Historic Tournaments: Southern Highlands Collegiate
50 Years of Desert Rebel Golf
The Southern Highlands Collegiate stands as one of the most revered regular-season events on the Division I men’s golf calendar. While the 2026 edition marks 25 years (but only 24 playings) at this prestigious venue, UNLV’s home tournament traces its remarkable history back to the 1970s. Buckle up, we’re leaving for Las Vegas and exploring this storied event ahead of its golden anniversary.
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GENERAL STATS: 1974-2025
Team Wins (most recent)
10 by UNLV (2014)
9 by Arizona State (2004)
5 by Oklahoma State (2011) & BYU (1982)
Oklahoma has 3 overall, two in the last four playings prior to 2026 (2022 & 2024)
Individuals with Multiple Wins
Patrick Rogers (Stanford) = 2013 & 2014
Camilo Villegas (Florida) = 2002 (co-medalist with Troy Matteson) & 2004
Brett Dean (Arizona St) = 1990 & 1991
Phil Mickelson (Arizona St) = 1989 & 1991
Jeff Thomsen (Arizona St) = 1974 & 1975 (first two!)
If you include co-medalist but lost playoff:
Yuxin Lin (2020 with Southern Cal, 2023 with Florida
Teams with multiple individual co-medalists (most recent)
9 by Arizona State (2010, Jesper Kennegard)
7 by UNLV (2025, Caden Fioroni)
6 by Florida (2024, Ian Gilligan)
Southern Highlands (2002-2025) Scoring Records
Low Team Scores
18 holes = 268/-20 (Oklahoma, 2022 rd1)
54 holes = 826/-38 (Oklahoma, 2022)
Low Individual Scores
18 holes = 62/-10 (Morgan Hoffmann, Oklahoma St, 2009 rd2)
54 holes = 201/-15 (Robby Shelton, Alabama, 2015)
THE REBEL CLASSIC (1974-1995)
Michael “Chubb” Drakulich was UNLV sports. Not only did he serve as the first athletic director from 1958-73, he was also the first basketball, baseball, and golf coach. His obituary in 2004 stated succinctly that he “is considered the architect and founding father of the athletic program at UNLV.” While still serving as the men’s golf coach in the Fall of 1974, Coach Drakulich hosted his first home tournament after having mostly played regional dual matches since instituting the team nearly a decade prior. Few could have imagined that this event, conceived over fifty years ago, would not only endure but evolve into one of the most anticipated fixtures of the collegiate golf season.
In the Beginning (1974)
The first annual Rebel Classic/Collegiate Golf Tournament was played in December, 1974. The six teams - UNLV, Arizona State, BYU, Weber State, Utah State, and Southern Utah State (now Southern Utah University) - each brought six members and intended to play out 36 holes across two courses: Dunes Country Club (Thursday) and Las Vegas Country Club (Friday). For the second time that Fall, the Sun Devils eked out a close victory over Coach Karl Tucker’s BYU Cougars behind the medalist efforts of ASU’s Jeff Thomsen. The one stroke victory was made more interesting by the brief protest that an Arizona State player had put a second ball in play during one of the holes in the final round. Thus was the beginning of a beautiful rivalry.
6-count-5 Era (1974-83)
Two things that seem unique about this first era of UNLV’s tournament were actually relatively common at the time: counting five scores of the six player team that was competing, and using the aggregate score of each player totaled at the end of the tournament rather than being determined each day. The first ten playings of the Rebel Classic followed one or both of these scoring methods as teams competed on two, sometimes three, courses over the 54-hole tournament.
Thomsen returned with the Sun Devils the second year and both defended their titles. The next two years belonged to BYU, winning thanks to Pat McGowan and Stan Souza in successive years. ASU took back the team title in 1978, but a budding star named Jay Don Blake from Utah State captured his first collegiate medalist honors with a total of 207/-9 which would stand as a tournament record until 2001.
The next year’s medalist was another big name in the college game: Nathaniel Crosby of the University of Miami, son of famed entertainer Bing Crosby. BYU would take three of the next four team titles as the first chapter of this storied event came to a close.
5-count-4 Era Begins 1984
It’s likely no coincidence that the first appearance of Coach Mike Holder’s Oklahoma State Cowboys in 1984 also brought about the official change to the 5-count-4 daily scoring that we’re used to seeing today. The Cowboys captured the first of back-to-back team titles, but UTEP’s Doug Wherry outdueled Scott Verplank in that first contest. Verplank finished runner-up again in 1985, but this time it was in a playoff with teammate John O’Neill as Oklahoma State pulled of a rare T1-T1-3-4 finish.
Coaching Changes (1987)
The 1987-88 season brought a very interesting shakeup to the dynamics of college golf in the Southwest. Shortly after hosting New Mexico’s home William H. Tucker Collegiate event, UNM Coach Dwaine Knight made the move over to UNLV to fill the vacancy left by Coach Drakulich’s retirement. One of his first acts was to host that year’s Rebel Classic. John Fields, who played under Knight and was even briefly his assistant coach, took up his mantle at the helm of UNM, but not in time for the two to clash at the 1987 UNLV tournament - which was won by Arizona State behind medalist Billy Mayfair. The next year, Coach Knight secured the Desert Inn Country Club as the single host venue rather than splitting the field among multiple courses.
As UNLV began to devote serious money and resources to their golf program, Coach Knight brought in a former CPA named Bruce Heppler to help run the golf foundation financials and eventually made him one of the first full-time paid assistant coaches in the country. After a couple years in this role, Heppler joined Oklahoma State as an assistant under Coach Holder and his position at UNLV was filled by an assistant SID named JT Higgins. The UNLV/New Mexico/Texas coaching trees are wildly intertwined and something well worth exploring (see below), but the crux of the matter is that the hiring of Dwaine Knight would signal a prominent rise in the stature of the UNLV men’s golf program and by extension its increasingly more popular home tournament.
A History of Winners
The Rebel Classic list of winning teams and medalists reads as a who’s-who list of college golf success. On top of the names already mentioned, the 1980s and 1990s are riddle with recognizable players such as Arizona State’s Phil Mickelson - who finished 2nd, 1st, 3rd, and T1 in his four times playing the event - and the pair of Georgia Tech wramblin’ wrecks named Stewart Cink and David Duval who shared medalist honors in 1992. They are three of the astounding six players (as of 2025) to win both this event and the Haskins Award during their collegiate careers. Mickelson is one of four NCAA champions to also capture medalist honors here in Sin City. Perhaps most astonishing of all, there have been six players to earn the Rebel Classic/Southern Highlands trophy as well as the Havemeyer Trophy as U.S. Amateur champion: Nathaniel Crosby (1981), Billy Mayfair (1987), Phil Mickelson (1990), David Gossett (1999), Jeff Quinney (2000), and UNLV’s own Ryan Moore (2004).
The Rebels Win
In 1993, the hosts finally captured their home tournament and would take the next two as well - the final one in 1995 by virtue of a playoff over TCU - along with medalist honors in two of those years going to Ed Fryatt and Ted Oh. A very fitting close to chapter two of this event.
THE RETURN (1998-2001)
For reasons still unknown, the Rebel Classic was buried after the 1995-96 season. UNLV did not host an event in 1996-97, however the next year they would once again bring some of the best collegiate golf competition back to the Las Vegas area, switching from the Fall to the Spring season. The next three years constitute the third, and shortest, chapter in this saga.
Golf Digest Collegiate (1998-99)
The 1997–98 season was a magical chapter in the story of UNLV Rebel golf. The number 1 team in the land tamed “The Beast” - New Mexico’s university course, Coach Knight’s old stomping grounds - to capture the first NCAA team title in program history.
Earlier that Spring, UNLV took over hosting responsibilities for the Golf Digest Collegiate, bringing high quality regular-season collegiate golf back to Las Vegas. Failing to capture their home event was one of the few “blemishes” on the team scorecard that year for UNLV, however it proved to be one of the greatest victories to that point in Virginia history. The Cavaliers left Las Vegas with both the team and individual trophies behind James Driscoll’s 9-under performance that tied him with Jay Don Blake’s tournament record.
The next season, still in the after-glow of an NCAA title, the Rebels won their home tournament for the fourth time in the last five playings. David Gossett (Texas) defeated Bryce Molder (Georgia Tech) in a playoff to capture the individual title, a showdown of the Big 12 Player of the Year versus ACC Player of the Year. Later that year, the 1999 Golf Digest Collegiate winner defeated the 1998 medalist (Driscoll) to win the U.S. Amateur.
Las Vegas Intercollegiate
Over the next several years, UNLV’s Las Vegas Intercollegiate remained one of college golf’s premier regular‑season events, bolstered by title sponsors like Callaway and Toyota. The competition matched the tournament’s dazzling setting, highlighted by another future Havemeyer Trophy winner - Arizona State’s Jeff Quinney - claiming medalist honors. Soon, the tournament would gain a permanent home and with it a name that would become synonymous with the pinnacle of the sport.
SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS (2002-present)
Situated in the southwestern foothills of the Las Vegas valley just 15 minutes from the famous Strip, the Southern Highlands community boasts one of the top private courses in the country. The golf course, which was completed around 1999, was the final co-design effort of Robert Trent Jones and his son and is considered by many to be a masterpiece.
Calling Southern Highlands Golf Club home is one of UNLV golf’s greatest advantages. Soon after the course opened, Coach Dwaine Knight teamed up with Las Vegas legend Gary “Duke” Goett - the visionary behind Southern Highlands - to pair one of college golf’s strongest fields with an elite venue annually beginning 2002. If not for the COVID‑related cancellation of the 2021 event, the 2026 tournament would mark the 25th playing at Southern Highlands.
Establishing a New Tradition (2002-04)
“Everything about Southern Highlands is first class, so we’re really pleased that it has associated itself with our program and our tournament. It’s a great venue and its presence adds stability and longevity to this event. This is a chance to build a wonderful tradition.”
-Coach Dwaine Knight (UNLV Athletics)
There are certain things to come to mind when one thinks of the perfect Vegas vacation. From the high rollers to the lowliest laggard, all who are drawn to the neon nirvana expect that even losing is going to be a first-class experience. That’s exactly what the collegiate players are treated to at Southern Highlands, where a victory is a jackpot and even finishing last means you’ve been bested by a heck of a strong field at one of the nicest courses you’re ever going to play.
The first playing of the Las Vegas Invitational at Southern Highlands in 2002 immediately lived up to the hype. Coach Heppler, now a fixture at the helm of the Georgia Tech, captured one of seven team titles in a season that ended with National Coach of the Year honors. Future NCAA individual champ Troy Matteson (Georgia Tech) and Florida’s Camilo Villegas shared co-medalist honors, each earning their third individual title of the season.
Las Vegas is better than most places at blending fresh glitz with vintage glamour, preserving its legends even as it chases what’s next. Coach Holder’s Oklahoma State Cowboys winning the final edition of the event under its old name in 2003 feels fitting, just as it does that future UNLV legend Ryan Moore claimed his first collegiate victory here. Another embodiment of this phenomenon is Mike McGraw, one of two men so far who can claim team titles here both as an Assistant (this year, 2003) and Head Coach (2011).
“What I loved most about bringing teams to Southern Highlands was I always knew it had the potential to put you back on your heels. It could expose any weakness a player had. We rarely, if ever, saw firmer or faster greens in a college golf tournament. Occasionally, the wind would blow 20-25 mph, making things even more interesting. The tournament has always had the feel of a major college event.”
-Coach Mike McGraw
By 2004, Coach Knight and the team at Southern Highlands knew they had hit triple sevens with this event and decided to make the host venue the title sponsor, formally giving rise to the Southern Highlands Collegiate. Arizona State captured their ninth and most recent team victory. In a year when Ryan Moore seemed to win everything, he fell just short in his bid to retain individual honors; instead, Camilo Villegas became just the fourth repeat (co-)medalist, 30 years after the event’s inaugural playing.
2014
All of the things Coach McGraw mentioned were on full display in the 2014 edition which was the last time that both the team and individual champions were over par. It also happens to be the most recent Rebel victory (11th overall in this event’s history) as UNLV topped an absurdly highly-ranked field that included 11 of the top 20 teams in the country. Kurt Kitayama finished T2 along with five others including Oklahoma State’s Wyndham Clark, just two strokes behind runner-up Stanford’s Patrick Rodgers who is the most recent player to successfully repeat as medalist here.
2015
Seeing the pendulum swing the complete opposite way, the next year saw Alabama’s sensational sophomore Robby Shelton set the current tournament record with his 201/-15 performance. He was a half-dozen shots better than Texas’s Beau Hossler and Arizona State’s Jon Rahm. Likewise, Texas had a decisive victory on the team side, placing all five players inside the top 25 of a stacked field. Longhorn freshman Scottie Scheffler logged his third top 10 finish on the season to help capture the only team title here (so far!) for both Head Coach John Fields and Assistant Coach Jean-Paul Hebert.
2019
It’s hard to imagine this tournament being elevated any further than it already was, yet the 2019 Southern Highlands Collegiate did manage to do just that. Golfweek was on hand to stream the event for the first time, and the audience was treated to a dramatic finish as Oklahoma redshirt junior Quade Cummins sank a 20-foot birdie putt on the final hole for a Sooner team title over their Red River rivals. Longhorn freshman Cole Hammer shot a final round 64/-8 to jump over the likes of Cal’s Collin Morikawa and force a playoff with UNLV’s own Jack Trent. It took three extra holes, but Trent successfully captured the individual title and with it an exemption to the PGA Tour Shriners Hospitals for Children Open that October.
“This is my first college win so for it to be here in my hometown after moving from Australia and then to be playing in the Shriners’ PGA Tour event in Las Vegas as well, I’m just at a loss for words, this is so cool.”
-Jack Trent [UNLV Athletics]
Changing of the Guard (2020-23)
The 2020 tournament - which was inevitably the last collegiate competition played for the teams in the COVID-shortened season - saw another dramatic finish as one of the Texas Coody twins, Parker, defeated Yuxin Lin for the Shriner’s exemption. Lin’s Trojans took the team title, however, by two strokes over Texas.
That was the last Southern Highlands Collegiate for the legendary Coach Dwaine Knight who retired at the end of the (also shortened) 2020-21 season in which this tournament was not played. Things returned (mostly) to normal in 2022 as Oklahoma came back with a vengance. The Sooners set a record with their first round 20-under par 268 and finished strong with a 276/-12 for a final tournament record 38-under par 826. They were led by Sooner senior Patrick Welch who finished just one stroke back of Shelton’s tournament record.
After one year under “interim head coach” AJ McInerney, UNLV hired long-time Longhorn assistant coach Jean-Paul Hebert as the program’s third full-time head coach. The Rebels made a strong showing in a tough field at the 2023 Southern Highlands, but this was Coach Mike Small’s year as his Illini came out victorious for the first time in Vegas. The individual winner was no stranger as Yuxin Lin, now playing for the Florida Gators, opened with a 64/-8 and never looked back. Remarkably, in the two playings here representing two different teams, Lin lost to exactly 0 players in 108 holes of stroke play competition; only officially logged a loss to Coody in that one extra playoff hole.
2025
Last year’s Southern Highlands was one of UNLV’s best showings since 2014, however nobody was going to catch the Auburn Tigers. Even without their star player - reigning [everything] award winner Jackson Koivun who was playing in the Arnold Palmer Invitational - Auburn was the only team to finish under par and cruised to a 10-stroke victory thanks in part to runner-up Carson Bacha’s final round 64/-8. The runner-up Rebels did get to celebrate with a classic team photo next to the water on the 18th hole as senior Caden Fioroni went 67-67-73=207/-9 for the two stroke victory.
Golden Playing (2026)
The 50th playing of the (now called) Southern Highlands Collegiate has the potential to stand out not only amongst the other regular season events in the 2025-26 college golf season, but also amongst this events own illustrious history. Half of the field is currently ranked in the top 25 in the country and all of them have their eyes set on a postseason run. Each of the teams ranked inside the top 10 - Virginia, Auburn, Florida, Texas, and Pepperdine - are coming off of major recent performances that include setting program and even national records. Likewise, 5 of the top 6 ranked players in the country - Harry Takis (SDSU), Jackson Koivun (Auburn), Ben James (Virginia), Mahanth Chirravuri (Pepperdine), and Bryan Lee (Virginia) - are battling a star-studded field for an individual title which will undoubtedly be a crown jewel on a potential Haskins Award winning resume.
But don’t sleep on anyone in this field. Can Georgia send their legendary Coach Chris Haack into retirement with on more feather in his illustrious cap? The 2024 champs from Oklahoma have won here every second playing since 2019, which should should have everyone on notice for 2026. Coach Hebert would love to capture another Southern Highlands Collegiate flag, joining Coach McGraw and Coach JC Deacon as winning assistants AND head coaches here at Southern Highlands. Above all, though, the hometown Rebels must surely want to remind everyone that what happens (to be won) in Vegas, should stay in Vegas.
“As coaches, we are not in the business of building history, but to look back at the past 50 years of college golf in the Las Vegas Valley is pretty fascinating. And the stories from the guys that played here…
Coach Drakulich and Coach Knight poured their hearts into UNLV Golf, and not only built a championship culture, but a lineage that is alive and thriving in today’s college game. I’m honored to carry the torch here in the Las Vegas, and to try to build upon the history. Maybe we can make it another 50 years.”
-Coach Jean-Paul Hebert
Thanks for reading!
Outstanding article, good read
Thanks David