April 27, 2005

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's golf team, which is currently the nation's top-ranked squad according to Golfstat, will compete at the 2005 Mountain West Conference Men's Golf Championship beginning on Thursday at the Crosswater Course (par 72, 7,568 yards) at Sunriver Resort in Sunriver, Ore. This year will mark the fifth straight time that Sunriver has hosted the MWC Championship.

UNLV won the inaugural MWC Championship in 2000, again in 2002, and will now be looking for its third conference championship in six years. BYU won in 2001, and New Mexico is the two-time defending champion, winning in 2003 and 2004.

Individually, UNLV has had two winners with Michael Kirk claiming medalist honors in 2000 and Ryan Moore (2004) coming into this year's event as the defending champion.

Last year, UNLV finished third as a team at the MWC Championship, six shots behind New Mexico and BYU, which tied for first. New Mexico won in a playoff. Moore won the event at 10-under par, three strokes better than CSU's Nolan Martin and San Diego State's Mark Warman.

UNLV has won two team titles this season and Moore has been the only Rebel to win an individual championship in 2004-05, with three under his belt this year.

Play at the 54-hole tournament will begin each day at 9:30 a.m. PDT with 18 holes each day from Thursday through Saturday.

Live stats for the event will be available off a link on Golfstat.com.