UNLV men’s golfers shoot for NCAA bid

Eddie Olson remembers the empty feeling he had after UNLV was on the outside looking in at the 2007 NCAA Golf Championships. Every time he thinks about the Rebels not qualifying for the finals by just four shots, he gets ticked off.

But it’s a new year, and Olson and his teammates can redeem themselves beginning today as the Rebels compete in the 54-hole NCAA West Regional at the 7,111-yard, par-72 Golden Mountain Golf Club in Bremerton, Wash. A top-10 finish will get UNLV back to nationals, May 28 to 31 at West Lafayette, Ind.

But to get there, Olson might need to duplicate his performance at last month’s Mountain West Conference Championships, at which he won the individual title.

“The win gave me a lot of confidence,” said Olson, a sophomore from Aptos, Calif. “I thought I could win a little sooner, but I just kept believing. I’ve put in a lot of hard work, both on and off the course, and without it, I probably don’t win that tournament.”

UNLV coach Dwaine Knight said Olson’s game has improved to allow him to compete at a high level.

“He’s learning to be patient,” Knight said. “Sometimes, you have to take what the course gives you, and that’s hard for a young golfer to understand. But he’s driving the ball better, and he’s improved his short game.”

Olson said he thinks he will continue to improve this week.

“You want to feed off it,” he said. “I’ve spent the last few days analyzing what I did right. I stayed within myself and stayed in the present. I didn’t think too far ahead and didn’t let my mind wander. I had a very positive attitude. I need to do those things this week.”

So do his teammates. The competition at the 27-team regional will be fierce, with four top-10 teams (No. 3 Southern California, No. 4 UCLA, No. 7 Stanford and No. 10 Florida State) in the field. UNLV, ranked 15th in the Golfweek ratings, will need more than Olson to play well to qualify for the NCAA finals.

“It’s a packed regional,” Knight said. “You have to get off to good starts in these tournaments, and if you don’t, you have to be patient. We need Seung-su (Han) to play well. If he’s going good, that will give the rest of the guys a boost.”

UNLV has finished no worse than fourth in every tournament this year. Knight said the team’s goal is not only to qualify for nationals, but to win the regional.

“I feel like we’re ready to break out,” Knight said. “We just need to have the good final round where everyone is playing well at the same time.”

If that happens, it will be on a course the team has never played. UNLV usually plays the course where postseason competition is contested at least once during the regular season, either in the fall or the spring.

“We’re going in blind, but sometimes that can be a good thing,” Knight said. “You don’t really know where the trouble is.”

Olson said the Rebels will play a little more conservatively, at least until they become familiar with the course. But it’s still going to come down to execution to determine whether the Rebels keep playing beyond this weekend.

“If we lollygag out there, we’re done,” Olson said. “But we’ve got the talent, and nobody works harder than this team. You work the whole year to put yourself in this position. After we missed by four shots last year, it was degrading. Personally, it’ll inspire me to play harder.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913.