September 19, 2007–The UNLV men's golf team, which dropped four spots to No. 16 in the latest edition of the Golf World/Nike Golf Coaches' Poll, will travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to play at the PING/Golfweek Preview on Saturday and Sunday, September 22 and 23. The tournament, which will be played at Purdue University's Kampen Course (par 72, 7,467 yards), will be a preview to the 2008 NCAA Championship, which will be held on the same course in May.
The format of the Preview will be a 54-hole tournament played over two days with 36 holes on Saturday and 18 on Sunday. Saturday’s play will be a shotgun start at 9 a.m. EDT, while Sunday’s final round will have tee times from the first and 10th holes starting at 8:30 a.m. EDT. Along with UNLV, the field includes Alabama, Arizona State, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Florida, Florida State, Georgia State, Lamar, Louisville, Minnesota, Oklahoma State, Purdue, Southern California and Texas A&M.
At last year's Preview, UNLV finished fourth as a team in Williamsburg, Va. The Rebels finished 13 shots off the lead at 7-over par. Florida won the Preview at 6-under. Ryan Keeney, who was a senior on last year's UNLV team, led the Rebels individually with a fifth-place finish at 3-under.
Traveling with the Rebels this weekend will be seniors C.J. Gatto, Matt Kinsinger and Jarred Texter, sophomores Eddie Olson and Brett Kanda and freshman Ji Moon. Kinsinger and Kanda will playoff for the team's fifth spot during Friday's practice round.
UNLV is coming off a 12th-place finish at its season-opening tournament, The Inverness Intercollegiate, which was held in Toledo, Ohio, Sept. 10-11.
REPORT: Andy Grossman, UNLV Sports Information.