June 1, 2000
Box Score
OPELIKA, Ala. - UNLV senior Jeremy Anderson almost single-handedly kept the Rebel golf team below par for the eighth straight round on Thursday after carding a second-round four-under par 68 at the Grand National Course, site of the NCAA Men's Golf Championships.
As a team, the Rebels fired a one-under par 287 and make the cut at three-under for the tournament. They are tied with Houston for sixth place after the second round, 16 strokes behind Oklahoma State. The Cowboys finished the day 12-under par and overtook Texas for the team lead by one stroke.
Anderson (69-68--137) is now seven-under for the tourney and just four strokes behind Texas' David Gossett and OSU's Charles Howell, who are tied for the lead at 11-under par.
The four-under round was important to keep the Rebels in contention after the rest of the lineup failed to score better than even par. Senior Michael Kirk (70-72--142) carded a par round and sits tied for 16th place overall, two-under par.
Several of the Rebels struggled on the back nine, but kept their scores under control. Freshman Calvin Kupeyan (71-74--143) made the turn at two-under, but allowed four bogeys to cost him his sixth straight round of par or better.
Junior Scott Lander (79-73--152) showed a significant improvement, shaving six strokes off his first-round 79. However, he bogeyed the final hole to finish at one-over.
Freshman Robert Sul (76-75--151) was even at the turn, thanks in part to an eagle on the par-four 16th hole. Sul left his drive some 127 yards short of the pin, then holed his approach shot from the fairway. He gave the strokes back with double bogeys on Nos. 2 and 5, but with solid play from the rest of the lineup, the team was able to throw out his three-over 75.
"There's a lot of pride in this team," head coach Dwaine Knight said. "We weren't quite where we'd like to be today, but don't expect this team to just roll over. They will come out with a hard round tomorrow."
UNLV makes the final round at the NCAAs for the third straight year and has only failed to do so twice in school history. Following Thursday's round, 14 of the 15 schools had advanced. Defending national champion Georgia and Wake Forest, who was the last team to qualify at the NCAA East Regional, both stand six-over and will fight for the last team spot in a playoff at 7:15 a.m. CDT on Friday morning. Following the team playoff, an individual playoff will be held to determine the top nine players to advance.
Due to the playoffs, Friday's tee times have been pushed back to 9:15 a.m. at the earliest. The Rebels will be off in the first group and are paired with Arizona, who topped UNLV by four strokes to win the NCAA West Regional, and Auburn, the host university.
