Guest columnist — Ryan Keeney: After first day, pressure should subside

Wednesday, May 28, 2003 | 9:58 a.m.

Ryan Keeney is a freshman on the UNLV golf team and is writing a guest golf column exclusively for the Las Vegas Sun. He is part of the Rebels' five-man lineup in the NCAA Golf Championship in Stillwater, Okla.

STILLWATER, Okla. -- We were up at 9 a.m., got a little breakfast, got some rest. We left for the course at 11 a.m., got here, and they've been having food for us every day, so we had some good lunch here. Then we found out it was a half-hour delay for the first time, so more time to just hang around, more waiting.

You know, just playing the waiting game.

We teed off finally about 1:15 p.m. I haven't heard a whole lot about everybody's round, but I think we all found the course very difficult. I can't really speak for them, because I don't really know how they felt, but I hit the ball really good today.

What you need to do, you don't want to be hitting any second shots off the tee, provisionals for lost balls. If you can avoid that, you're going to be in good shape right there. I didn't hit one provisional today, so even though I didn't score well at all, no provisionals is a good sign, so I'm excited about that for tomorrow.

My score doesn't really reflect that I played well today. Coming down the end there, I made a 7 on a par 3 (No. 7, 215 yards). That is pretty much hard to get over. There's four shots lost, so you've got to watch out for that.

I'm excited for tomorrow. I think the fact that we didn't shoot as well today will be helpful. We'll have a little less pressure. If you can play this course without feeling tension, it's a lot better than playing scared. I was talking to J.C. Deacon, and I know myself, in the beginning, you see how hard it's playing and you start playing a little scared.

Knowing what's out there now, a little less pressure, all we can do now is go up. We can't retreat. That'll be good for the second round. I think we're going to come out in the early morning, take advantage of the course as best we can, and I think we'll play pretty solid. I think everybody's looking forward to it big-time.

It's also one round out of four. Ryan Keeney is a freshman on the UNLV golf team and is writing a guest golf exclusively for the Las Vegas Sun. He is part of the Rebels' five-man lineup in the NCAA Golf Championship in Stillwater, Okla.