April 21, 2016
@UNLVGolf on TWITTER | UNLV's Season Statistics
LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The No. 25 UNLV men's golf team will compete at the 2015 Mountain West Men's Golf Championship beginning on Friday, April 22, at the Catalina Course at Omni Tucson National Resort (par 72, 7,194 yards) in Tucson, Ariz.
The 2016 championship will mark the 10th consecutive year the tournament will be held at Tucson National. The first MW Championship was played in Palm Desert, Calif., in 2000, while the 2001-2006 events were held in Sunriver, Ore.
All 11 Mountain West teams (Air Force, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, Nevada, Reno, New Mexico, San Diego State, San José State, UNLV, Utah State and Wyoming) will participate in the three-day, 54-hole tournament. 18 holes will be played each day (Friday-Sunday), with tee times beginning at 7 a.m. PT (eight-minute intervals between groups).
UNLV and San Diego State will be grouped together for the first round with tee times slated for 7:00-7:32 a.m.
UNLV won the inaugural MW Championship in 2000 and again in 2002, and will be looking for its third MW title this week. BYU won in 2001, New Mexico won the title four straight years from 2003-06, BYU won again in 2007, Colorado State won in 2008, TCU won in 2009, Colorado State again in 2010, San Diego State in 2011 and 2012, New Mexico in 2013 and 2014, while San Diego State is the defending team champion.
Individually, UNLV has had six MW champions with Michael Kirk claiming medalist honors in 2000, Ryan Moore in 2004, Eddie Olson in 2008, Derek Ernst in 2011 in a playoff, Kevin Penner in 2013 and Kurt Kitayama last year.
As a team, UNLV has finished third place or better at the event in each of the past seven years. The Rebels were second last year at 16-under par, just one shot back of the Aztecs.
Competing for the Rebels at this year's MW Championship will be sophomores John Oda and Shintaro Ban, freshman Harry Hall, senior Zane Thomas and sophomore Ben Davis.
This will mark Oda, Ban and Thomas' second MW Championship, while Hall and Davis are competing in their first. Oda and Ban both tied for 13th at even par in 2015, while Thomas tied for 15th at 4-over in 2014.
UNLV has finished first, second and first in its last three tournaments and has three team victories in 10 events this season.
Live stats for the MW Championship will be available courtesy of Golfstat through a link on UNLVRebels.com. For more information on the MW Championship, visit TheMW.com or its tournament central page.
The MW Championship will also be an opportunity for the Rebels to earn three more points in the Governor's Series, presented by NV Energy and Barrick Gold. The competition between UNLV and Nevada, Reno is in its fourth year. It is a head-to-head athletic and academic challenge between the longtime rivals. UNLV won the first three years of the Governor's Series.
The Governor's Series scores is currently tied at 16.5. To track the scoring, visit the Governor's Series page at UNLVRebels.com.
