April 22, 2008
LAS VEGAS - The No. 13 UNLV men's golf team will compete at the 2008 Mountain West Conference Men's Golf Championship beginning on Thursday, April 24, at the Catalina Course at Tucson National (par 71, 7,136 yards) in Tucson, Ariz.
The 2008 championship will mark the second straight year that the tournament will be held in Tucson, Ariz., and just the second time in the last eight years that the MWC Championship has not been held in Sunriver, Ore. The first MWC Championship was played in Palm Desert, Calif., in 2000, and the 2001-2006 events were at the Crosswater Course at Sunriver.
UNLV won the inaugural MWC Championship in 2000 and again in 2002, and will be looking for its third MWC title this week. BYU won in 2001, New Mexico won the title four straight years (2003-06) and BYU won last year's title by one shot over UNLV.
Individually, UNLV has had two MWC champions with Michael Kirk claiming medalist honors in 2000 and Ryan Moore in 2004.
Last year, UNLV finished second as a team at the MWC Championship, which was the event's first year in Tucson. TCU's Robby Ormand and San Diego State's Adam Porzak tied for first individually at 6-under, but Ormand claimed medalist honors on a playoff hole. Seung-Su Han, C.J. Gatto and Brett Kanda all finished in the top-10 for UNLV. Han tied for fourth at 3-under, while Gatto tied for sixth at 2-under and Kanda tied for ninth at even par.
Competing for the Rebels in this year's MWC Championship will be junior Han, sophomore Kanda, sophomore Eddie Olson, senior Matt Kinsinger and freshman Ji Moon. This will mark Han's third MWC championship, while Kanda, Olson and Kinsinger have all played in one conference championship.
Han's fourth-place tie last year was his best MWC Championship finish and is the best conference tournament finish of any of UNLV's players in this year's field.
Play at the 54-hole tournament will begin each day at 7 a.m. PDT with 18 holes each day from Thursday through Saturday.
UNLV holds the MWC Championship record for 54-hole score at 19-under 845, which was set in 2000 and also the largest margin of victory, which was 23 shots - also in 2000. Han is tied with three other golfers for lowest 36-hole score at the MWC Championship, when he carded 136 over the first two rounds last year, while Moore set the lowest 54-hole total by an individual at the championship at 10-under 206 in 2004. Additionally, Moore holds the record for individual margin of victory as he won the 2004 title by three strokes.
UNLV has won two team titles this season (the Shoot-out at Angel Park in Las Vegas in September and the Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship in Las Vegas in March). UNLV has finished third in each of its last two tournaments and has turned in eight straight top-five finishes dating back to September.
UNLV's best individual finish this season was turned in by Han when he finished second at the Shoot-out at Angel Park.
UNLV has played in one previous tournament this season at Tucson National Golf Club, finishing third at the National Invitational Tournament in March.
Live stats for the MWC Championship will be available through a link on UNLVRebels.com.
