Golf

Saturday, Nov. 12, 2005 | 7:59 a.m.

The UNLV women's golf team completed its fall schedule without winning a tournament but head coach Missy Ringler said the tune up for the all-important spring season was anything but a failure.

The 12th-ranked Rebels finished sixth or better in each of their four fall outings. But, more importantly, freshmen Da Sol Chung and Grace Woo emerged as strong players who figure to complement returnees Elena Kurokawa and Seema Sadekar this spring.

"Overall, I'm very pleased with the fall season," Ringler said. "We had our two new freshmen come in and play as I expected, so that was very fortunate for our team."

Chung and Woo played in all four fall tournaments and posted the lowest scoring averages on the team. Chung finished in the top 10 in three of her four starts and averaged 72.5 strokes per round. Woo earned one top-10 finish and had a 73.7 scoring average.

Kurokawa and Sadekar round out a strong top four, but Ringler said she would like to have had a player step forward and play solidly in the No. 5 spot.

Nonetheless, Ringler said she is looking forward to the start of the spring season in February.

"I think I have a team that can win tournaments every time we step onto the golf course," Ringler said. "On a week-to-week basis, we're competing with the top five, top 10 programs in the country. We're putting ourselves into position to be really competitive and that is only going to help us going into the spring."

A Petty Observation

PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem's announcement last week that the PGA Tour would adopt a season-long points championship race beginning in 2007 did not go unnoticed by the NASCAR crowd.

Although Finchem's proposed FedEx Cup competition still is a work in progress, it is modeled loosely on NASCAR's "Chase for the Nextel Cup," which debuted last season to rave reviews and improved late-season television ratings.

Kyle Petty, a veteran NASCAR driver, said Finchem may have put the cart before the horse in announcing the new playoff format without having all the details worked out.

"They have more to overcome than just a new format," Petty said. "Putting together an understandable points system is their first trick. If they can do that and get fans to follow it, then a chase at the end might make some sense.

"Putting the playoffs together first and then trying to decide how players are going to get there doesn't seem the way to go."

Also Noted

* Las Vegas residents Brady Exber and Pat Laverty have advanced to the final stage of the Champions Tour National Qualifying Tournament, to be held next week at the PGA Southern California Golf Club in Calimesa.

* Wes Short Jr., who last month won the Michelin Championship at Las Vegas and its $720,000 first prize, was one of a PGA Tour-record 78 players who earned $1 million or more this season.

* Former UNLV standouts Adam Scott ($2,592,255) and Chad Campbell ($2,391,432) were among the Tour-record 30 players who earned at least $2 million this season.

* Tiger Woods increased his earnings by more than $5 million from 2004 to 2005 -- the largest one-season increase in PGA Tour history.