March 30, 1999

THIS WEEK: The second-ranked UNLV golf team will travel to Lecanto, Fla., which is 11/2 hours outside of Orlando, to compete in the 1999 Compaq U.S. Collegiate Golf Championship being held Friday-Sunday, April 2-4, at Black Diamond Ranch's Quarry Course (7,159 yards, par 72).

THE FORMAT: A practice round will be held on Thursday, April 1. It will be a 54-hole medal play tournament with both team and individual champions. Eighteen holes will be played each day beginning on Friday, April 2.

THE FIELD: Among the 12 teams participating, eight are ranked in the top 50 of the MasterCard Collegiate Rankings. The participants include No. 2 UNLV, No. 5 Oklahoma State, No. 8 Arizona State, No. 15 Minnesota, No. 20 Oklahoma, No. 26 New Mexico, No. 32 Southern California, No. 35 Texas Christian, unranked Arizona, unranked Florida State, unranked Kent and unranked Ohio State.

TELEVISION COVERAGE: The Intersport Television production of the U.S. Collegiate Golf Championship will be featured live on ESPN :
Saturday, April 3 (11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. Pacific)
Sunday, April 4 (9:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Pacific)

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 U.S. COLLEGIATE: The Rebels finished third out of 12 teams in last year's U.S. Collegiate Golf Championship which was held at the Slammer and Squire Course (Par 72, 6,829 yards) in St. Augustine, Fla. UNLV (291-293-293-877) finished nine shots back of champion Florida State (286-292-290-868). Oklahoma State (289-297-290-876) finished second. Individually, Charley Hoffman (70-71-72-213) led the Rebels and finished fourth. Bill Lunde (76-70-71-217) finished eighth, Jeremy Anderson (73-76-75-224) tied for 21st, Chris Berry (74-76-75-225) tied for 26th, and Scott Lander (74-77-77-228) tied for 33rd.

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 24)1. Clemson2. UNLV3. Georgia Tech4. Georgia5. Oklahoma State6. Texas7. Houston8. Arizona State9. Florida10. Northwestern11. Nebraska12. Brigham Young13. Washington14. East Tennessee State15. Minnesota16. South Carolina17. North Carolina State18. North Carolina19. North Florida20. Oklahoma21. Mississippi State22. California23. UCLA24. Fresno State25. Texas-Arlington

Individually, UNLV has four players ranked in the top 100. They are Jeremy Anderson at 12th, Michael Kirk at 15th, Charley Hoffman at 43rd and Chris Berry at 53rd.

UNLV SEASON HIGHLIGHTS: UNLV has won three tournaments this year in the Jerry Pate National Intercollegiate on Oct. 20 in Birmingham, Ala., the John A. Burns Intercollegiate on Feb. 19 in Kaneohe, Hawai'i, and the Golf Digest Intercollegiate on March 14 in Las Vegas, Nev....UNLV has won three of its last five tournaments...The Rebels have finished in the top three in their last six 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 71.77 per round...He also leads the team in rounds par or under with 15...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 nine times this season...The team is averaging a score of 291.26 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 Adam Scott. Scott was named WAC golfer of the Week on March 29 after turning in the best finish of his career, tying for fourth at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate. Michael 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.

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 U.S. Collegiate Golf Championship 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 recorded its sixth straight top three finish as it placed second at the Morris Williams Intercollegiate, which was held at the Austin Country Club in Texas.

NEXT OUTING: UNLV's next action will be April 9-10 at the Bellsouth Yellow Pages Intercollegiate in Cary, N.C.