WACO, Texas – Led by a career-best T-3 finish by
Zak Jones, the UT Arlington men's golf team wrapped up its fall season on Monday with its best showing of the year as the Mavericks posted a solo 3rd at Baylor's 36-hole Bear Brawl from Ridgewood Country Club.
Jones posted rounds of 3-under 67 – a career low – and 2-over 72 to sign for a 1-under total and just one shot behind the medalist position. Still, the grad student's T-3 performance betters his previous career-best placement of T-7 which came earlier this month at the Temptest Collegiate.
Overall, the Mavericks secured their best placement on a leaderboard in five fall events with a 585 (+25) total, surpassing a 7th which occurred at the aforementioned Temptest Collegiate. Baylor won its home event with a 558 (-2) total, while Oral Roberts was 2nd (575, +15).
UTA wrapped up the one-day tournament as the highest-ranking Western Athletic Conference member in the nine-team field, slotting in ahead of UT Rio Grande Valley (5th, 588), Tarleton (7th, 595) and Stephen F. Austin (8th, 603).
UTA SCORES
Team
3) UT Arlington: 292-293: 585 (+25)
Lineup
T-3) Zak Jones: 67-72: 139 (-1)
T-13) Hiroki Miya: 74-72: 146 (+6)
T-20) Daniel Cronje: 74-74: 148 (+8)
T-32) Caleb Hicks: 77-75: 152 (+12)
T-43) Cameron Beck: 86-79: 165 (+25)
INSIDE THE SCORES
JONES
Jones held the outright lead after the 1st round at -3 thanks to six birdies. The Spring, Texas, native opened his morning with a birdie on the 10th hole and made three more over his first nine holes with his lone hiccup coming as a result of a bogey on the par-3 12th. A double bogey on the par-3 3rd moved his card to -1 before Jones finished his opening round with birdies on the 8th and 9th.
In the 2nd round, Jones again began with a birdie to get to -4 and extend his overall lead, but unfortunately that momentum was derailed with bogeys on four of his next six holes. That moved him all the way back to even par before a pair of birdies to close the backside 9 propelled Jones to -2 overall. But both of those were returned with bogeys on two of the ensuing three holes in advance of his final birdie on the par-3 5th.
MIYA
Aside from a stretch of five-straight bogeys on holes 14-18, Miya had a solid opening round. He started on the 7th hole and commenced with a bogey on the par 4 before getting that back with a birdie on the par-4 13th. After the stretch of bogeys, the New Zealander notched a birdie on the 3rd to conclude his scoring for the 1st round.
His 2nd round featured three birdies, three bogeys and a double. That double came on the par-4 8th, and after that second hole of the round his scorecard remained at either +1 or +2 the entire final 16 holes.
CRONJE
Cronje sat at +4 through his first seven holes of the 1st round, but held it together to play the final 11 holes in level par thanks to a pair of birdies and bogeys to post the 74.
The South African's 2nd round included 15 pars, but he unfortunately didn't make any birdies. A pair of bogeys and a double on the par-3 3rd – the same one Jones also doubled – were the only shapes on his card for the final 18.
HICKS
Hicks struggled to get much going in either of his rounds as his 1st round saw just one birdie en route to a 77. In the Arlington native's 2nd round, he registered three birdies and resided at -1 early on, but a quintet of bogeys and a double were too much to overcome on his way to the 75.
BECK
Making his collegiate debut, Beck got off to a slow start and never recovered. His 2nd round was a seven-shot improvement from his 1st round (79 compared with 86), and the freshman's first-career birdie occurred on the par-5, 415-yard 18th.
THIS AND THAT
The par-70 layout played to a yardage of just 6,641, but featured plenty of elevation changes … Jones had 10 birdies over the two rounds to tie for the 2nd most in the field … Cronje's 26 pars were also the 2nd most in the 44-player field … Jones finished 2nd in par-5 scoring (4.25, -3) and tied for 4th in par-4 scoring (3.92, -2) … Miya's 3.13 (+1) average on the par 3s was tied for the 5th best.
NEXT UP
UTA will now have nearly a four-month break from competitive action before returning to the course when it tees off the spring season Feb. 20-21 at the Bayou City Collegiate Classic from Westwood Golf Club in Houston.
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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 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.
