MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – Utilizing the best round it has ever shot in the Sun Belt Conference Championship, the UT Arlington men's golf team finished in a tie for 4th place, but the Mavericks lost in a playoff which would have advanced them to Wednesday's match play at Raven Golf Club where the 2019 Sun Belt Champion will be crowned.
 
UTA posted a thrilling 10-under 274 total in the final round – nine shots better than its previous low SBC Championship round – and tied for the 4th-best in program history along with a 2nd round earlier this month at Seattle University's Redhawk Invitational.
 
The performance was backed by a pair of 5-under 66s from Paul Gonzalez and Tanner Gore as the Mavs moved up one spot from their overnight position and into the all-important top 4. However, ULM put together a 14-under 270 to jump two positions, and the two teams finished tied for 4th with three-round totals of 837, just one back of 3rd-place Arkansas State (836).
 
Since the first Sun Belt Championship was contested in 1977, that 837 total would have incredibly won the tournament going away in any year or earned the top seed since match play was used to determine the winner beginning in 2016. The previous low 54-hole score was by Coastal Carolina last April, and that was an 845.
 
Not only was that 837 not enough to earn the top seed in Wednesday's match play, but it was barely enough to force a playoff with ULM to be one of the top-4 seeds to get into the semifinals.
 
In the playoff, all five players from both teams played the 18th hole, with the four lowest scores from each team being totaled. Caleb Hicks, Kyle Cox and Camilo Avila teed off in the first group along with a twosome from ULM. Hicks and Cox both made pars, while Avila had to re-tee and made a double bogey – a score which was thrown out. In that same wave, ULM made a birdie, so the Warhawks held a 1-under advantage compared with UTA's even par through the first three Mavs' players.
 
As that transpired on the green, Gore and Gonzalez found the fairway off the tee. Similar to Avila, ULM had a player go out-of-bounds off the tee and made a double bogey, so that score was dismissed. The other two ULM players both found the fairway and then one put his approach to about 10 feet while the other was long and left. However, that player was able to get up-and-down for par, forcing Gonzalez or Gore to at least make a birdie. But both two-putted for par, and ULM added another birdie, advancing the Warhawks to match play with an aggregate score of 14 (-2) compared with 16 (E) for UTA.
 
It was a disappointing end in an otherwise stellar final day for UTA as Hicks was responsible for the other under-par round as he signed for a 3-under 68. The freshman totaled a 211 (-2) over the three rounds to tie for 22nd overall.
 
Sophomore Gonzalez finished in the top 10 for the second-straight year, this time posting UTA's lowest score with a 205 (-8) to tie for 5th and wrap up the tournament just three shots behind medalist Steven Fish from Georgia Southern, who won the title in a one-hole playoff over Arkansas State's Luka Naglic.
 
Senior Gore was one stroke back of Gonzalez with a 206 (-7) total, tying for 7th after bouncing back from an opening-round 3-over 74 with consecutive 66s on Monday and Tuesday.
 
Entering this year, Gonzalez's 205 would have been tied for the 2nd-best score in Sun Belt Championship history (record: 203 last year by Morgan Deneen from Coastal Carolina), while Gore's 206 would have been tied for the 3rd-best in SBC Championship history. However, led by Fisk's and Naglic's 11-under totals (record 202s), the four lowest (or tied) totals in conference tournament history occurred this year.
 
Cox finished tied for 49th with a 220 (+7) after a final-round 79, unfortunately dropping the freshman 33 spots as he entered the day in the top 20. Senior Avila secured his third-straight 74 to record a 222 (+9) total and tie for 51st.
 
Gonzalez led the 60-player field in par-3 scoring for the week at -4, while Gore played those holes in -2 – tied for the 5th-best in the field. Gonzalez also ranked 3rd in the field in par-4 scoring (-5), while Gore led UTA and tied for 8th in the field in par-5 scoring (-5).
 
Gore and Gonzalez both set the pace for the Mavs by rolling in 14 birdies, while Hicks and Cox led UTA in pars for the three rounds with 35.
 
For the second-straight day, the scoring average went down. The average score on the par-71 Raven – which set up around 6,800 yards – in the 1st round was 72.12, dropped to 71.98 for the 2nd round and was an incredible 70.10 for the final round. Every team except two shot under par on Tuesday.
 
Leading the pack was Georgia Southern as the Eagles earned the No. 1 seed in match play, and they will face No. 4 ULM in the semifinals on Wednesday morning. In the other semifinal, No. 2 Coastal Carolina will meet No. 3 Arkansas State. Georgia Southern shot an absurd 21-under 263 in the final round to wrap up an SBC record-setting 31-under 821 total, four shots ahead of Coastal (27-under 825). Arkansas State – the highest-ranked team in the 12-team field at #28 according to Golfstat – posted the aforementioned 16-under 836.
 
As previously mentioned, the lowest 54-hole score in SBC Championship history was by Coastal Carolina last year at 845 (-7). An incredible eight teams shot better than 845 in this year's championship alone:
 
1) Georgia Southern: 821 (-31)
2) Coastal Carolina: 825 (-27)
3) Arkansas State: 836 (-16)
T-4) UTA: 837 (-15)
        ULM
T-6) South Alabama: 840 (-12)
        Little Rock
8) Georgia State: 843 (-9)
9) Louisiana: 855 (+3)
10) Texas State: 856 (+4)
11) Troy: 857 (+5)
12) Appalachian State: 887 (+35)
 
While the Mavs won't be competing in the NCAA Championship as a team, there is a chance UTA has representation in the form of an individual(s). That announcement will be made next week as the Selection Show airs live on the Golf Channel Wednesday, May 1, at 8 p.m. Central.
 
 
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