March 6, 2006

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's golf team will host the 2006 Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship this weekend, March 10-12, which features some of the nation's best collegiate golf teams.

Thirteen of the 15 teams competing in the tournament, which will be played at Southern Highlands Golf Club (par 72, 7,510 yards), are in the top 25 of the latest Golf Coaches Association of America/Bridgestone Coaches Poll. Additionally, eight of the teams are ranked in the top 10 in the poll.

This year's field consists of (GCAA rakings in parenthesis) Arizona (T23), Arizona State (9), Clemson (21), Duke (8), Florida (3), Georgia (1), Georgia Tech (2), New Mexico (T23), Oklahoma State (4), Texas, Texas A&M (T19), UCLA (5), UNLV (10), Wake Forest (14) and Washington.

The tournament will be 54 holes of stroke play with 18 holes played each day and the low four scores from each round counting toward the team total. Team and individual ties will be broken by sudden death playoff.

In last year's Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship, UNLV (294-281-280--855, -9) captured the team title, while Mark Anderson of South Carolina (66-72-71--209, -7) and Daniel Im of UCLA (66-75-68--209, -7) tied for first individually before Im defeated Anderson in a sudden-death playoff.

Live scoring will be available online for the tournament and may be found by going to Golfstat.com and clicking on live scoring. A link will also be available off the UNLVRebels.com site.

The tournament is open to the public and there is no charge for admission.