Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Bad break places freshman in spotlight

Wednesday, June 2, 1999 | 9:59 a.m.

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

CHASKA, Minn. -- It wasn't exactly how Adam Scott envisioned making headlines at this week's NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships.

Scott, the UNLV freshman, was the subject of local and national media attention when he accidentally broke the driver of defending NCAA national champion and fellow Australian James McLean following Monday's practice round at Hazeltine National Golf Club.

"We were on the driving range after our practice round and I saw James hitting his driver," Scott explained. "I said, 'Hey, give me a hit of your driver.'

"I leaned down to pick a tee off the ground and I was leaning on the driver -- but I was not putting that much weight on it -- and it snapped off where the (club) head joins the shaft. I don't know how it happened."

Both Scott, a slight 6-foot, 155-pounder, and McLean were momentarily at a loss for words.

"He bent down to pick up a tee and snapped it accidentally," McLean said. "I didn't know what to think. Panic sunk in. He went into shock. He was really speechless."

"He was stunned, but he got over it real quick," Scott said of McLean. "I didn't feel too good about it. A Callaway representative was there on the driving range and said she would get him a new driver in time for (today's) round.

"Hopefully, it'll work out for him or I'll feel a bit of a jerk. I saw him (Tuesday) ... I don't think he hates me."

McLean, who still had not received his replacement driver as of Tuesday afternoon, admitted to feeling a sense of panic heading into today's opening round of the NCAA finals.

"Definitely, I'm a little nervous," said McLean, who is attempting to become the first golfer to win back-to-back individual NCAA titles since Phil Mickelson in 1989 and 1990. "Hopefully, it shouldn't take too long to get used to (the new driver)."

Scott, who said he has known McLean for five years, was more surprised to learn that the incident made the national Associated Press wire service than he was when he broke the club.

"Yeah, that's how I wanted to make my name," Scott said sarcastically. "Hopefully, I'll make it some other way this week."

* MILLER TIME: One of the more interested parties in this week's NCAA Championships won't even be watching the tournament.

Hall of Fame golfer Johnny Miller, a Brigham Young University alumnus, has two sons playing in the tournament for BYU: Andy, a junior, and Scott, a sophomore. A third Miller son, Todd, has played for BYU this season but isn't one of the five Cougars playing this week.

While his two sons will be trying to lead BYU to the national championship, Johnny Miller will be receiving daily telephone updates from his sons. The elder Miller is in West Point, Miss., where he is working this week's U.S. Women's Open as an analyst for NBC.

"It will probably be tougher on him than either one of us," Andy Miler said. "He told us he really wanted to be here, but it just didn't work out with his schedule."

* LOCAL FLAVOR: Two products of the Las Vegas high school system and the Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association will be competing in this week's NCAA finals.

Billy Harvey, from Bonanza High, is a sophomore at BYU. Harvey has finished in the top 10 in six of the 13 events in which he has played for the Cougars.

Scott Piercy, also a Bonanza High graduate and the 1998 Nevada State Amateur champion, is a sophomore at San Diego State.

* CHIP SHOTS: UNLV, the defending national champion, is one of only three teams in the nation with five tournament wins this season -- but the only one represented this week in the NCAA Championships. Rhode Island and Seton Hall also posted five wins this year, but did not qualify for the finals. ...

David Gossett of the University of Texas was the only player to win four individual titles this season in Division I, but is not in the field for this week's NCAA finals. The Longhorns, rated 13th in the MasterCard Collegiate Golf Rankings, failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships out of the Central Regional. ...

Although UNLV enters today's opening round of the finals as the No. 1 seed, the Rebels are ranked first in only one of the three major collegiate golf polls. UNLV is first in the Golfstat rankings, second in the MasterCard rankings and fourth in the Golfweek/Sagarin College Rankings. The final polls will be announced following the NCAA Championships.