Confident UNLV golf team enters finals ranked No. 1

Tuesday, June 1, 1999 | 10:25 a.m.

CHASKA, Minn. -- Nobody is using the term "easier," but at least two members of the UNLV golf team believe that repeating as national champions may be less stressful than winning their first title.

As the No. 1-ranked Rebels prepare for Wednesday's opening round of the NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships at Hazeltine Country Club, senior Chris Berry and junior Jeremy Anderson are confident last year's experience of winning the national championship will help them this week.

"You can't say, 'We're going to win the national championship,' but I think we're playing with a lot of confidence and we know we're about this close to really getting hot," Anderson said.

"That is the perfect position for us to be in because, basically, it's the exact same position we were in last year; we didn't win conference, we didn't win regionals, but we played well and we had chances to win. We're very confident that we can come in here and be competitive and hopefully have a chance to win come the final nine."

Berry, who finished second in last year's finals, agreed.

"I think that takes a little pressure off you," Berry said of the Rebels winning their first national championship last year. "It was a lot of pressure on us, with Coach (Dwaine) Knight having gone (to the finals) 19 or 20 times and never having won.

"We knew that we were going to win one, we just didn't know when. Now that you've won, it takes a little pressure off you."

Knight, who is making his 19th trip to the NCAA finals, shares his players' confidence as they prepare for the 72-hole championship.

UNLV goes into the finals seeded first after winning five tournaments this season and placing second four times. The Rebels have not finished out of the top three in their last 10 outings.

"I think we've battled through a really tough schedule and the five wins were all really good wins," Knight said. "We play a hard schedule and it's a long year but to have five wins and four seconds, there's nobody else in the nation that has been that consistent.

"Our last 10 tournaments, we've had one third, four seconds and five wins. That's what really gives you the opportunity to win, being in contention a lot, and that has been our big goal this year. We really competed 10 times for championships this year."

Of the five players competing for the Rebels this week only three -- Berry, Anderson and senior Charley Hoffman -- played on last year's national championship team. Junior Michael Kirk is a junior-college transfer and Adam Scott is a true freshman.

Although this year's team may not be as close as last year's, Berry said the team chemistry is positive.

"I think we ride each other a lot but we also understand that we have the same goal and we want to go in the same direction," Berry said.

"We're all really competitive. When we're not playing tournaments, we're playing against each other and we're extremely competitive and I think that helps a lot, I think it pushes us to get better.

"As far as chemistry ... you don't have to have guys who all are best friends, you just have to be headed in the right direction. I think we all respect each other and that's huge."

Kirk and Scott are newcomers, but they certainly have proven their worth to the team. Kirk has one individual title and has finished in the top 10 seven times in 12 stars. Scott, sidelined for most of the spring with an knee injury, has two top-10 finishes, including a seventh-place showing at the NCAA West Regional last month in Tucson.

"They're good players and if you look, they're the ones who led us at regionals," Knight said of Kirk and Scott, who helped UNLV to a second-place finish at Tucson.

"The other guys want to step their games up and if Michael and Adam can continue to play at their level, we have a pretty good team. These are awfully good players -- Michael won the national junior college championship and Adam is one of the best juniors in the world, so it's not like they haven't been in this position."

While Kirk and Scott are new to the pressures of the NCAA Championships, Anderson said the Rebels' success this season has prepared them well for the rigors of this week's tournament.

"We have been preparing for the national championships for the last nine months," Anderson said. "No one's going to be throwing any changeups at us; we're not going to be seeing anything we haven't seen before already.

"We've proven that we can beat any team out there -- I think we have a winning record against every team playing in the national championship -- so we know that we can match up against anyone."