Thursday, April 30, 1998 | 5:51 a.m.
LIVERMORE, Calif. - The top-ranked UNLV men's golf team shot a one-under-par final-round 287, but it wasn't enough to hold on as TCU fired an 11-under-par 277 to capture the team title at the Western Athletic Conference Championship at Poppy Ridge Golf Course (Par 72, 7,128 yards) Wednesday.
TCU (278-292-277---847, 17-under-par), which trailed UNLV by five shots heading into the final round, made up 10 shots on the Rebels during the final 18 holes. UNLV (277-288-287--852) finished 13 strokes ahead of third-place New Mexico (285-287-293--865). SMU (293-283-291--867) finished fourth and Colorado State (288-285-297--870) finished fifth.
"TCU played big," UNLV Head Coach Dwaine Knight said. "We have built this program on being able to play big in the final round, but TCU played bigger. You have to hand it to them. They played great. We had a chance to win, but they had the better day."
TCU's J.J. Henry (67-70-68--205), who made a hole-in-one on the 17th hole and birdied the 18th to close out the tournament, captured the individual title. Bill Lunde (68-71-68--207) of UNLV and Hank Kuehne (70-65-72--207) of SMU tied for second place.
"Bill (Lunde) played a great tournament for us," Knight said. "We had a chance to win, which is a goal we have going into every tournament," said Lunde. "It just wasn't our day today. We would have liked to have won the WAC, but it all comes down to who plays well on the final day and TCU played great."
Other Rebels competing were Chris Berry (70-73-71--214/tied for seventh), Scott Lander (71-71-73--215/tied for 12th), Jeremy Anderson (68-74-76--218/tied for 20th) and Charley Hoffman (72-73-75--220/tied for 27th).
UNLV will be back in action May 13-15 at the NCAA West Regional at the Karsten Course (Par 72, 7,072) in Tempe, Ariz.
1998 WESTERN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
TEAM RESULTS
TOP INDIVIDUALS
OTHER REBEL PLAYERS
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