Rebels’ collapse in golf regional irritates Knight

A season that began with so much optimism for UNLV’s men’s golf team ended in frustration and disappointment.

Coach Dwaine Knight is still stunned by his team’s collapse at last week’s NCAA West Regional at Bremerton, Wash., where the Rebels finished 24th out of 27 teams with a 54-hole score of 920 — 56 over par. It marked the second straight year UNLV failed to make the NCAA Championships.

“I really haven’t been able to define it,” Knight said. “But it’s a very disappointing situation.”

Unlike 2007, when the Rebels missed qualifying for the nationals by four shots, they played themselves out of contention this year on the second day. They were 11th after the first day, still in position to make it to the nationals if they could finish in the top 10.

But they stumbled Friday, shooting 23-over 311 to fall to 23rd. The collapse was complete in Saturday’s final round in which the team shot 308.

Sophomore Brett Kanda played the best of the Rebels, tying for 71st at 12-over 228.

“We were right there in the first round, then we played the last three holes that first day at 10 over, and that really hurt us,” Knight said. “We were still in a place where we could come back from, but I think our finish took the wind out of us. I think we started to press, and it cost us.”

Knight called his team’s failure to reach the NCAA Championships “unacceptable.”

“It’s always hard when you don’t reach your goals and, for our program, our goal is to win the national championship,” Knight said.

“The bottom line is we’ve got to get better. We told them life is about setbacks, but it’s how you deal with them that defines you. We’ve got to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and work harder to get to where we want to be.”

UNLV will lose four seniors — C.J. Gatto, Jarred Texter, Matt Kinsinger and Brandon Loska — and Knight signed three players in the fall. He intends to sign another in the spring, and hopes his core group of Seung-su Han, Eddie Olson, Ji Moon and Kanda will return hungrier in the fall.

“In the past, we’ve always had that one person who could step up and lead us,” Knight said. “Unfortunately we didn’t have that last week. Everyone struggled, though (Kanda) played well in the final round (1-over 73). But we didn’t handle the adversity like we should have.”

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