ERIE, Colo. – Caleb Hicks made a hole-in-one and Paul Gonzalez came one shot shy of the program's best 36-hole score in history at -9 as the duo led the UT Arlington men's golf team's strong opening-day performance on Monday at the Mark Simpson Colorado Invitational from Colorado National Golf Club.
 
An Arlington native, Hicks pulled a 9 iron on the 181-yard par-3 14th hole in the 2nd round of the day – his third hole after starting on the 12th. Playing downhill and with elevation, Hicks calculated the shot at around 150 yards.
 
"I striped it right at the flag, gave a club twirl and heard it hit the stick," stated Hicks. "But three holes before that I also hit the flagstick and the ball went off the green. So when I didn't see the ball by the hole, in the back of my head I thought it went off the green again.
 
"But then each person in the group looked at each other, and I said 'I think I just dunked it' and sure enough when I got up on the green my ball was in the bottom of the cup," Hicks added.
 
The hole-in-one – the second of Hicks' life, but first in competition – was part a strong round of 68 for Hicks, coming one shot shy of matching his career best. Hicks opened his day with a 71, and he resides at -5 overall and in a tie for 34th place.
 
Gonzalez – tied for 10th with that aforementioned -9 score – opened his day by matching his season-low round of 68 before breaking that mark with a 67 in the 2nd round, one shot shy of equaling his career-best round.
 
Still, Gonzalez's 135 total is tied for the 2nd-best 36-hole mark in program history behind only a 134 from Tyrone Mordt at the 2005 Northwest Collegiate Classic.
 
Competing against four nationally-ranked top-100 ranked teams in the field of 17 opponents, UTA posted a pair of under-par rounds on the par-72, 7,705-yard layout where elevation plays a significant factor.
 
The Mavs shot a 6-under 282 in the 1st round before posting a 7-under 281 in the 2nd round as the 563 total is tied for the 9th best in program history through 36 holes, while the -13 score to par ranks as the 6th best in program history.
 
Boise State blistered the scoreable course in the opening day with incredibly low rounds of 269 and 262 to reside in 1st place at -45, 11 shots clear of 2nd-place Utah. UTA sits in 11th place overall, just one shot back of Denver (-14) and only seven back of host and 6th-place Colorado (-20) entering Tuesday's final round.
 
UTA SCORES
Team
11) UT Arlington: 282-281 (-13)
 
Lineup
T-10) Paul Gonzalez: 68-67 (-9)
T-34) Caleb Hicks: 71-68 (-5)
T-54) Daniel Steinarsson: 73-71 (E)
T-70) Hiroki Miya: 72-75 (+3)
T-94) Kyle Cox: 71-85 (+12)
 
INSIDE THE SCORES
Gonzalez

• Opened his day on the par-4 11th and made birdies on the 14th, 15th, 17th, 2nd and 7th holes to sit at -5 in the 1st round before the lone blemish on his card came on the par-4 10th to sign for the 4-under round.
• In the 2nd round, Gonzalez began with back-to-back birdies on the 11th and 12th holes and added another on the short par-4 17th. He got his card to -5 after only 11 holes, and following a bogey and birdie over the final seven holes Gonzalez posted the best round of his young season.

Hicks

• Commenced his 1st round with a birdie on the par-5 12th. A bogey on the 16th dropped him back to even par, which following another birdie on the 1st and bogey on the 6th is where he remained before rolling in birdies on the 7th and 9th holes. However, Hicks closed his opening 18 with a bogey on the 11th to post the 71.
• The 2nd round for Hicks got underway with consecutive pars before the hole-in-one on the 14th. He then made five pars in a row before a bogey on the 2nd. However, he quickly bounced back and rolled in birdies on three of the next five holes on his way to the 68.

Miya

• Miya sat at +3 through the first eight holes of the 1st round, but the North Texas transfer worked extremely hard to get back to level par for the opening 18 thanks to four birdies over the final 11 holes. One of those came on the 474-yard 10th as UTA's other four members played that hole collectively in +4 in the 1st round.
• In the 2nd round, Miya again got off to a slow start as he was +2 after eight holes, and from there he made two birdies and three bogeys coming in to post the 75.

Steinarsson

• The Iceland product recorded four birdies in his 1st round against three bogeys, but a double on the 10th moved his card from -1 to +1, which is where he finished the opening round.
• Steinarsson opened the 2nd round with three-straight pars before registering a birdie on the 190-yard 16th. A bogey on 18 pushed him back to even for the round, but he got that mistake back with a birdie on the long 2nd, and he carded eight pars, a bogey and a closing birdie on the 12th.

Cox

• Making his season debut as part of the UTA lineup, Cox posted a strong 71 in the 1st round. That score could have been even better as he resided at -3 with four holes to play, but consecutive bogeys on the 10th and 11th brought him back to -1.
• The 2nd round was one to forget for Cox as he made a trio of big numbers and was unable to get any momentum going.

THIS AND THAT
Gonzalez continued his assault on par-5 holes to start the year as he is tied for 2nd in the field of 99 players with a 4.38 average (-5) … Gonzalez led the Mavs with 11 birdies in the first two rounds … Hicks is tied for 4th in the field in par-3 scoring at 2.75 (-2) … the average score for the 1st round was 70.98 and for the 2nd round was 72.06 … two years ago, UTA posted the 2nd-best 54-hole score to par in program history with a blistering -18 to finish in 4th place overall.
 
NEXT UP
UTA will begin the final round with a shotgun start at 9:30 a.m. Central (8:30 local Mountain). Live scoring will once again be available on Golfstat.
 
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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 – which just opened in March of 2021 – features 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.