Tapping the pros

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, May 28, 2002 | 9:20 a.m.

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Four days before the NCAA Men's Golf Championships that start Wednesday morning at Ohio State University, the UNLV golf team dined with some former UNLV golfers, now PGA Tour professionals.

Rebels coach Dwaine Knight arranged the informal gathering for his current team so it could have a good time while perhaps extracting some wisdom from Chad Campbell, Ed Fryatt, Skip Kendall and Chris Riley, who were playing in the Memorial Tournament in nearby Dublin, Ohio.

Campbell, Fryatt, and Riley, all former All-Americans, have something Knight's eager contingent lacks: NCAA finals experience.

UNLV, seeded eighth, will be making its 13th NCAA Championship appearance, not as a heavy favorite, but as a rising upstart. The Rebels won the title in 1998 and were runners-up in 1996.

"I'm really proud of them," said Knight, who was named the Mountain West coach of the year. "They've worked so hard this year.

"I think it's going to be a lot of fun and excitement by being where we are. We're really a dark horse. That's kind of neat because we've gone so many years into it as a favorite and this is a totally different role with this group of guys because nobody has ever played in the national championship.

"They don't know any better. That might be a blessing or a curse and I think it'll be a blessing."

"They" are senior Clark Corbett, junior Brien Davis, sophomore Brandon Askew and freshmen J.C. Deacon and Ryan Moore, poised and armed with a newfound confidence obtained over the last two months.

After what looked to be down year, Knight saw a flame of hope at the John A. Burns Intercollegiate played in Honolulu where UNLV finished fourth.

The team went on to finish second at the Las Vegas Intercollegiate at Southern Highlands Golf Club, stoking the fire.

But the real boost came three tournaments later when the Rebels conquered the Scarlet Course at Ohio State -- the site of the NCAA Championships -- to finish first at the Kepler Invitational.

"All of a sudden it really came together at Ohio State," Knight said. "I think the guys felt that because the championship is going to be decided there they wanted to see how competitive they'd do on the course and they ended up winning.

"Boy, did our confidence spike at that time, it went way up."

Fresh off the Kepler, the Rebels won the Mountain West Conference championships, then finished third at the NCAA West Regional, where they were poised to win entering the final round.

By finishing third, Knight and the players contend it has made the team more determined to do well this week.

It helps, of course, that the Rebels are familiar with the course.

Knight said the course plays long and hard with difficult greens, ideal for his team which performs better on grind-it-out courses.

He said the Rebels must keep the ball out of the rough and have extra patience to fight through bad shots.

"We know the course and have confidence on the course," Davis said. "It will be totally different with the rough and leaves on the trees, which will give the course a different look.

"It'll be a harder course, but we played well there in the past so we'll be ready for it."

Roommates Deacon and Moore, the MWC freshman of the year, are excited about getting an opportunity to add their name to the record books.

"Me and Ryan, at the start of the year our main goal was to get to the NCAAs every year we're here," Deacon said. "We're really happy we made it and we can't wait for the experience.

"Probably earlier in the year we wouldn't have been thinking we have a chance to win, but now we can go in with some confidence and try to win it."

As Moore added, "There's no other way to win it four years in a row unless we win it this year so that would be great."

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