Feb. 16, 2010

LAS VEGAS - The UNLV men's golf team, ranked 23rd in the country in the latest Golfstat and Golfweek rankings, will continue its spring season at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate, which will be played Wednesday through Friday, Feb. 17-19, at Leilehua Golf Course (par 72, 6,916 yards) in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

The 54-hole tournament will consist of 18 holes played each day with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. HST. The 16-team field consists of Arizona, BYU, BYU-Hawaii, California, Denver, Fresno State, Hawaii, Hawaii-Hilo, Hawaii Pacific, Nevada, Reno, New Mexico, SMU, UC Santa Barbara, UNLV, UTEP and Texas A&M.

Last year's Burns Intercollegiate was won by Texas A&M (286-278-272=836, -28), while the individual title went to New Mexico's James Erkenbeck (69-71-65=205, -11) as he won medalist honors by a shot. UNLV finished 12th at last year's event (287-288-289=864, E) and was led by Eddie Olson's tie for 16th place (71-67-73=211 (-5). Olson was the only Rebel player to break par in the tournament.

Playing for UNLV in this week's tournament will be Derek Ernst, who began the spring season ranked as the sixth-best individual in the country, Colby Smith, Brett Kanda, Kevin Penner and Jeremiah Wooding.

There will be no live scoring available for this event.

UNLV finished seventh in its first outing of the spring season at the Arizona Intercollegiate at the beginning of the month and competed in five tournaments in the fall, capturing two team titles and turning in an additional top-five finish.

Ernst has won two individual tournaments titles this season, while Smith has won once.