Comeback trail beckons

Trevor Brown Jr. / NCAA Photos

UNLV women’s golf coach Missy Ringler, left, confers with Nicole McGirr, now a junior and the only player from Las Vegas on the team, at the Mountain West Conference Women’s Golf Championships last spring in St. George, Utah. UNLV, with three conference titles in six years, finished fourth among seven teams in last year’s tournament.

By Brian Hilderbrand (contact)

Saturday, March 8, 2008 | 2 a.m.

For all the success UNLV women’s golf has enjoyed since Missy Ringler took over as head coach, it is sometimes easy to forget that the program still is in its infancy.

During Ringler’s six-year tenure, the Rebels have won three Mountain West Conference championships, qualified for five NCAA Regionals and advanced to two NCAA Women’s Golf Championships. The program also has had three players win the conference Player of the Year award, two earn All-America honors and four go on to play professional golf.

Clearly, Ringler has the program headed in the right direction. But is it fair to expect the women’s program to achieve the same kind of success the men have under head coach Dwaine Knight?

Ringler thinks so, although she says the women’s program has not received the same kind of financial support from the community as the men’s program did in its infancy.

“There are so many differences between men’s golf and women’s golf, just in general, so I think we try to focus on what we can do to be successful,” she said, rather than comparing her program with Knight’s.

Part of the reason for the discrepancy in community support comes down to a matter of timing: Knight took over the men’s program in 1987, when interest in golf in Southern Nevada was at its height, and he received tremendous financial support from the community that continues to this day.

“Back when they first started, there was the big wave with his golf foundation and developing that financial support very early and it’s continued,” Ringler said of Knight and the men’s program. “I believe that we have a lot of support here in town for the women’s program, but it seems like there are differences between the people who want to support men’s golf and the people who want to support women’s golf.

“I don’t think it’s anything against the program; I just think (the men) have had more of a history.”

That’s not to say that the women’s program can’t achieve a level of support similar to that which has allowed Knight’s program to compete — and win — on a national level.

“I believe it’s realistic,” she said. It’s just a matter of getting the actual financial support to do it. That’s something that our athletic department and our fundraising department obviously want to continue to work on and pursue, but I think it can happen.

“We’re only 7 years old ... it’s still a young program.”

And a young team. The Rebels, who host the 18-team UNLV Spring Invitational golf tournament next week at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, are competing with two freshmen — Therese Koelbaek and Alejandra Guacaneme — and two sophomores — Natasha Krishna and Melissa Mabanta — on their seven-player roster.

That, in part, is a reason for UNLV’s slow start this season and what Ringler calls a brief downturn for the Rebels this year and last.

“I really want to have the kids come here that actually want to be a part of the program for four or five years and stay in school,” she said. “I think that’s probably a little bit of why we’ve had kind of a little bit of a downfall in the last couple of years — we’ve lost a couple of really key players who turned professional.”

Although UNLV is coming off a last-place finish (among 16 teams) in the Wildcat Invitational in Tucson, Ringler said she sees no reason why UNLV can’t contend for the title in its own tournament next week, contend for the Mountain West Conference championship in April and qualify for the postseason.

“We’re on the right path,” she said. “Our two freshmen that we have are just amazing. They’re good kids, they’re good, solid students, they’re very competitive and they’re going to be great for us in the future.

“I have no doubt in my mind that we can play well and have a chance to win again this year.”