Rebels trail by 11 after first round

Friday, May 16, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

SANTEE, Calif. -- When the UNLV golf team played in a tournament at Carlton Oaks Country Club in March, Rebels head coach Dwaine Knight said the event would help his players when they returned to the course for the NCAA West Region Golf Championship.

He was right -- sort of.

UNLV shot an opening-round 1-over-par 289 Thursday, six shots better than its first round in the Aldila Collegiate Classic in March. But the Rebels found themselves in seventh place going into today's second round of the 54-hole event -- exactly where they finished in the March tournament here.

The No. 1-ranked Rebels trailed first-round leader Southern California by 11 shots but were only seven shots out of second place after 18 holes. The top nine teams in the 18-team field qualify for the NCAA Division I Golf Championships at the end of this month.

"We came in with a better round," Knight said of the Rebels, whose best team score in the Aldila was a second-round 291, "but we didn't hit the ball real well today. I think Ted (Oh) and Mike (Ruiz) hit it well early but the rest of them kind of struggled and really had to battle to shoot what we did.

"I think playing here in March helped -- that's the lowest round we've shot here -- but we really didn't convert the par 5s as well as we would have liked."

The Rebels made only seven birdies (out of 20 opportunities) on the par 5s and senior Ruiz had the toughest luck, playing the par 5s in 3 over par.

"That's pretty unusual for Mike," Knight said of Ruiz, who grew up in San Diego and played Carlton Oaks regularly while on the Patrick Henry High School golf team.

"I'm a little discouraged in the way I played the par 5s -- that's the only thing that hurt me all day," Ruiz said of his 1-over-par 73. "Other than that, I played real solid."

Ruiz, who finished in a tie for sixth place at the Aldila tournament, said he can't understand why the Rebels have failed to play better at Carlton Oaks.

"I don't know why it's biting us," Ruiz said of the 7,008-yard course. "It's not tight or anything, it just makes you think. I don't know, I guess because I grew up on it, I see it from a different point of view ... but we should be playing it better."

Junior Bill Lunde turned in the gutsiest round of the day for the Rebels. After playing the back nine (UNLV started on hole No. 10) in 2-over-par 38, Lunde shot a 1-under 35 on the front nine to salvage a 73.

The only Rebel to have any success was Oh. But the sophomore wasn't exactly jubilant after his 1-under-par 71, which left him three shots off the lead in the individual standings.

"I missed a lot of putts ... a lot of short ones," a disappointed Oh said. "I had it going there for a while -- I was three under after six holes -- then I missed a couple putts ... it happens out here with the short ones."

Oh was referring to the poa annua grass on the greens, which grows unevenly compared to other grasses and makes putting more difficult -- especially in the afternoon.

Knight was optimistic that the greens would be more favorable to the Rebels when they teed off early this morning.

"It'll be nice to get on these greens early (today), they ought to be a little bit better," Knight said. "They're tough greens -- poa annua is always a difficult grass to putt. You have to have real good speed; if your speed varies at all, then it's very difficult to make putts."

No matter what type of grass was growing on the greens, Knight said the Rebels simply didn't take advantage of a golden opportunity.

"Today was a good day for scoring," Knight said. "The wind didn't pick up until the back side and it was a good opportunity to really shoot a good number today -- as a couple teams obviously did.

"The good thing is that we had a couple guys who were able to get it under and if we get Bill (Lunde) hitting the ball a little bit better (today), we'll have another weapon. We've still got a couple of days and hopefully we'll come back with a couple of real solid rounds."