Rebels flat in regional's first round

      SANTEE, Calif. -- Considered unanimously as the No. 1 college golf team in the country, UNLV didn't come here merely to qualify for the NCAA finals, but to make a statement by winning the West Regional.
      However, the statement the Rebels made in Thursday's opening round wasn't exactly what UNLV coach Dwaine Knight had in mind.
      "We can't play any worse than this," the Rebels' leading player, Ted Oh said, his head hanging.
      Oh was the only UNLV player to break par with a 71 at the 7,088-yard, par-72 Carlton Oaks Country Club. The Rebels shot 1-over 289 as a team to stand in seventh place, 11 shots behind leading Southern California.
      Unfortunately for UNLV, there was a touch of irony in that.
      The last time the Rebels played here, in the Aldila Collegiate Golf Classic in early March, they put forth their second-worst effort of the season and finished seventh behind USC. The good thing, as Knight was quick to point out, is there's a lot of golf left in this 54-hole tournament.
      "But the disappointing thing is it was such a good day for scoring," Knight said of the gorgeous playing conditions that changed somewhat late in the day when a slight wind kicked in. "We just didn't take advantage. It wasn't one of our best ball-striking days, that's for sure."
      The good news for UNLV is it needs only to place in the top nine in the 18-team event to advance to the 30-team NCAA Golf Championships, May 28-31 at Conway Farms Country Club in the Chicago suburb of Lake Forest, Ill.
      Even better is the fact the Rebels are notorious for playing their best golf on the heels of their worst efforts. UNLV has built a reputation over its nine-year run of postseason appearences of responding to early-round adversity with low-scoring closing efforts.
      Not only that, but the Rebels tee off first today in the second round, when the wind should be calm and the greens void of spike marks.
      "There's a long way to go in this tournament," Knight said. "We're still going to try to compete for the championship."
      In second behind the Trojans' 10-under 278 are defending national champion Arizona State and UCLA at 6-under 282. Arizona is fourth at 285, New Mexico fifth at 286, Colorado State sixth at 288 and UNLV seventh at 289.
      Oh's 71 was good for a tie for 16th, three shots behind first-round leaders Chad Wright of USC, Pat Perez of Arizona State and Chris Lohman of Washington.
      Oh assembled his par-breaking round largely on the strength of birdies on all four par-5s, including two that he reached in two. He also birdied his opening hole, the 436-yard, par-4 10th, but three-putted from approximately 20 feet for bogey on two of the four par-3s.
      "On this course, the par-5s are really easy, so you have to take advantage of them," he said.
      No one knows that better than senior Mike Ruiz. He shot par for the Rebels, but played the par-5s 3-over. That included a 6 on his finishing hole, the 535-yard ninth, where he missed a short par putt after he launched his 225-yard second shot from a nearby creek bed into a greenside bunker.
      At 1-over 73 for UNLV were junior Bill Lunde and freshman Jeremy Anderson.
      Shooting 75 was senior Gilberto Morales, who did not contribute to the team total as only the four lowest scores are counted. Preventing Morales from challenging par was a crippling double bogey on the 162-yard 12th hole.
      "The greens here are very difficult because they're so different than what we're used to," Oh said. "They're slow and bumpy, so we have to get used to them in order to get lower scoring."
      Knight said he expected to get more consistent play from his team when it tees off at 8 a.m. today alongside USC and New Mexico.
      "It was more of an unbalanced day than what we're used to, but if we can get the ball up around the pins, we'll be OK the rest of the way," he said.
      -- TOURNAMENT NOTE - Three players from host San Diego State were penalized 44 penalty strokes for wearing metal spikes in a soft-spike designated tournament, dropping the Aztecs to last place at 38-over-par 326. The players were penalized two strokes for each hole where the violation was known to occur.