Rebel golfers roll to win at Collegiate

The UNLV golf team appears as if it has no intention of yielding its title as national champion.

The second-ranked Rebels rolled to an easy 11-shot victory over Minnesota in the U.S. Collegiate Golf Championship Sunday in Lecanto, Fla., while UNLV senior Chris Berry won the individual championship in a sudden-death playoff.

It was UNLV's fourth win of the season, the third victory in its past four starts and the fourth time this season a Rebel player has captured an individual title.

Berry, who finished second at the NCAA Championships last summer in Albuquerque, N.M., tied with Oklahoma's Hunter Haas at 8-under-par 208 after sinking a 5-foot birdie putt on the 54th hole at Black Diamond Ranch.

Berry reached the green on the first playoff hole, a 222-yard par-3, while Haas found a grass bunker to the right of the green. Haas chipped to within six feet of the cup and Berry nearly sank his 45-footer for birdie, which slid past the cup and came to rest about 18 inches from the hole.

Haas' par putt lipped the cup and Berry tapped in for par and the first collegiate title of his career. Berry's best previous finish this season was an eighth-place tie at the Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational in March at the Desert Inn Golf Club.

UNLV entered the day with an eight-stroke edge in the team competition and gradually widened the lead throughout the final round, finishing the day at 25-under par, 11 strokes ahead ahead of 15th-ranked Minnesota. Arizona State, the nation's eighth-ranked team, was third at 10-under.

The Rebels had four players finish in the top 10. UNLV sophomore Scott Lander shot a 4-under-par 68 Sunday, the low team round of the day, and finished tied for ninth. UNLV junior Jeremy Anderson struggled to a 75 Sunday and tied for third while junior Michael Kirk tied for fifth place.

Anderson was the tournament leader after 36 holes and held a three-stroke lead through 15 holes Sunday. But on No. 16, Anderson twice hit tee shots into the Black Diamond quarry, wound up with a quadruple-bogey 8 and yielded the lead.

UNLV has one regular-season tournament remaining, this weekend's BellSouth Yellow Pages Intercollegiate in Cary, N.C., before the championship season gets under way.

The Western Athletic Conference Championships will be held May 3-5 in Northern California, the NCAA West Regional May 20-22 in Tucson, Ariz., and the NCAA Championships June 2-5 in Minnesota.

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