June 2, 2010
LAS VEGAS - UNLV men's golfer Derek Ernst was named to the PING All-West Region team for 2009-10 as the Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) handed out its annual awards on Wednesday.
Ernst, a sophomore from Clovis, Calif., was also honored as this season's Mountain West Conference Men's Golfer of the Year as well as named to the All-MWC team.
Ernst has won two individual titles this season - at the Tucker Invitational and at the Wimberly Intercollegiate. He leads the Rebels in scoring average with 71.41 per round, rounds played (34 entering this week's NCAA Championship), and rounds under par (16). He was also named the MWC's Golfer of the Month for September (co-winner), October/November and February.
Ernst has recorded seven top-10 finishes this season, including five top-fives in his 13 completed events and currently ranks 25th nationally, according to the Golfstat Cup Standings.
Ernst has recorded UNLV's low individual tournament of the season with a 10-under 206 at the Burns Intercollegiate, where he finished in second place. He has tallied 11 rounds in the 60s and was also included on the Ben Hogan Award watch list in the fall.
A total of 153 players were named all-region across six regions this year - Northeast, East, Southeast, Midwest, Central and West. Members of the all-region teams are automatically eligible for PING All-America honors.
2009-10 PING All-West Region Team
Knut Borsheim, Arizona State
John Chin, UC Irvine
David Chung, Stanford
Nick Delio, Cal State-Northridge
Derek Ernst, UNLV
Robbie Fillmore, BYU
Charlie Hughes, Washington
Jesper Kennegard, Arizona State
Espen Kofstad, Denver
Richard Lee, Washington
Steve Lim, Southern California
Tarquin MacManus, Arizona
Gregor Main, UCLA
Daniel Miernicki, Oregon
Eric Mina, California
Scott Pinckney, Arizona State
Andrew Putnam, Pepperdine
Alex Shi Yup Kim, UCLA
Nick Taylor, Washington
Martin Trainer, Southern California
Scott Travers, Santa Clara
Diego Velasquez, Oregon State
T.J. Vogel, Southern California
Tom Whitney, Air Force
Pontus Widegren, UCLA
Chris Williams, Washington
Eugene Wong, Oregon
Steve Ziegler, Stanford
