KERRVILLE, Texas – Daniel Cronje posted the best finish of his career to lead the UT Arlington men's golf team on the final day of The Big Texan Invitational on Tuesday from Comanche Trace GC.
 
Cronje turned in his second even-par round of 72 for the week in extremely challenging conditions to finish at +1 and in a tie for 5th place. Entering this week, the junior's best-career finish was a solo 13th to open his 2020 campaign.
 
Making Cronje's round even more impressive was that it tied for the 2nd-best in the field on Tuesday. Just one player in the 65-person tournament broke par as the average score was 78.75 – nearly five shots higher than the 2nd round.
 
Deviating from its standard team lineup, UTA utilized almost an entirely new quintet this week, and the Mavericks finished in 12th place following a final-round 313.
 
UTA SCORES
Team
12) UT Arlington: 304-309-313: 926 (+62)
 
Lineup
T-5) Daniel Cronje: 73-72-72: 217 (+1)
T-51) Alberto Menacho: 72-79-84: 235 (+19)
T-55) Trent Griessel: 79-78-81: 238 (+22)
60) Andrew Lindberg: 80-80-80: 240 (+24)
65) Jacob Massengale: 85-85-80: 250 (+34)
 
INSIDE THE SCORES
Cronje

• Starting on the 13th in the shotgun format, Cronje birdied back-to-back holes on 15 and 16 and jumped to the front side at -2. He gave both of those back before carding an eagle on the par-5 4th to get back to 2-under for the day. Another birdie on the 7th moved him to -3, but a few mistakes coming in led to his second-straight level-par round.

Menacho

• His lone birdie of the day came on the par-5 18th.

Griessel

• Rolled in a pair of birdies on the aforementioned 18th and also had UTA's lone birdie of the round on the par-5 13th.

Lindberg

• Led the Mavs with four birdies in the final round. He was even on his day with seven holes to play, but finished on a closing bogey stretch only interrupted by his fourth, and final, birdie.

Massengale

• Carded his only birdie on the par-5 4th, and similar to Lindberg got off to a decent start as he also was even after eight holes, but had a tough closing stretch.

THIS AND THAT
Cronje tied for 6th in the field in par-5 scoring (4.58) for the three rounds, tied for 8th in par-4 scoring (4.10) and tied for 9th in total pars (34) … Cronje led the Mavs in birdies with nine … the scoring average for the field for the three rounds was 76.10 … the par-4, 437-yard 11th hole in the final round did not yield a single birdie, produced more bogeys (27), doubles (nine) and others (six) combined than pars (23) and played more than a shot over par at 5.02.
 
NEXT UP
UTA will have a week off before returning to action at Seattle University's Redhawk Invitational Apr. 4-5 from Chambers Bay – site of the 2015 U.S. Open won by Jordan Spieth.
 
FOLLOW THE MAVS SOCIALLY
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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.