Tuesday, March 18, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
If he had his druthers, Dwaine Knight probably would like his UNLV golf team to play every tournament the way it did last weekend.
But with the postseason rapidly approaching, Knight isn't exactly complaining about his team's propensity for getting up for the big tournaments.
"I think the thing that I'm real encouraged about is it seems like we tend to rise to the level of competition," Knight said after the Rebels finished second and beat 11 top-20 teams in the rain-shortened Golf Digest Invitational in Houston. "In almost all the big tournaments this year, we've been very, very competitive and I really like that.
"It's such a long year, you're going to have some lapses ... and that's probably the biggest tournament next to the NCAA as far as the field that we'll see. This was a real good indicator and it always seems that the teams that play well at The Woodlands have a good shot at playing well at the national championships."
Knight also was pleased that his Rebels rebounded from a disappointing seventh-place finish against a weaker field two weeks ago in San Diego.
"I don't know what it was, but we just didn't play well there," Knight said of the Carlton Oaks Country Club, site of this spring's NCAA West Regional. "You wonder how they're going to respond but to bounce right back and beat every top-10 team (in Houston), that was good. I felt we played really well and played with Oklahoma State and TCU the first round, which were ranked 1-2-3 in the nation, and beat them."
The Rebels found themselves one shot behind eventual champion New Mexico after 36 holes and actually had taken the lead in the team standings on Sunday before the final round at the TPC at The Woodlands was rained out. New Mexico was declared the team champion based on its 36-hole score.
"What I was really pleased about was on a hard golf course, we had a great shot at winning it," Knight said. "We got a little over an hour's worth of play in (Sunday) and we got off to a real good start. New Mexico was struggling a little bit so we picked up quite a few shots early. I think we were really ready to play that last day."
Including last weekend's tournament, the Rebels have finished one stroke out of first place three times this season. UNLV has two wins and has finished in the top five in six of the eight varsity tournaments in which it has competed this season.
"Three shots different this year and we have five wins -- that's how close it has been," Knight said. "We've had two one-shot second places and we had a one-point second place at the Rolex Match Play. We've been that close to having five victories. I think our consistency has been very, very good."
Although the Rebels lost their No. 1 ranking in the Rolex Collegiate Rankings, they share the top spot in the Golfweek poll and are ranked second by Golf World magazine. Despite the lofty rankings, Knight said the Rebels have yet to play their best golf.
"We were really close to playing some awesome golf (in Houston) and I was anxious to get in that last round to see if we could have popped loose," Knight said. "Sometimes you just need to get one of those good rounds under your belt and you're off and running."
UNLV has two more tournaments, next week's Morris Williams Intercollegiate and the Ping Invitational in April, before the postseason begins with the Western Athletic Conference Championships April 21-23. The Rebels will sneak in the Perry Maxwell Invitational in early May before concluding the season with the NCAA West Regional (May 15-17) and the NCAA Championships (May 28-31).
Chip shots ...
* ADD REBELS: UNLV junior Bill Lunde (74-72--146) and sophomore Ted Oh (73-73--146) tied for eighth place at the Golf Digest Invitational and freshman Jeremy Anderson (74-73--147) tied for 13th. Oh leads the Rebels this season with a 73.11 stroke average; senior Mike Ruiz is second at 73.55; Lunde is third at 73.60; Anderson is fourth with a 73.71 average; and senior Gilberto Morales is fifth at 73.93. Head coach Dwaine Knight said he will not decide on his starting five players for the postseason until just before the WAC Championships in April.
* AROUND THE GREEN: OB Sports, which owns and manages The Legacy and Angel Park golf clubs, has been selected to manage the three golf courses at Si Redd's Oasis Resort Hotel and Casino in Mesquite. OB Sports will manage the 18-hole Oasis Golf Club, the 18-hole Palms Golf Club and the nine-hole Mesquite Vistas track. Van Batchelder of OB Sports will serve as project manager for the three courses. ... Scott Lewis, superintendent of golf course maintenance at SouthShore Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas, has been named Superintendent of the Year by Jack Nicklaus' design company. Lewis was selected from the 138 courses Nicklaus has designed as well as golf courses managed by Nicklaus' Golf Turf company. SouthShore was recognized by Golf Digest magazine as one of the country's top 10 new private golf courses in 1996.
* UPCOMING EVENTS: The PGA Tour remains in Florida this week for the $1.5 million Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando. Paul Goydos is the defending champion. The USA cable network and NBC will televise. ... The Senior PGA Tour is at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., for the $1.1 million Liberty Mutual Legends team event. Lee Trevino and Mike Hill won last year's tournament. ABC will televise. ... The LPGA Tour is in Phoenix this weekend for the $700,000 Standard Register Ping at Moon Valley Country Club. Laura Davies is the defending champion.
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