The UNLV Rebel Mens Golf Team hosted the Southern Nevada Collegiate over the weekend, and after the first round they were in dead last. They were 20 strokes behind UCLA. Rebel Head Coach Dwaine Knight demanded better play and the Rebels responded with the low round of the second day. And they put another decent round together in the final round, but holes 10-13 at Southern Highlands turned a possible great round into an ordinary one. The four players scores that were used (Jarred Texter, CJ Gatto, Seung Su Han and Sam Hunt) played those four holes in a combined 9-over par in the final round. The Rebels, however, did climb back to finish in fourth place out of the 15-team field. UCLA won the event.
"I think we were pressing, trying to make birdies, but those holes are the meat of the course and they got us," Knight said after the event. "It is a great tournament, and a great course, but our goal is to win every time we play, and we didn't, so now we need to figure out why we didn't."
The Rebels were the two-time defending champion entering the tournament, known as arguably the finest college golf event in the country.
Rebel Brett Kanda, who started the final round in the top 10, stumbled to a 5-over par 75, and his score wasn't used in the five players, four count format. He ended up in a tie for 14th, and was the Rebels best individual finisher. Eight Rebels finished in the top 45 of the tournament because the Rebels also had six individuals tee it up, but not count in the team play.
The Rebels have access to many of the best golf courses in Las Vegas including Rio Secco Golf Club, Las Vegas Paiute Golf Resort, Las Vegas Country Club, Southern Highlands Golf Club–their home course, Bali Hai Golf Club and many more.
After the first round, Rebel mental coach Dr. Mark Guadagnoli said the discussion following the round would focus on the next two days, unlike after last year's first round when the coaches told the team that this was the start of a long process to the national championship. "It is a process, and we will talk about what we did well, what we can do better, and how to do it better," Guadagnoli said. "Then we will discuss the plan and how to execute it."