Columnist Victoria Sun: UNLV golf team looking for Moore

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2002 | 8:59 a.m.

Victoria Sun is a Las Vegas Sun sportswriter. She can be reached at victoria@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4078.

The Los Angeles Lakers had Magic Johnson.

The San Francisco 49ers had Joe Montana.

The New York Yankees had Joe DiMaggio.

Every successful team, even when it comes to individual sports such as golf or tennis, relies on a determined leader, skilled at commanding teammates to victory.

UNLV men's golf coach Dwaine Knight hopes sophomore Ryan Moore may be the catalyst the Rebels need to jump start their season that started today at the William H. Tucker Intercollegiate in Albuquerque.

Moore had a spectacular summer. Fresh off finishing sixth in the NCAA Championships, he qualfied for and played in the U.S. Open and won the national Public Links title, qualifying him for next year's Masters. He also made a strong showing in the U.S. Amateur before being eliminated in the quarterfinals.

"With Ryan Moore having a great summer and being an All-American, that's going to help us considerably," Knight said. "Looking back, we seemed to have a really dominant player on all of our successful teams.

"I feel good about this team. With a team leader like Ryan, that just gives everybody so much more confidence."

That is not to say Moore, last season's Mountain West freshman of the year, is the equivalent of Johnson, Montana or DiMaggio.

Putting all the pressure on a 19-year-old would be unfair and foolish.

Knight, last season's MWC coach of the year, is neither.

He is just as excited about Moore's return as the potential of incoming freshman Mitch Carlson of Durango High and Ryan Posey, out of Highland High School in Dallas.

Moore, Carlson, Posey, Travis Whisman and senior Brien Davis qualified to play for the Rebels in the first tournament while junior Brandon Askew will play as an individual.

Carlson originally signed a letter of intent to play at BYU. Posey was an AJGA All-American. Whisman, a sophomore, redshirted last season after back surgery.

"Ryan's got some help," Knight said. "It's kind of nice to see the freshmen jump in there.

"You don't know what they're going to do. It's a good learning experience for them to compete and see what a college tournament is all about."

The freshman aren't the only ones who will be trying to crack the lineup.

Sophomore J.C. Deacon, junior Brandon Askew, senior Calvin Kupeyan and freshman Ryan Keeney will also be fighting for playing time.

"One of the things that we'll see is a lot of lineup changes," Knight said. "We've got 11 players, 10 that are eligible.

"We're a deeper team. During qualifying somebody's going to go out there and say you have to take this away from me, I'm not going to relinquish it. With our great teams, it was sometimes harder to get through qualifying than some of the bigger tournaments."

UNLV, ranked 16th in the Golf World preseason coaches poll, finished 23rd at the NCAA Men's Golf Championships in June.

"I think that's nice, but I know our goals are high," Knight said. "It'll be interesting to see if we can move up from there and move into the areas where we can win golf tournaments."