Guest columnist Ryan Keeney: Win or lose, getting this far was a valuable, memorable experience

Monday, June 6, 2005 | 9:46 a.m.

UNLV junior golfer Ryan Keeney will be providing a daily diary exclusively for the Las Vegas Sun during the NCAA Golf Championship, chronicling life on and off the course for the Rebels. His first entry covers the time from the team's Friday arrival in Baltimore through Tuesday's practice round at Caves Valley Course in Owings Mills, Md.

Plain and simple, Friday was the longest competitive day I have ever played and I think everyone would say the same. I putted in on my last hole and I was holding the pin waiting for my playing partners to putt in, and no joke, I actually caught myself from falling over. That kind of puts it in perspective.

It was just long. Without getting into detail, it was just a long, hard day. Par was about 75, at least. The golf course was incredibly tough and the rain never let up, and the wind never let up. You're holding your umbrella sideways with the wind and the rain. What can you say? It was a very hard day.

We crashed that night, just didn't get on our feet at all. Nobody really wanted to eat that much. It was just draining.

We had a great team meeting that night and everybody was in good spirits. I think everyone came out and tried their best Saturday. I haven't heard a whole lot of stories. I got off to a really rough start, unfortunately. That's going to end up costing me individually, I'm sure.

But I kept things in perspective. There's a lot of good things going on. I kept stopping on the back nine and saying, you know what, we're not going to win, I'm not playing my best, but this is really cool. This is what you play for.

It sucks not to win, but it's hard. It's hard to win. It's very hard to win. And it sucks not to shoot under par, but it's hard to shoot under par in a national championship in the final round.

I hit my shot on 18 and I just kind of stopped for at least 60 seconds, just looked at the hill, the shot, my ball on the green, 4 feet away, and just said, this is what it's all about. It's cool. I'm in kind of good spirits right now because I think I looked at it the best that I can.

I feel like it's a passing of the torch. I feel like Ryan (Moore) is handing the team to me. I'd like to feel that way. I've always been a leader and I'm ready to lead the team next year. (Assistant coach) Andy (Bischel) and I have talked about it, (team consultant) Dr. Mark (Guadagnoli) as well.

I just have these little spazzes in most of my rounds where I don't feel that comfortable. But beyond that, I'm right there. I'm totally right there physically and mentally. I (struggled) with the driver, just like six or seven holes felt really uncomfortable and I made some bogeys.

That's just the thing from me to Ryan. He's there, and I'm almost there. He doesn't have stuff like that. He doesn't spend six holes in a poor mental state. I spent two or three holes like that after I four-putted one hole.

I feel like I'm going to just keep working on those and I'm ready to lead the team. I told Ryan, "You taught me a lot. Thanks a lot." He's like, "Well, good. Lead 'em. You're going to be the leader next year."

And then with my birdie on 18, I was just thinking about that. I was just thinking that there are a lot more of these shots to come next year.