UNLV finishes third at Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational

Monday, March 16, 1998 | 9:14 a.m.

Perhaps it is a sign that the UNLV golf program has arrived as a national contender, a burden that all top-ranked teams must carry.

After finishing third in the 15-team Golf Digest Collegiate Invitational at the Desert Inn Golf Club, everyone wanted to know why the No. 1-ranked Rebels didn't win the tournament.

"Hey, calm down, you can't win everything," UNLV sophomore Jeremy Anderson said after tying for sixth place in the individual standings, his third straight top-10 finish.

"It's disappointing, obviously, because we wanted to come out here and win in front of the home crowd but we just didn't quite have it today. I'm not sure what it was but sometime you have these kinds of days. You've just got to learn from it and move on."

Despite seemingly having an edge with the home-course advantage, the Rebels posted a three-day total of 3-over-par 867 and finished 12 shots behind Virginia. Ninth-ranked Texas Christian was second, 10 shots off the pace set by the 24th-ranked Cavaliers.

James Driscoll of Virginia was the medalist with a three-day total of 9-under-par 207 and edged Doug La Belle of New Mexico by one stroke. Driscoll's second-round 64 tied the D.I. record and was the low round of the tournament.

Although UNLV had shot itself into contention with Saturday's second round and entered Sunday's final 18 holes only eight shots behind Virginia, the Rebels were 5 over as a team and never really mounted a serious challenge.

"It was a tough day," Rebels head coach Dwaine Knight said. "We weren't sharp but I thought our kids battled really hard -- it just was not our best.

"It seemed like every time we made a step, we (lost it) on the next hole by three-putting."

Rebel senior Bill Lunde, who tied for 16th place in the individual standings, said the Golf Digest tournament will prove to be a valuable learning experience.

"If we can come out and play in this great of a field and not be anywhere near on top of our games and have a chance to win knowing that, I think that's great," Lunde said.

"We've won three in a row and five out of eight and I think everyone expected us to win -- I think we expected us to win because we were on as much of a high as everyone else. But I think it's good for us, it brings us back down a little bit and gets us refocused on what we did to win those three tournaments and what we didn't do here."

Knight agreed.

"I think the pressure of having a chance to win and knowing what was at stake, we're going to grow from this," Knight said.

While the Rebels weren't able to extend their winning streak to four, they have finished in the top three in six straight tournaments and likely will retain their No. 1 ranking.

"We're playing the best teams in the country every week and we haven't finished lower than third since November," Knight said. "Really, this team has done pretty good."

Actually, the Rebels have done better than pretty good, Lunde said.

"In college golf, there are so many good teams and the level of the players increases every year so to win out here is pretty incredible. To win three in a row is awesome but it's tough to do it every week."