SAN ANTONIO – Led by a pair of rounds in the 60s by
Paul Gonzalez, the UT Arlington men's golf team is in contention for a season-opening victory as the Mavericks are tied for 1st place with Houston following 36 holes of action at UTSA's Lone Star Invitational from the challenging TPC San Antonio AT&T Oaks Course.
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UTA shot a 1st-round 290 (+2) before recording the only under-par round in the field in the 2nd round with a 287 (-1). With their 577 (+1) total, the Mavs are equal to 16-time National Champion Houston (289-288) and reside two shots clear of 3rd-place South Alabama (579; +3) and seven ahead of 4th-place Lipscomb (584; +8) entering Tuesday's final round.
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Gonzalez's 1st-round 5-under 67 was one shot shy of matching his career low set in the final round of the Sun Belt Conference Championship earlier this spring. He backed it up with a 3-under 69 in the 2nd round, and the junior resides in sole possession of 2nd place in the field of 66 – just two shots behind tournament leader Nolan Ray (-10) from Lipscomb.
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Caleb Hicks signed for an even-par 72 in the 1st round before settling for a 2-over 74 in the 2nd round and is tied for 13th (+2). Each of UTA's three other lineup players are separated by three shots total –
Kyle Cox (T-19; +4),
Zakary Jones (T-23; +5) and
Daniel Cronje (T-27; +6).
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Sophomores Cox and Jones both bounced back from over-par rounds in the opening 18 of the day (76 and 77, respectively) with even-par performances in the 2nd round. Jones was trending toward his first-career sub-par round as he was -3 with two holes to play before unfortunately ending with a bogey and double bogey. Still, the 72 is five shots better than his previous career low. Cox rolled in UTA's lone eagle of the first two rounds on the par-5, 567-yard 14th.
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Making his collegiate debut, freshman Cronje signed for consecutive rounds of 75. Competing as an individual, redshirt sophomore
Zach Cole rebounded from an opening 79 with a 3-over 75 in the 2nd round and is tied for 45th overall (+10).
"We didn't get off to a great start, but we finished really strong – very similar to how we did during our great spring," said head coach
Casey Devoll. "How Paul is playing on a course this difficult is absolutely incredible. The guys are fired up to go get a win tomorrow; that's what we came here to do."
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UTA will enter the final round looking for its first team championship since March of 2018 when it claimed Appalachian State's Cape Fear National Intercollegiate with scores of 285-289-285: 857 (-6).
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Gonzalez, meanwhile, will be looking to secure his first collegiate medalist honors and become the first Mav to win an individual championship since current volunteer assistant coach Paul McConnell won the Western Athletic Conference Championship in the spring of 2013. Gonzalez has five career top-10 finishes, with his best being a T-4 last fall at the FGCU Invitational.
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Final-round action is set to commence with an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start on Tuesday. Live scoring will be available via
Golfstat by clicking here, and updates will be posted on the official Twitter account of the program
@UTAMavsMGolf.
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Opening the 1st round on the nearly 500-yard par-4 4th, Gonzalez offset a bogey with a birdie on holes 6 and 8, and headed to the 11th with his scorecard level. However, a birdie there started a stretch of five birdies over the closing eight holes of the back 9 for a 5-under 31 en route to the 67. In the 2nd round, he again made just one bogey and birdied three of the closing six holes on the back – in addition to the par-5 2nd – on his way to the 69.
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No one in the field played the par-5 holes better than Gonzalez on the opening day as he took advantage of them with a 5-under total; he also is tied for 2nd in par-3 scoring (-2) and is 5th in par-4 scoring (-1).
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As a team, UTA converted the 4th-most birdies in the field (31; Lipscomb: 35), made the 3rd-most pars (113; Houston: 115) and ranked 1st in par-5 scoring (4.83).
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Following an impressive spring season to conclude the 2018-19 campaign, Devoll was hopeful UTA would carry that momentum into the start of the 2019-20 season, and that is exactly what transpired in the opening rounds at one of the most difficult stops on the PGA Tour each year.
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At 7,435 yards, the par-72 AT&T Oaks Course at TPC San Antonio has typically played over par for the world's best players since it began hosting the Valero Texas Open shortly after its opening in 2010.
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The Mavs are getting a good early look at how they – and several other Sun Belt members – fare on a challenging layout as four other league schools are in the field. All told, five of the 11 teams in the invitational finished last year ranked in the Golfstat Top 100, with UTA just outside of that at No. 115 – a ranking sure to be lowered with a victory on Tuesday.
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This is the 11th edition of the Lone Star Invitational; in 2010, UTA won the second showing with an 855 (-9) total.
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