LOOKING IN ON: GOLF

Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2006 | 7:23 a.m.

Rebels improve on a tough course

Tight fairways, ankle-high rough and lightning-fast greens have brought the best professional golfers to their knees at the U.S. Open.

UNLV men's golf coach Dwaine Knight is counting on those conditions to eventually help the Rebels in their quest to win a national championship.

The Rebels opened the 2006-07 season last week with perhaps the toughest test they could find: The Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. The site of eight major championships, including four U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships, Inverness also has hosted one of the premier collegiate golf tournaments in the country for the past six years, the Inverness Intercollegiate.

It certainly is one of the most difficult tournaments the Rebels will play this season, because the course was set up as if it were hosting an Open. USC won the team title with a 54-hole score of 44 over par; by comparison, Oklahoma State won the NCAA Division I championship in June with a four-day total of 9 under par.

"One of the reasons we went there was because Inverness itself is such a difficult test - it's certainly one of the hardest golf courses I've seen (in years)," Knight said.

"Nobody has ever shot under par there to win the tournament ... and I've also noticed that the teams that have gone there and have struggled seem to do pretty well in the national championship.

"I think the hard test will really help us for the national championships. It just sets the agenda on what you have to do as far as preparing for a hard course and the competition itself. If you can handle something like that, you can do all right" at the national championships.

UNLV finished the tournament 10 shots behind Southern Cal, in sixth place at 54 over par. While not thrilled with that result, Knight said, he was pleased that his team overcame a poor opening round and turned in two solid rounds on a very difficult course.

The Rebels were 28 over par as a team after the first round Monday. In the second round that same afternoon, UNLV was 15 over par and finished the tournament Tuesday with an 11-over 295.

"I know it broke a lot of teams," Knight said of the course. "It seemed like a lot of the teams got worse after the first (round) and we went the other way; we got better each day.

"The toughness of that golf course could really deflate your spirit and it didn't do that with us, so I was very pleased with that."

Senior Ryan Keeney finished tied for sixth (10-over 223) and junior Jarred Texter took eighth (11-over 224) for the Rebels, who will play in the William H. Tucker Invitational on Friday and Saturday in Albuquerque.

The UNLV women's team will resume its fall season Friday at the Fall Preview in Daytona Beach, Fla.

The 36-hole tournament is being held at the LPGA International course, which also will serve as the site of the NCAA Division I women's golf championships in May.

UNLV opened the fall season last week by tying for second place at the Dick McGuire Invitational in Albuquerque. Sophomore Da Sol Chung led the Rebels with a fifth-place tie in the individual standings.