March 4, 2010

LAS VEGAS - UNLV sophomore Derek Ernst has been selected as the Mountain West Conference Men's Golfer of the Month for February, the league announced Thursday.

Ernst, from Clovis, Calif., opened the spring season with a 29th-place finish at the Arizona Intercollegiate held at the Arizona National Golf Course in Tucson. He carded one round at par and one under par (69) before finishing the 54-hole tournament with an even par 213 (71-69-73) on the par 71, 6,793-yard course.

In the second tournament of the month, Ernst, who leads the MWC in scoring average (70.16) this season and is the seventh-ranked individual in the nation by GolfStat, finished second out of 84 golfers and led No. 14 UNLV to the team title at the John Burns Intercollegiate in Wahiawa, Hawaii. It was UNLV's third team title of the season. He shot under par all three rounds and carded a 10-under 206 (68-69-69) on the par 72, 6,917-yard Leilehua Course. It marked his fourth top-five finish in seven events this year.

Ernst had a scoring average of 69.83 for the month of February and shot under par on five of his six rounds played.

This marks the third career MWC Golfer of the Month award for Ernst.