Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Glasson, Leonard in LVI

BRIAN HILDERBRAND is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. His golf column appears Tuesdays. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]

Defending Las Vegas Invitational champion Bill Glasson and 1997 British Open champion Justin Leonard are the two most recent players to announce their intentions to play in next month's LVI.

Their participation should help soothe some of the disappointment of not having Tiger Woods around for this year's LVI. Woods recently announced he would not play in Las Vegas, in order to represent the United States in a pair of international events.

Glasson, who is recovering from elbow surgery and has been playing a limited schedule this season, snapped a three-year losing streak when he won last year's tournament. Glasson shot a final-round 66 at the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin and beat David Edwards and Billy Mayfair by one shot.

"I always enjoy coming to Las Vegas," Glasson said during a recent visit. "I always come here thinking that I'm going to play well here even if I haven't been playing well leading up to it.

"I have some good friends here that I visit all the time, when I can, and it's just a great surrounding for me and I play well because of it."

Glasson won last year's LVI despite playing with a torn tendon in his left elbow, which required reconstructive surgery last November. The 38-year-old posted rounds of 63, 65, 75, 71 and 66 en route to his seventh PGA Tour title.

"It was a tremendous accomplishment, looking back, that I was able to do that with the amount of damage I had in my shoulder," Glasson said.

Glasson has played in only eight tournaments this year as he continues to rehabilitate his left arm.

Leonard, who won The Players Championship earlier this year, is eighth on the PGA Tour money list with $1,278,963.

Also recently committing to play in the 16th annual Las Vegas Invitational were Bob Tway, the 1990 LVI winner, and 1995 U.S. Open champion Corey Pavin. Billy Andrade, who won last weekend's Bell Canadian Open, also has officially committed to play in Las Vegas.

Other top players who have indicated they would play in the LVI include Davis Love III, Mayfair, John Cook, Jeff Sluman and Las Vegas native Robert Gamez.

The Las Vegas Invitational will be played Oct. 14-18 at the TPC at Summerlin, the Las Vegas Country Club and the Desert Inn Golf Club.

* REBELS OPEN SEASON: The defending national champion and No. 1-ranked UNLV golf team opens its fall season Wednesday at the Topy Cup in Tanagura, Japan. The Rebels will be one of four American teams in the 12-team field, joining Arizona State, Arizona and UCLA. UNLV became the first American team to win the tournament in 1995. The Rebels lost senior and team leader Bill Lunde to graduation, but head coach Dwaine Knight is confident in his four returning players, one junior-college transfer, two redshirt freshmen and four incoming freshmen. "We have good depth and experience with our returnees that helped claim the national championship and I think the new players that are coming in are very experienced on a national basis, also," Knight said. "I think all that experience will certainly help us as we deal with the fact that we are the defending national champions."

* AROUND THE GREEN: Henderson resident Mike Diehl was eliminated from the second round of stroke play Sunday at the USGA Senior Amateur Championship in Glencoe, Ill. Diehl shot an opening-round 78 but struggled to an 11-over-par 83 on Sunday and missed the cut by six strokes. ... Former UNLV standout Ted Oh tied for 57th place and earned $439 at the Nike Tour's Tri-Cities Open Sunday in Richland, Wash. ... Boulder City's Bud Allin tied for third place at the Comfort Classic at The Brickyard Senior PGA Tour event Sunday, finishing seven shots behind tournament winner Hugh Baiocchi. Allin earned $75,900. ... Painted Desert Golf Club is closed for overseeding and will reopen on Saturday, Sept. 26. ... The University of Southern California Club of Southern Nevada will hold its fourth annual putting tournament on Friday, Sept. 25 at Angel Park Golf Club's putting course. Entry fee is $30 and includes greens fees and dinner. Call 387-7532 for additional information.

* UPCOMING EVENTS: The PGA Tour is in Endicott, N.Y., this week for the B.C. Open at En-Joie Golf Club. Gabriel Hjertstedt is the defending champion; The Golf Channel will televise. ... The Senior PGA Tour remains in the midwest for the Kroger Senior Classic in Mason, Ohio. Jay Sigel won last year's tournament; ESPN will televise. ... The LPGA Tour is off this week in deference to the the fifth Solheim Cup, which will be contested at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.

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