Intercollegiate on Feb. 19 in Kaneohe, Hawai'i...If you throw out the Rebels seventh and eighth place finishes in their first two tournaments of the season, they have finished in the top three in their last four outings...Individually, UNLV has had two players earn medalist honors three times this season...They are Jeremy Anderson (Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate and Savane College All-America Golf Classic) and Michael Kirk (John A. Burns Intercollegiate)...Anderson has now won four individual titles in his career and Kirk has now won one...Anderson leads the team in scoring average with a 71.40 per round...He also leads the team in rounds par or under with 12...UNLV's final-round 274 at the John A. Burns was a season-low as well as its three-round total of 832...Kirk never left the 60's en route to the title at the John A. Burns and his 203 tied for the second lowest 54-hole total in Rebel history...UNLV has recorded rounds of par or better as a team seven times this season...The team is averaging a score of 291.71 per round...Two Rebels have shot 65 in a round this season...They are Jeremy Anderson (second round of the Jerry Pate) and Adam Scott (final round of the John A. Burns)...That is the second-lowest round in Rebel history...Only three players have ever recorded 64's.

REBEL HONORS: The most recent Rebel golfer to be honored was Michael Kirk. Kirk was named WAC Golfer of the Week on Feb. 25 after he captured the first individual title of his career at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate. Coach Knight was honored again for his role in leading UNLV to the national championship. Knight was selected as the Golf Coaches Association of America's National Coach of the Year and District VIII Coach of the Year in January. He was also recently invited to fly with the U.S. Air Force's Thunderbirds. In December, Jeremy Anderson was selected as the WAC's Golfer of the Month for November. It marked the second time in his career he has been selected for that award.

HEAD COACH DWAINE KNIGHT: One of the top collegiate coaches in the country, Dwaine Knight is in his 12th season with the Rebels. He has guided UNLV to a national championship (1998), four conference championships and three NCAA West Regional championships. He has been named the Golf Coaches Association of America's National Coach of the Year and the NCAA District VIII Coach of the Year in both 1991 and 1998. He was also named Golfweek Magazine's National Coach of the Year and Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1998. In 1992 he headed the staff for the United States vs. Japan All-Star Matches and was the West Team's coach at the NCAA East vs. West All-American Matches in 1994. Although he has received numerous accolades while with the Rebels, perhaps the highest honor Knight has received was when he was named the United States Palmer Cup Team Captain in 1997. Knight came to UNLV in the Fall of 1988 from New Mexico where he graduated from in 1969 and was the head golf coach from 1978-1987.

COACH KNIGHT'S COMMENTS: "We are excited about having this tournament here for the second year in a row in Las Vegas. Next to the national championship it is the best field in college golf. It is played on a great venue in the Desert Inn, which has a tremendous tradition for hosting tournaments in the past such as the PGA Tour's Tournament of Champions. The number of ranked teams that will be here is extraordinary and with that you add the last two U.S. Amateur champions. In 1997 Georgia Tech's Matt Kuchar won it and in 1998 it was SMU's Hank Kuehne. Last year's individual national champion in Minnesota's James McLean will also be here and I think that is indicative of the quality of the field."

DEFENDING NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: UNLV won its first-ever NCAA championship in 1998. The tournament recap follows:

May 30, 1998
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - It was a lucky seventh for the UNLV golf team.

The top-ranked UNLV Rebels, under head coach Dwaine Knight, withstood a final-round rally from Clemson and won their first-ever NCAA men's golf title by three shots at the University of New Mexico's Championship Golf Course (par 72, 2,748 yards) Saturday.

It marks only the second team national championship for UNLV in any sport as the men's basketball team won in 1990.

The Rebels, who won their record-breaking seventh tournament of the season, shot a final-round one-over-par 289 and finished the tournament at 34-under-par 1,118, setting the record for the lowest total in NCAA Championships history. The old mark was 23-under par, which was set by Arizona in 1992 and repeated by Stanford in 1994.

UNLV also broke the NCAA Championships record for lowest score after the second-round. The Rebels were at 23-under par after the 36-hole cut, eclipsing the old mark set by Stanford in 1994 at 11-under.

Knight, who's best finish before this year at the NCAA Championships was second in 1996, then failed to make the cut in 1997, led his team to the title in only his 10th try with the Rebels.

"This year we have won when we were ahead going into the final round, when we were coming from behind and when we were even," Knight said. "The experience that we gained during the year really helped today. When you win a lot, you get comfortable with the fact that it will always come down to the final holes. It did today and we were ready."

Knight was also impressed with the way his team battled from the very beginning of the season and persevered . "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."

Clemson finished 31-under par in second place, while Georgia Tech was second at 30-under, Oklahoma State was fourth at 25-under and Arizona State rounds out the top five, finishing 22-under par.

Freshman James McLean of Minnesota shot a final-round 69 and hung on for the individual championship at 17-under-par 271.

"It's a big thrill coming over from Australia and win it," McLean said. "I was only a top-five or ten player there and to win it here (in the United States) means a lot. All of the best players are over here and I came here to play with the best."

With his 17-under, McLean tied the NCAA record held by John Inman (North Carolina, 1984), Phil Mickelson (Arizona State, 1992) and Justin Leonard (Texas, 1994) for lowest tournament total.

UNLV junior Chris Berry, who had a nightmare of a tournament in 1996, as he finished dead last, led the Rebels and finished in a tie for second place one shot back at 16-under.

"I am so proud of Chris," Knight said. "For him to comeback and lead us to victory after his previous NCAA performance is just so special."

"One of the things that made me play so well was looking at the scoreboards," Berry said. "When the team went low in the second round I kept looking at the updates on the board and we kept getting lower and lower. It really fired me up and I just wanted to help the team."

Also tying for second was Stanford's Joel Kribel, TCU's J.J. Henry and Clemson's Charles Warren.

RESULTS: Results for the Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational may be obtained by calling the Infoconnection Fax-on-Demand System. Infoconnection may be accessed by dialing (800) 300-2050 from the handset of your fax machine. Media members then need to enter their PIN. If you do not have a PIN, please contact Pivotal Communications at (770) 399-0096 and request one. The Western Athletic Conference passcode is 922 and the document number is 1927.

LAST OUTING: UNLV won the John A. Burns Intercollegiate for the second year in a row at the Kaneohe Klipper Golf Course in Kaneohe, Hawai'i.

NEXT OUTING: UNLV's next action will be March 22-23 at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate in Austin, Texas.