KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. – Janane Tan shot an opening-round 74 on Sunday to lead the UT Arlington women's golf team on the first day of its spring season at the Kiawah Island Classic.
 
Facing the largest field of any collegiate tournament in the country, UTA resides in a tie for 16th place out of 41 teams following a 306 1st-round score on Kiawah Island Golf Resort's Oak Point Course. The Mavericks are only two shots out of the top 10, 10 back of 5th and only 14 out of 2nd with still 36 holes remaining the next two days.
 
Additionally, UTA played the harder of the two courses being utilized this week, and will get a shot at the statistically-easier Cougar Point Course in Monday's 2nd round. Each of the top-8 teams on the leaderboard played Cougar Point on Sunday. Of teams which played Oak Point, UTA turned in the 4th-best score (only three shots off being the best score).
 
The average score at Cougar Point in the 1st round was 77.30; the Oak Point average was 79.82.
 
UTA LINEUP SCORES
T-20) Janane Tan: 74 (+2)
T-50) Sydney Garber: 76 (+4)
T-77) Kate Tran: 77 (+5)
T-116) Madigan Murray: 79 (+7)
T-116) Romina Gonzalez: 79 (+7)
 
INSIDE THE SCORES

• Tan carded two birdies on the front 9 and went out in 1-under 35 before finishing with three bogeys on the back side for the 74. Still, that score continues a positive trend for the junior, who has now recorded the three lowest rounds of her career this season: 72, 73 and 74. Tan tied for the 3rd-best par-5 scoring average in the 1st round at 4.60 (-2).
   
• Garber also rolled in two birdies, but those were offset by six bogeys as the senior put nothing higher than that on her card. She resided at +1 with six holes to play following a birdie on the par-5 12th, but unfortunately dropped three shots coming into the clubhouse.
   
• Tran – who finished T-3 in this event last year – was also +1 heading to the 13th tee, but a triple bogey on that par-4 hole disrupted an otherwise pretty clean round.
   
• Murray made a triple bogey and double bogey as those two holes accounted for five of her seven shots over par as the senior was another Mav with a relatively clean card aside from a couple hiccups.
   
• The same goes for Gonzalez, who made a pair of double bogeys as part of an adventurous scorecard. The junior transfer converted a team-high four birdies – all coming on the first 12 holes – made seven bogeys and five pars to go along with the two doubles. The four birdies for Gonzalez were tied for the 7th-most in the field in the 1st round, and were tied for the 3rd-most among those who played Oak Point.

THIS AND THAT

• The field is comprised of 210 players.
   
• After action on Monday, the top-19 teams will play for the championship, and those 20th-41st will battle for a flight championship.
   
• This was the final tournament UTA competed in last spring before the COVID shutdown. The Mavs finished in 11th place (891, +27) – their best in the three-year history of the program at this event – which last season featured a nation-high 53 teams.

2ND-ROUND TEE TIMES
8:20 AM: Romina Gonzalez
8:28 AM: Madigan Murray
8:36 AM: Kate Tran
8:44 AM: Sydney Garber
8:52 AM: Janane Tan
Cougar Point Course No. 1 Hole; All Times Central
 
FOLLOW THE MAVS SOCIALLY
For up-to-date news, photos and videos of the UTA women's golf program, follow us on Twitter: @UTAMavsWGolf, Instagram: @UTAMavsWGolf and Facebook: /UTAMavsWGolf.
 
ABOUT TEXAS RANGERS GOLF CLUB
Opened in February of 2019, the state-of-the-art Texas Rangers Golf Club is the new home of UTA's men's and women's golf programs. The world's only Major League Baseball-branded golf course, TRGC is the result of a $24 million renovation and updated routing of the former Chester W. Ditto Golf Course.
 
The Home of UTA Golf was designed by UTA alumni John Colligan and Trey Kemp of Arlington-based Colligan Golf Design. It features an expansive 23-acre practice area, and a new 33,871-square-foot clubhouse – set to open this spring – will feature a full-service restaurant and bar, covered patio overlooking the golf course, pro shop, locker rooms and numerous rental and event spaces. For more information about TRGC, click here.