Rebels should be rested, focused for postseason

Wednesday, April 14, 1999 | 10:07 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand's golf notebook appears Wednesday. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

Two years ago, the UNLV golf team endured perhaps the low point in the program's history under head coach Dwaine Knight.

Ranked No. 1 in the country and seeded first in the NCAA Championships in Lake Forest, Ill., the Rebels inexplicably missed the 36-hole cut and failed to advance to the final two rounds of the national championship.

It may not have occurred to Knight at the time, but there would be a valuable lesson learned that week which would pay dividends in the future.

The lesson paid off in the Rebels' first national championship last year in Albuquerque. And Knight is hoping to parlay that miserable performance of two years ago into a repeat championship June 2-5 at Hazeltine Country Club in Chaska, Minn.

"This will be one of the first times we're going into (the postseason) very well-rested, which will be nice," Knight said of his team's three-week break between the end of the regular season and the start of the Western Athletic Conference Championships May 3-5.

"That's probably the biggest thing we learned at Chicago, to rest the team. And, we'll take the same lessons we learned at Albuquerque and put them to use this year to try to go back-to-back."

The time off comes at an opportune time for the Rebels, who last Saturday finished a stretch of six tournaments in eight weeks. Although UNLV came away with four wins, a second and a third in those events, the Rebels also came away physically drained, according to Knight.

UNLV finished the regular season with a four-shot victory over New Mexico in the BellSouth Yellow Pages Intercollegiate in Cary, N.C., after trailing the Lobos by three shots entering the final round.

"It's sorely needed," Knight said of the break. "This is a very tired group of young men. I was worried about the trip (to North Carolina) and the fact that we were playing (top-ranked) Clemson.

"We were really tired the second round of the 36-hole day and didn't play well. The fact that we were still in (contention) really gave them a lot of hope."

Knight is giving his players this week off to catch up with their studies, then will work on fundamentals next week in preparation for the WAC Championships at Poppy Hills Golf Club in Pebble Beach, Calif.

The Rebels haven't won a WAC title in their three years in the conference. Although Knight said he would like to win the conference championship in UNLV's final year in the WAC, he admits it is not the team's focus in the three-tournament postseason.

"That's definitely always one of our goals, to win the conference," Knight said. "But our big goal is the (national) championship. We have always really focused on that."

* COURSES HONORED: Two Southern Nevada golf courses are ranked among the "100 of America's Best Modern Golf Courses" by Golfweek magazine.

Shadow Creek Golf Club in North Las Vegas, designed by Tom Fazio, is ranked the fourth-best modern course in America (built after 1960) while the SouthShore Golf Club at Lake Las Vegas, designed by Jack Nicklaus, is ranked 48th.

Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Neb., designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, is ranked No. 1 among the modern courses.

* CHARITY TOURNAMENT: The Boulder City Lions are sponsoring their 11th annual charity golf tournament on Saturday, May 8 at Boulder City Municipal Golf Course.

Entry fee for the four-person scramble is $60 per player. Call Jim Paxinos at 293-6794 for additional information.

* NICK HORN MEMORIAL: The Clark County Medical Society is hosting the second annual Nick Horn Memorial Tournament on May 20 at The Legacy Golf Club in Green Valley.

Entry fee is $225 per person, which will benefit scholarships for Nevada medical and nursing students. Call Rose Garland at 739-9989 for details.

* UPCOMING EVENTS: The PGA Tour is in Hilton Head Island, S.C., this week for the $2.5 million MCI Classic at Harbour Town Golf Links. Masters runner-up Davis Love III is the defending champion; The Golf Channel (Thursday and Friday) and CBS (Saturday and Sunday) will televise. ...

The Senior PGA Tour is in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., for the $1.75 million PGA Seniors Championship at PGA National Golf Club. Hale Irwin is the three-time defending champion; ESPN (Thursday and Friday) and NBC (Saturday and Sunday) will televise. ...

The LPGA Tour is off this week in preparation for next week's Chick-fil-A Charity Championships.