March 21, 2009

LAS VEGAS - The No. 13 UNLV men's golf team will return to action this Sunday-Monday, March 22-23, as it will compete at the National Invitational Tournament, which will be played at Omni Tucson National Golf Club (par 72, 7,094 yards) in Tucson, Ariz. The tournament is being hosted by the University of Arizona.

The 54-hole tournament will be played over two days with 36 holes on Sunday and 18 on Monday. Rounds are expected to begin at 7:30 a.m. each day.

The 15-team field is made up of host Arizona (two squads), Baylor, California, Colorado State, Houston, Kent State, New Mexico, SMU, TCU, Texas, Tulsa, UNLV, UTEP and Wyoming.

TCU won last year's NIT with a total of 10-under-par 854. Tulsa's Nicolas Geyger won medalist honors at last year's event with an 8-under 208. UNLV finished third at even par last year and was led by Eddie Olson, who tied for 10th at 2-under.

Competing for the Rebels this weekend is Eddie Olson, Brett Kanda, Derek Ernst, Ji Moon and Colby Smith. Jeremiah Wooding will be competing as an individual.

UNLV, which won the Southern Highlands Collegiate Championship at Las Vegas' Southern Highlands Golf Club in its last outing, was named Golfweek's Men's National Team of the Week immediately after the event. It was the second straight year winning both the tournament in Las Vegas as well as Golfweek's honor.

The Rebels came back from a program-record-tying 12-stroke deficit on the final day to earn the team title last week. It was their fourth SHC title in the last five years. It was also UNLV's second team title of the season, was its sixth top-five finish in seven outings this year and was its eighth SHC title in the last 15 years.

Live scoring of the NIT will provided by Golfstat. A link from UNLVRebels.com is available.