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STORYLINE: The No. 2 UNLV men's golf team will compete at the 2005 NCAA West Regional, May 19-21, at the Stanford Golf Course (par 71, 6,742 yards) in Stanford, Calif. This year's regional will mark UNLV's 17th consecutive invitation to the NCAA West Regional and will mark UNLV's second trip to Stanford this season (finished second at the Nelson Invitational in October). UNLV was awarded the top seed at the West Regional, which is one of three regional tournaments encompassing the current nine regions. A total of 27 teams and six individuals not on selected teams were assigned to each regional site. The other sites are at the Golf Club of Tennessee (East) in Nashville, Tenn., and Warren Golf Course (Central) in South Bend, Ind. Ten teams and two individuals not on advancing teams will move on from each regional to the championship finals. The 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships will be held June 1-4 at Caves Valley Golf Club in Owings Mills, Md. The NCAA regionals as well as the championship will have live scoring on the internet, available on UNLVRebels.com, courtesy of Golfstat.
ABOUT UNLV: The Rebels are currently ranked second nationally, according to the latest edition of the Golfstat/NCAA Division I Team Rankings. They have played 10 tournaments this season and have finished first, second or third in nine of them. UNLV has won two team titles this season (Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship, which UNLV hosts each March, and the ASU Thunderbird Invitational in April, which marked the first time that UNLV had ever won the event). The Rebels are led individually by senior Ryan Moore, who was just awarded the 2005 Hogan Award, honoring him as the nation's top collegiate player. He is a three-time All-American and two-time Mountain West Conference player of the year and currently leads the nation in stroke average at 68.95 per round. He has all three of UNLV's individual titles this season, which brings his career total to seven, the most of any UNLV individual in the history of the program.
THE LINEUP: The Rebels' five-man lineup for the NCAA West Regional will be junior Andres Gonzales, junior Ryan Keeney, senior Ryan Moore, freshman Jarred Texter and senior Travis Whisman.
HEAD COACH Dwaine Knight: UNLV men's golf head coach Dwaine Knight is in his 18th year at the helm of the Rebel program. During his tenure, UNLV has been a perennial power with six league championships and 14 NCAA finals appearances. His 1998 squad on the national championship. He has also tutored two individual national champions (Warren Schutte, 1991; Ryan Moore, 2004). The 2002 MWC Coach of the Year was the only mentor to twice claim GCAA National Coach of the Year honors in the 1990s (1991 and 1998) and he has produced an amazing 32 All-Americans, while guiding six different players to the PGA Tour from UNLV.
THE FIELD: Three of the 27 teams in the NCAA West Regional rank among the top 10 in the nation in the latest edition of the Golfstat/NCAA Division I Team Rankings (Head-to-Head Standings) and nine of the 27 teams are ranked in the top 25. The following is the field along with each team's Golfstat ranking in parenthesis: UNLV (2), New Mexico (5), Auburn (7), Arizona State (13), UCLA (14), Arizona (18), Southern California (19), South Carolina (20), BYU (22), Washington (28), Louisiana State (29), Pepperdine (35), San Diego State (39), St. Mary's (47), UC Riverside (51), Texas-Arlington (54), Stanford (57), Colorado State (60), Cal Poly (61), Oregon (62), Fresno State (63), Denver (82), Illinois State (84), South Alabama (89), Samford (106), Princeton (172) and Central Connecticut State (247). The six individuals in the field are: Jeff Hood (California), Garrett Sapp (UC Irvine), David Kim (San Jose State), Kenny Ebalo (Southern Utah), Danny Bowen (New Mexico State) and Tyler Goulding (Air Force).
UNLV VS. THE FIELD: Head to head, the Rebels own a 41-6-1 record against the NCAA West Regional field this year. That record was assembled against 18 of the 26 opponents bound for Stanford, while UNLV has not faced eight of the schools in the field. UNLV has been most successful this season against Colorado State, posting a 5-0 advantage over the Rams and is 4-0 against BYU. The Rebels have struggled the most with New Mexico, going just 3-4 in seven common tournaments.
UNLV AT THE NCAA WEST REGIONAL: The Rebels earned their 17th consecutive invitation to the NCAA West Regional. Only twice in that span has the team failed to advance to the national finals (2001 and 2004). UNLV has finished in the top five all 15 other times. The Rebels have three wins as a team (1990, 1994 and 1997) at the regional and boast three individual medalists (Hub Goyen, 1990; Warren Schutte, 1991; Ed Fryatt, 1994). Last year UNLV finished 11th and was led by Ryan Moore's third-place finish.
UNLV AT THE MWC CHAMPIONSHIP: In their last outing, the Rebels finished second at the Mountain West Conference Championship in Sunriver, Ore. UNLV shot a five-under-par 859, finishing three shots behind team champion New Mexico. UNLV had three players in the top 10 as Ryan Moore tied for third, Ryan Keeney tied for fifth and Jarred Texter tied for ninth. The all-conference awards were handed out following the tournament and Moore was named MWC Player of the Year for the second straight season. Texter earned Freshman of the Year, while Moore and Travis Whisman were named to the all-conference team.
REBELS LOOK TO GET BACK TO NCAA FINALS: With a top 10 finish at the NCAA West Regional, UNLV would get back to the NCAA finals for the first time since 2003 when it finished 13th. Last year, UNLV did not qualify, but Ryan Moore competed as an individual and won UNLV golf's second individual national championship (Warren Schutte was the other in 1991). UNLV has competed in 14 NCAA finals and won it all in 1998. The Rebels finished second as a team in 1996, which was their top finish before 1998.
POSTSEASON EXPERIENCE: Four players on the Rebels' five-man lineup make their return to the postseason. Ryan Moore, Ryan Keeney, Andres Gonzales and Travis Whisman all played at the 2004 NCAA West Regional. The newcomer to the lineup is freshman Jarred Texter. Last year, UNLV finished 11th at the NCAA West Regional, missing qualifying for the NCAA finals by just one spot. The 2005 NCAA West Regional will mark the fourth for Moore and Whisman, the third for Keeney and the second for Gonzales.
REBEL RANKINGS: UNLV is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation by Golfstat, No. 4 by the Golf Coaches Association of America and by Golfweek and No. 7 by Golf World. The Rebels spent a majority of the spring ranked No. 1 by Golfstat and Ryan Moore has been the nation's top-ranked player all season long.
MEDIA: Results of the NCAA West Regional will be distributed to all regular UNLV media via email following each day's competition. The tournament will also feature live scoring, available on UNLVRebels.com, courtesy of Golfstat. For those members of the media wishing to cover the NCAA West Regional in person, a credential request must be submitted to the Stanford University media relations office.
MORE ON MOORE: Senior star Ryan Moore is the most heralded player in the history of the UNLV golf program. Last Saturday, he was given the 2005 Ben Hogan Award, which is given annually to the nation's top collegiate golfer. The three-time All-American and two-time MWC Player of the Year has won all three of UNLV's individual tournament titles this season, which brings his career tournament win total to seven, making him the winningest golfer in UNLV history (Warren Schutte is second with six). With one more All-America honor (as expected at the end of this season), he will join PGA veteran Chris Riley as UNLV's only four-time All-Americans. The Puyallup, Wash., native was a semifinalist for the Hogan Award as a sophomore and last year was a finalist. At 22, Moore has already played in three PGA major championships -- one U.S. Open and two Masters. He finished tied for 13th this spring at The Masters, solidifying his spot as the low amateur and earning an exemption into the 2006 event. He was also selected to the U.S. Walker Cup team in 2003 and has twice been chosen to the U.S. Palmer Cup squad (2003, 2004). In the summer of 2004, he set a standard in amateur golf that had never been matched and may never again. He won the U.S. Amateur, the NCAA, the U.S. Amateur Public Links, the Western Amateur and the Sahalee Players Championships. This season he has a scoring average of 68.95, which is on pace to shatter the UNLV seasonal record of 69.39, which he set last season and he is looking to break the NCAA seasonal scoring average of 68.93 (42 rounds) set by Wake Forest's Bill Haas in 2004. He has finished in the top six in all seven collegiate events he has played in this year and is the nation's top-ranked individual.
MOORE GETS HIS OWN DAY: Ryan Moore, along with head coach Dwaine Knight, spent Thursday, May 12, at the Nevada State Capitol where Moore was honored for his accomplishments by Governor Kenny Guinn, state Senators Randolph Townsend and Bob Coffin and the Legislative Assembly led by Assemblyman Mo Dennis in three separate ceremonies proclaiming May 12, 2005, as a day in honor of Ryan D. Moore.
REBEL GOLF PROGRAM EARNS ELITE MENTION: The UNLV men's golf team has been ranked the ninth-best college golf program over the last 20 years by Sports Illustrated in a feature that appeared on the internet at SI.com. The publication studied college golf programs over the last 20 years and looked at a number of variables to come up with the rankings. It looked at number of national titles won, number of first-team All-Americans, names that have come out of the program and success the program has shown at the NCAA Championships over the last five years.
