Friday, May 30, 2003 | 10:22 a.m.
STILLWATER, Okla. -- One by one, they walked up to the green at No. 9, their finishing hole, with the hope of converting one last great approach or stellar save into a strong putt as a final hurrah.
One by one, they walked off that green socked in the gut by a sobering 3-foot lip-out or birdie putt that refused to break.
Those last unnerving turns with the flat stick summed up UNLV's third round at the NCAA Golf Championships: So tantalizing close to amazing, yet still so very good. The Rebels posted their best score of the tournament in Thursday's skin-sticking humidity, using a 1-under 71 from sophomore Travis Whisman and a 1-over 73 from freshman Ryan Keeney to pace a 7-over round of 295 on a day when Karsten Creek Golf Course finally relented a bit.
"We had good play out of Travis and Ryan Keeney," UNLV coach Dwaine Knight said. "This is good, this is great experience for them."
The superlative round moved UNLV into seventh place at a total of 44-over, still 20 strokes off the lead of top-ranked Clemson heading into today's closing round. The Rebels greatly improved for the second straight round, but they know that a few key misses on a day when the average score at Karsten Creek dropped by more than two strokes cost them a chance to get into serious title contention.
"We still had some big numbers," Knight said. "Otherwise, we could be in the hunt."
Undermining so much strong play, UNLV posted three triple bogeys and a double bogey. Typical of the Rebels' day, though, Keeney followed his 7 at the brutal par-4, 467-yard 17th hole -- the toughest hole on the course all three days -- by firing an eagle at par-5, 555-yard No. 18. Likewise, Whisman came to his final four holes at a blistering 3-under only to suffer two bogeys coming home.
Perhaps no one rode that mercury more often than Ryan Moore. The Rebels' top golfer curled in a pretty 12-foot birdie at par-3 No. 15, only to follow with three consecutive bogeys. Coming in, Moore played into nasty trouble at No. 4 when his second shot nestled into the woods a few feet from a metal grounds box. His pitch out rocketed through the green into an unplayable lie under a giant evergreen.
A penalty stroke, a pitch and two putts later, the frustration of what could have been grabbed Moore and swung his right arm, sailing the offending ball deep into the jungle that abuts so much of Karsten Creek.
"We make a lot of young mistakes, still," Knight said. "That's part of it. Now (today's) their day. They'll get to go see what they can do. We've worked hard to get them to this point."
After Tuesday's opening-round debacle of 25-over, however, the Rebels are thrilled to have played their way back into the thick of the tournament. Keeney said that in addition to the lack of wind on the course, the holes were in much friendlier places Thursday.
"Honestly, I think the pins were a lot more fair today," Keeney said. "That's what the players deserve. If you hit your ball in the fairway, you should feel like you have an outside chance at getting the ball in the right shape on the green without having too much to worry about."
A little bit of local knowledge does not hurt, either.
"Every day you play it, you learn a little more," Keeney said. "I know I've learned more and more about this course, and that's huge."
Little did UNLV know when it arrived for its late afternoon tee time that it would also be fighting for a spot on the course today. The NCAA decided before Thursday's play that the field would be cut from 30 to 18 teams, plus six low individuals, for today's final round because of the slow pace of play, which averaged 5 hours and 45 minutes over the first two rounds in perfect weather.
Placed in the final group with USC and Minnesota, the Rebels did not finish Thursday's round until 8:45 p.m. CDT, with daylight all but gone after a 6-hour round.
The NCAA issued a statement reading, in part: "The problem has been in looking for balls beyond the primary rough and unplayable lies that require the players in many cases to return to the tee to play another ball. This is a difficult golf course. We simply ran into a pace of play problem that had to be addressed."
Knight concedes that Tuesday's big score probably will prevent UNLV from making a run at the national title in today's short field. Clemson fired a 1-under 287 in the third round and appears poised to fight it out with host Oklahoma State and UCLA today.
"The only thing we could do is get really lucky," Knight said. "Have a blitz round and have somebody struggle."
The coach is pleased with the way his players calmed down Wednesday and Thursday, overcoming their inexperience to grind and fight the Karsten Creek monster.
"The biggest thing is we've stayed with our routine," Knight said. "We did not do that the first day. We were really out of sorts in a lot of ways with our routines."
All in all, Knight is just happy that his young team had a chance to experience the rigors of nationals, with the hope that it parlays into future success.
"They've really done a good job this week, so I'm proud of them," Knight said.
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