April 27, 2001
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STORYLINE: The No. 21 UNLV men's golf team, two weeks rested, heads to Sunriver, Ore., for the 2001 Mountain West Conference Championships. Hosted by the Mountain West Conference, the tournament will be played at the Crosswater Course at the Sunriver Resort (7,683 yards, par 72) from Monday, April 30 to Wednesday, May 2. The Rebels won the inaugural Mountain West Conference Championship in Palm Desert, Calif., last season by 23 strokes over New Mexico.
THE FORMAT: The tournament is scheduled for 54 holes, with 18 to be played each day. Tee times will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT each day. The first-round pairing will be determined by random draw on Sunday, April 29, and there will also be a practice round that day.
THE FIELD: All eight schools in the Mountain West Conference sponsor men's golf. Competing with UNLV for the conference title are Air Force, BYU, Colorado State, New Mexico, San Diego State, Utah and Wyoming. Only No. 12 New Mexico, No. 21 UNLV and No. 24 BYU grace the top 25 in the latest Golfweek rankings. The Rebels are 12-8 against MWC competition this season, including a perfect 9-0 against unranked opponents.
LINEUP: UNLV's five-man lineup for the Mountain West Conference Championships will be: senior Scott Lander, sophomores Brien Davis and Calvin Kupeyan, and freshmen James Oh and Travis Whisman. Lander and Kupeyan both played key roles in the Rebels' championship effort last season, with fourth- and sixth-place inidividual finishes, respectively.
HEAD COACH DWAINE KNIGHT: UNLV men's golf head coach Dwaine Knight is in his 14th season as the Rebels' skipper. During his tenure, UNLV has been a perennial top-25 squad, won five league championships, advanced to the NCAA Championships 12 times, and captured the 1998 national title. The only coach in the country to twice claim GCAA National Coach of the Year honors in the 1990s (1991 and 1998), Knight has produced 14 All-Americans and sent three players to the PGA Tour (Jeremy Anderson, Ed Fryatt, Chris Riley).
MEDIA: Results of the Mountain West Conference Men's Golf Championships will be distributed to all regular UNLV media via fax following each day's competition. Daily results will be available on the world wide web at www.mountainwestconf.com and www.unlvrebels.com.
LAST SEASON: The Rebels led the inaugural Mountain West Conference Championships from start to finish. Scott Lander was the tourney's first-day leader after shooting 68 while the Rebels enjoyed a seven-stroke lead over Colorado State. The Rams pulled within four strokes after the second round after UNLV shot just two-under par and Lander dropped from first to third in the individual race. However, on the final day of play UNLV exploded for a nine-under par team round and, at 19-under, won the tournament by 23 strokes. Michael Kirk fired a 69 to soar to the individual crown, and all five golfers in the Rebel lineup finished in the top 10.
LAST TIME OUT: In its last outing, UNLV finished ninth at the ASU Thunderbird/Savane Invitational. Scott Lander, Clark Corbett and Travis Whisman all fired rounds in the 60s as the Rebels shot an 11-under par 277 in the final round to climb from 15th place to ninth. Corbett, whose 68 complemented rounds of 73 and 71, was UNLV's top finisher, tying for 18th place overall at four-under par. Whisman carded a 66 in the final round, the lowest score in the tournament that round and the best 18-hole score by a Rebel this season.
UNLV CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP HISTORY: Five times in the history of its program has UNLV walked away with a conference tournament title. The Rebels won three straight Big West Conference titles from 1992-94 and added a fourth in 1996. Last year's MWC crown was the school's fifth. The Rebs have also captured individual medalist honors five times in conference championships. Warren Schutte won back-to-back Big West titles in 1991 and 1992. Ed Fryatt followed with a Big West victory in 1993, and Chris Riley was the league's champ in 1994. Michael Kirk ended a five-year UNLV drought with his one-stroke victory last season.
ATOP THE LEADERBOARD: For the second straight season a Rebel can be found atop the Mountain West Conference leaderboard. Senior Scott Lander averaged 71.58 strokes per round this year, the best in the league. Last season it was UNLV's Jeremy Anderson, who was named the MWC Player of the Year after pacing the conference with a 70.85 stroke average. If the season were to end today, Lander would have tallied the third-best single-season average in school history. His career average of 73.45 ranks seventh on the UNLV list.
LANDER NAMED TO PALMER CUP TEAM: Senior Scott Lander became the fourth UNLV representative to be selected to the U.S. Palmer Cup team since the competition began in 1997. Lander joins former Rebels Ted Oh (1997) and Jeremy Anderson (1998, 1999) as Rebel players with Palmer Cup credentials. UNLV head coach Dwaine Knight was also a Palmer Cup selectee, serving as the U.S. coach in 1997. The Palmer Cup is a Ryder-Cup style tournament that features eight of America's best male collegiate golfers competing against their counterparts from Great Britain and Ireland. The 2001 Palmer Cup will be played at the Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J., on June 27-28.
YOUTH GONE WILD: With only one senior on the squad, the Rebels have counted heavily upon the play of younger golfers in the lineup this season. Freshmen Brandon Askew, James Oh and Travis Whisman have combined for 46 of the Rebels' 126 total individual rounds this season. Golfstat ranks the Rebels eighth nationally in a comparison of freshman contribution to the team. Both Oh and Whisman will be in the Rebels' lineup for the Mountain West Conference Championships. Oh has played in all but one tournament this season and ranks sixth in the conference in stroke average. Whisman owns the best round by a Rebel this year after firing 66 in the final round of the ASU Invitational.
UP NEXT: Following the Mountain West Conference Championships, the Rebels will be looking to compete in their 13th consecutive NCAA West Regional Championships. The NCAA men's golf committee will announce the regional tournament selections on Tuesday, May 8, at 3:00 p.m. PT. The NCAA West Regionals are scheduled for May 17-19 at Trysting Tree Golf Club in Corvallis, Ore.
