Rebels to face tough course

Wednesday, June 2, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

CHASKA, Minn. -- It's safe to say that Hazeltine National Golf Club, the site of this week's NCAA Division I Men's Golf Championships, is the most difficult course the UNLV golf team will play all year.

With its narrow fairways, deep rough, long par-5s and quick greens, it is hard to imagine this 7,196-yard gem playing any tougher for either of the two U.S. Opens to which it has played host.

And that is fine with the Rebels, who began defense of their national championship here this afternoon.

"It's going to be difficult," UNLV junior Jeremy Anderson said of the Robert Trent Jones design. "It's a typical U.S. Open course: you've got 450-yard par-4s, one after the other, you've got firm greens, the course is tight ... par is a great score on this course."

Just the type of course on which the Rebels excel, Anderson said.

"The tougher the better (for us)," Anderson said. "We're a team that hits the ball really, really well. There are other teams out there that are not as good ball strikers and they just scrape it around and this is not the kind of course you can do that -- you can't scrape it around this course.

"You have to go out and play really good, solid golf and that's what we're accustomed to doing. I think playing on a hard course like this really eliminates at least half the field. There are only a handful of teams that really have a legitimate shot at winning. One through five, we hit the ball better than any other team in the country, no doubt."

Although Hazeltine is set up similar to the way it was when the Rebels finished eighth here in the Preview Invitational in September, UNLV head coach Dwaine Knight said he thought the rough is even deeper this week.

"The USGA (United States Golf Association) comes in and sets up the course for the NCAA and they like their (championship) courses to play tough," Knight said.

Oklahoma State won the Preview Invitational in the fall with a team score of 16-over-par 880 and the Cowboys' Charles Howell captured the individual crown with an even-par 216.

Like Anderson, Knight said he likes his team's chances on a difficult course such as Hazeltine.

"Hazeltine is a real ball hitter's golf course -- it's very long and tough, with long par fours," Knight said. "It should be a good golf course for us because if you look at our stats over the year, we've played par fours very well and we've played par fives very well and it's going to taken a combination of that to play well here, I think."

Of the Rebels' five wins this season, four have come on similar courses where a premium is placed on hitting the ball long and straight and keeping it out of trouble.

"Where we've won, it didn't take a 34 under to win; eight to 12 under was usually pretty good," Knight said. "The harder the golf course is, the better it is for us ... it seems those golf courses seem to be really good for us."

The key for the Rebels, Knight said, is for his players to remain patient if they do find the rough.

"The course is going to play tough and if you knock it in trouble, the ability to get it back out in play where you can get a club on it and then try to score from there is going to be key," Knight said. "If you try to force it, you can get in trouble.

"There are certain holes that did not set up well for us in the fall and I think we'll play those with a little bit more respect instead of trying to force the hole. If you get in trouble, you've got to try to get it in shape and get out of there with nothing worse than a bogey and if you get par, great. I think the teams that are able to do that are going to do pretty well."

In that respect, Knight said, Hazeltine will play fairly similar to the way Tucson National Golf Course played for last month's NCAA West Regional. UNLV finished second in the regional, eight shots behind team champion Arizona State.

"I thought we had a good game plan (in Tucson) and that's where we've done our best over the years, when we stick pretty close to our game plan," Knight said. "We still did have some out of bounds, but that's the kind of aggressive team we are -- but I thought we put a fairly good cap on it for the week.

"We obviously still had a shot to win the tournament. A lot of people got in trouble there and they had some huge holes. We didn't have that many and that gave us a chance ... and that's what playing championship golf is all about."

Whether or not the Rebels can successfully defend their national title remains to be seen, but Anderson said he was certain of one thing after getting his second look at Hazeltine this season.

"I know our NCAA record is safe for at least one year," Anderson said, referring to the Rebels' record 34 under par performance in last year's NCAA Championships in Albuquerque.

"I think if someone shoots 34 under par here ... well, that isn't going to happen."