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STORYLINE: The No. 2 UNLV men's golf team placed first out of 27 teams at the NCAA West Regional and has advanced to the 2005 NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships, which will be held June 1-4 at Caves Valley Golf Club (par 70, 7,129 yards) in Owings Mills, Md. This year's NCAA Championships will mark UNLV's 15th appearance in the last 17 years at the event. UNLV did not qualify for last year's NCAA Championships, however, it sent Ryan Moore to compete as an individual and he won the 2004 individual national championship. The trip to Caves Valley marks the second of the season for UNLV as it played the course in September at the PING/Golfweek Preview Invitational. UNLV finished ninth out of 15 teams in the event. 10 teams from each regional advanced to this year's NCAA Championships that will feature 30 of the nation's best teams. The 72-hole event will be played in four 18-hole rounds, with a single round played each day. The NCAA Championships will have live scoring on the internet, available on UNLVRebels.com, courtesy of Golfstat. There will also be television coverage of the event with portions shown on The Golf Channel.
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 11 tournaments this season and have finished first, second or third in 10 of them. UNLV has won three team titles this season (Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship, which UNLV hosts each March, the ASU Thunderbird Invitational in April, which marked the first time that UNLV had ever won the event and the NCAA West Regional). The Rebels are led individually by senior Ryan Moore, who was 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 69.08 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 Championships will be the same lineup that played at the NCAA West Regional. Participants include 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 15 NCAA finals appearances. His 1998 squad won 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: Always the most impressive field of the year, the NCAA Championships feature 30 of the most talented teams in the country. All of this year's NCAA Championships teams rank in the top 50 (in the latest edition of the Golfstat/NCAA Division I Team Rankings - Head-to-Head Standings). The following is the field along with each team's Golfstat ranking in parenthesis: Oklahoma State (1), UNLV (2), Georgia Tech (3), Augusta State (4), Georgia (5), New Mexico (6), Florida (7), Wake Forest (8), Kentucky (9), Duke (10), Tennessee (11), Arizona State (12), UCLA (13), Arizona (14), Georgia Southern (16), Texas (17), BYU (18), Southern California (19), Washington (20), Georgia State (22), Alabama (23), Tulsa (25), Southern Methodist (26), Purdue (28), Coastal Carolina (29), Texas A&M (31), Arkansas (32), San Diego State (34), Stanford (39) and Missouri (47). Additionally, six individuals will compete in the field: Rhys Davies (East Tennessee State), Martin Ureta (North Carolina), Korey Mahoney (Eastern Michigan), Judd Easterling (Wichita State), Greg LaVoie (Oregon) and Michael Putnam (Pepperdine).
UNLV VS. THE FIELD: Head-to-head, the Rebels own a 54-14-1 record against the NCAA Championships field this year. That record was assembled against 23 of the 30 opponents bound for the Baltimore area, while UNLV has not faced seven of the schools in the field. UNLV has been most successful this season against BYU, posting a 5-0 advantage over the Cougars and the Rebels are 4-0 against San Diego State and UCLA. UNLV holds a 5-1-1 mark against Arizona and is 4-1 against Arizona State. The Rebels have struggled the most with New Mexico, going 4-4 in eight common tournaments. UNLV has also struggled with Oklahoma State, going 1-2.
UNLV'S HISTORY AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: This year marks UNLV's 15th appearance at the NCAA Championships. All 15 showings have come in the last 17 years. Last season, UNLV failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships as a team, however, there was a silver lining to the season as Ryan Moore competed as an individual at the tournament and won the 2004 national championship. As a program, UNLV has won three men's golf national championships: one team title in 1998 and two individuals (Moore in 2004 and Warren Schutte is 1991). UNLV's last appearance at the NCAA Championships as a team was in 2003, when it finished 13th. In its 14 previous appearances, UNLV has finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Championships eight times. Aside from winning it all in 1998, UNLV's best finishes were second in 1996, fourth in 1992, sixth in 1999 and 2000, seventh in 1994 and eighth in 1991 and 1993.
MOORE AT LAST YEAR'S NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: Last year in Hot Springs, Va., at the Cascades Course (par 70, 6,679 yards) at the Homestead Resort, Ryan Moore captured the individual national championship (second individual NCAA title in UNLV men's golf history). He finished the tournament at 13-under-par 267, six shots head of Wake Forest's Bill Haas and Arizona's Chris Nallen, who both tied for second at 7-under. Moore's four rounds: 67-70-64-66.
UNLV AT THE NCAA WEST REGIONAL: This season marked UNLV's 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 won the team title at this year's NCAA West Regional, which marked the fourth in regional title in program history. UNLV finished at 6-over-par 846, three shots ahead of New Mexico. The other NCAA West Regional titles came in 1990, 1994 and 1997. UNLV has finished in the top five in 15 of the 17 times it has competed at the NCAA West Regional. This season, the Rebels were led individually at the NCAA West Regional by Ryan Moore, who finished tied for sixth at even-par 210. Andres Gonzales and Ryan Keeney each tied for 15th at 3-over. The Rebels have had three individual medalists at the NCAA West Regional (Hub Goyen, 1990; Warren Schutte, 1991; Ed Fryatt, 1994). Last year (2004), UNLV finished 11th at the NCAA West Regional and was led by Ryan Moore's third-place finish.
UNLV AT THE MWC CHAMPIONSHIP: In April, 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 GET BACK TO NCAA FINALS: With the NCAA West Regional team title, UNLV has gotten 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 previous NCAA finals and won it all in 1998. The Rebels finished second as a team in 1996, which was their top finish before 1998.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS EXPERIENCE: Three players on the Rebels' five-man lineup have previous NCAA Championships experience. The 2005 event will mark Ryan Moore's fourth NCAA Championships. He won the national championship last year in 2004 and he was the top Rebel individual in 2003 finishing tied for 22nd and in 2002 when he tied for eighth. The others are Travis Whisman and Ryan Keeney, who both made their only previous NCAA Championships appearance in 2003. Whisman finished 34th, while Keeney tied for 56th. Andres Gonzales and Jarred Texter are making their first NCAA Championships appearance.
EARLIER THIS SEASON AT CAVES VALLEY: The NCAA Championships will mark UNLV's second trip to Caves Valley Golf Club this season. The Rebels played at the PING/Golfweek Preview Invitational, Sept. 26-27, which was held at the same course that this year's NCAA Championships will be played. The Rebels finished ninth out of 15 teams at the event with a score of 28-over-par 868. Oklahoma State won the team title of the 54-hole event at 8-over 848. UNLV's top finisher was Ryan Moore who finished tied for third at 1-under 209, three shots back of individual champion Pablo Martin of Oklahoma State.
REBEL RANKINGS: UNLV is currently ranked No. 2 in the nation by Golfstat, No. 4 by the Golf Coaches Association of America and 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 Championships 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.
TELEVISION COVERAGE: The Golf Channel will provide television coverage of the NCAA Championships on a slightly tape-delayed basis. The airing schedule follows: Thursday, June 2 (12-2 p.m. PDT, TD and 10 p.m. - 12 a.m. PDT, Replay), Friday, June 3 (12-2 p.m. PDT, TD and 10 p.m. - 12 a.m. PDT, Replay) and Saturday, June 4 (12-2 p.m. PDT, TD and 10 p.m. - 12 a.m. PDT, Replay).
MORE ON MOORE: Senior star Ryan Moore is the most heralded player in the history of the UNLV golf program. On May 14, he was chosen as the 2005 Ben Hogan Award recipient, which annually honors 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 in golf. 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 be 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 69.08, which is on pace to break the UNLV seasonal record of 69.39, which he set last season and he is looking to challenge the NCAA seasonal scoring average record of 68.93 (42 rounds) set by Wake Forest's Bill Haas in 2004. He has finished in the top six in all eight 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 this past spring. 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.
UNLV MEN'S GOLF RECORDS TO FALL?: There are a number of UNLV men's golf records that are in jeopardy as the 2004-05 season comes to a close. For starters, the seasonal scoring average record of 69.39 that was set by Ryan Moore last season is on pace to be broken by Moore's current scoring average of 69.08. If Moore repeats as the individual NCAA Champion, it would mark his fourth tournament win of the year, which would tie Warren Schutte for the most wins in a season by an individual. Schutte won four tournaments in 1990-91, the same season he won the NCAA title. Moore is also looking to solidify his spot as the all-time leader for career scoring average at UNLV. He currently holds a career average of 70.77. Jeremy Anderson (1996-00) is second at 72.01. A record that Moore has already captured is the most all-time individual career victories of seven that he set this season. Schutte (1989-93) is second with six.
MOORE HONORED FOR ACADEMICS: Ryan Moore has been selected to the 2005 Academic All-District VIII University Division Men's At-Large Team. He will now be placed on the ballot for the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Team selected by CoSIDA.
