Wednesday, May 26, 1999 | 10:12 a.m.
Brian Hilderbrand's golf notebook appears Wednesday. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4089.
For the third straight year, the UNLV golf team will enter the NCAA Men's Division I Golf Championships as the top-seeded team.
Pairings for the opening round of next week's NCAA finals were announced Tuesday and the defending national champion Rebels will play in the first group Wednesday with No. 2 seed Georgia and third-seed Georgia Tech.
The NCAA Championships run Wednesday through Saturday at Hazeltine Country Club in Chaska, Minn.
UNLV has had mixed results as the top seed in the NCAA finals. In 1997, the Rebels were seeded first in Lake Forest, Ill., but inexplicably failed to survive the 36-hole cut. Last year, the No. 1-ranked and top-seeded Rebels won their first national championship with a record-setting 34-under-par performance in Albuquerque, N.M.
The seedings aside, UNLV head coach Dwaine Knight and his players are loaded with confidence as they prepare for the program's 11th straight appearance in the NCAA finals -- despite the fact that Knight said his team has yet to play its best golf.
"I think you really have to gear yourself toward certain events," Knight said. "You really have to pace yourself as you go into (next) week because this is a long, grueling week and a lot can happen with weather conditions and things like that.
"I feel really good about where we are and I think the team does, too. From what they told me, they feel like we're really starting to come up to a championship level. We're well rested, we've had a great year with five wins ... and we've got a lot of confidence that we can win if we're in position."
Although this year's Rebel squad has five wins, compared to last year's school-record seven victories, Knight believes this year's team has outperformed the 1997-98 group.
"You look at our year this year, it has probably been one of the most consistent years we've ever had," said Knight, who will be making his 19th appearance at the NCAA finals as a head coach. "We didn't have as many wins this year as we did last year, but our consistency is better because we had the four seconds and a third -- that has been just tremendous."
Equally as impressive is the way the Rebels have performed in three of what Knight calls the four "major" tournaments in college golf. UNLV won the Golf World Collegiate Invitational and the Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational and finished second in the NCAA West Regional last week in Tucson.
"All of our wins have been big wins," Knight said. "We won at Golf World, we won at Golf Digest and finished second at the regionals. Those are the ones we really focus for -- and, of course, the national championship. Those are what we consider to be the majors and in each one of them we've won twice and finished second once."
Seniors Chris Berry and Charley Hoffman, juniors Jeremy Anderson and Michael Kirk and freshman Adam Scott will represent UNLV at the NCAA Championships.
Interestingly, that quintet has played together four times this season but has not won a golf tournament; the five have posted three second-place finishes and a seventh.
Sophomore Scott Lander, who was left off the five-man traveling squad for the post-season in favor of the freshman Scott, has played in all five of the Rebels' victories this season.
Nonetheless, Knight said he likes the combination he will take to Hazeltine, which played host to the U.S. Open in 1970 and 1991.
"We got great play out of Michael Kirk and Adam Scott (at the regional), who are the two new ones to NCAA competition for us," Knight said of the junior-college transfer and the freshman. "With Jeremy, Charley and Chris, who have been in the heat, I think that's a good blend going into (the finals).
"The areas we were concerned about in going into the regionals ... I'm very pleased that we improved on our par-three and par-four scoring. That should bode pretty well down at Hazeltine because the par fours are very long and tough down there. If we can continue to do well on the par fives and continue the consistency on the par fours, I think we're in good shape to play a golf course like (Hazeltine)."
* LEGACY JUNIOR: Many of the top junior golfers in the country will be in Las Vegas next month for the 10th annual American Junior Golf Association Las Vegas Founders' Legacy Junior at The Legacy Golf Club in Green Valley.
Among the local golfers expected to participate in the 54-hole tournament, which runs June 15-17, are Las Vegas' Randy Creighton and Henderson's Mary Jan Fernandez. Creighton tied for third in last year's Legacy Junior.
A junior-amateur tournament will precede the tournament on Monday, June 14, and an 18-hole qualifier will be held on Sunday, June 12, for selected spots in the tournament.
* LOCAL TOURNAMENTS: The fifth annual Golf Classic, a tournament benefiting the Southern Nevada Retail Beverage Scholarship Fund and Nevada Child Seekers, will be held Sunday, June 20 at Las Vegas National Golf Club. Individual entry into the tournament is $175. Call 313-5257 for more information. ...
The Las Vegas brothers of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity will stage the third annual A.D. Guy III Memorial Golf Tournament on July 24 at Highland Falls Golf Club. Proceeds from the tournament will be used to fund college scholarships and educational programs for junior and senior high school students. Entry fee is $125 per player. Call 655-4011 for details.
* HELPING HANDS: The Las Vegas Founders' Golf Foundation recently donated $60,000 to M.A.S.H. Village to help in the purchase of tent structures used to house the homeless last winter. As a result of the donation, M.A.S.H. Village president Father Joe Carroll said it is possible the shelter will be able to remain open year-round. ...
The 1999 Nicholas J. Horn Memorial Scholarship Golf Tournament, held last week at The Legacy Golf Club in Green Valley, raised more than $10,000 toward the Clark County Medical Society's scholarship fund.
* UPCOMING EVENTS: The PGA Tour is in Potomac, Md., this week for the $2.5 million Kemper Open at the TPC at Avenal. Stuart Appleby is the defending champion; The Golf Channel and Fox Sports Net (Thursday and Friday) and CBS (Saturday and Sunday) will televise. ...
The Senior PGA Tour is in Belton, Mo., for the $1.4 million Boone Valley Classic. Larry Nelson won last year's tournament; ESPN will televise Friday through Sunday. ...
The LPGA Tour will stage the LPGA Corning Classic this weekend at Corning Country Club in Corning, New York. Tammie Green is the defending champion; The Golf Channel will televise Thursday through Sunday.
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