Coach’s feelings mixed as UNLV star vies for PGA Tour spot

By Brian Hilderbrand

Thursday, Nov. 29, 2007 | 8:12 a.m.

Dwaine Knight will have more than a passing interest in this year's PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament, which began Wednesday and runs through Monday in Winter Garden, Fla.

Knight, the longtime UNLV men's golf coach, said he will be glued to his computer screen for up-to-the-minute results of the tournament, the outcome of which will have a direct effect on his team's bid for a national championship in the spring.

Seung-Su Han, a two-year letterman and the Rebels' leading scorer this fall, is one of 166 players who qualified for the final stage of the grueling six-day PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament - also known as Q-School. The top 30 players (and ties) after 108 holes will receive PGA Tour cards and exempt playing status on the tour in 2008.

Han, a 21-year-old junior, advanced to the final stage of Q-School through prequalifying, first- and second-stage tournaments. He opened the final-stage tournament Wednesday with a 2-over-par 74 and was 12 shots off the lead.

Knight said he will have mixed emotions as he watches Han pursue his dream of qualifying for the PGA Tour.

"On one hand, we would love to keep him, obviously," Knight said, "but I know one thing: Every guy I have here would trade places with him in a minute, to have this shot, because that's their dream, to play the PGA Tour.

"The other side of it, it's tough to lose the leader of your program in the middle of the season. We'll have to have somebody step up pretty big because it'll be a huge hole to fill" if Han turns pro.

Because of a rules change, this is the first year amateur players can go all the way through Q-School without having to give up their amateur status and turn pro. If Han is among the top 30 finishers and earns his Tour card, he will have 10 days to turn pro or decline the card and remain in school.

Knight acknowledged that if Han were to qualify for the tour, he almost certainly would turn pro.

"That's his goal, to earn a tour card," Knight said. "If you have the chance to play on the tour at the highest level ... if he did leave here, he'll leave in good standing with school so he can always return and finish. He's been a great kid and he's very honorable. He came in early and talked with me about this whole process."

Han, a native of Inchon, South Korea, was named the Mountain West Conference Freshman of the Year in 2005-06 after posting six top 20 finishes in 12 tournaments. As a sophomore, he was the Rebels' second-leading scorer with a 72.38 average. Through three tournaments this fall, Han had a 68.33 scoring average - more than three strokes better than any other player on the team - and had two top 10 finishes.

Although it might have been natural for Knight to try to dissuade Han from taking this step, Knight said he might have trouble getting elite golfers to come to UNLV if he didn't allow his players to make this kind of decision.

"That's why they come here, to have a shot at doing that and to get an education," he said. "In my opinion, I don't think we would be able to recruit this type of player if you said 'you can't do it.' "

Now that collegiate golfers will be allowed to go through the entire Q-School before they have to relinquish their amateur status, Knight said, he expects to see more student-athletes follow Han's path.

"I think if they have the ability and they have the resources to make a try at it, I think more and more guys are going to do it," he said. "But that's part of the changing landscape of college golf. These opportunities are going to be there and guys are turning pro earlier in all different sports and it's kind of edging its way into college golf now."