KINGSBURG, Calif. – Alberto Menacho registered a hole-in-one and paced the UT Arlington men's golf team with a final-round 69 on Tuesday at Fresno State's Nick Watney Invitational from Kings River Golf & Country Club.
Competing as a member of the team lineup for just the second time in his career, senior Menacho registered his hole-in-one on the 15th hole – only his second hole of the day after starting with a bogey on the 14th in the shotgun format. Menacho delivered a dart with a six iron on the 202-yard hole, checking up less than five inches in front of the pin and dropping in for his second-career ace; the first came in a 2019 competition in his native Peru.
"There was no wind so it was a perfect, stock 6 iron for me," Menacho recalled. "The pin was in the middle-right, so I tried to start it in the middle of the green with a slight fade. I hit it as good as I could, but the sun was directly in our faces so no one in the group saw the ball go in. I tried to look through the range finder to locate the ball, but couldn't see it. I didn't think it went in, but once we approached the green the scorer there said 'hey, congrats, you just made a hole in one!'
That ace – which registered as UTA's fourth eagle of the tournament to tie for the most in the field – spearheaded a 2-under round for Menacho to lead the Mavericks in the final round of their season-opening event.
As a team, UTA moved up one spot from its overnight position and finished in a tie for 12th place at +18 (870) following a final-round +5 (289). Long Beach State (-30, 822) held on to win by five strokes over Cal State Fullerton (-25, 827). Individually,
Caleb Hicks wrapped up as UTA's low man for the week in a tie for 20th at 1-under 212 after a closing 73.
UTA SCORES
Team
T-12) UT Arlington: 292-289-289: 870 (+18)
Lineup
T-20) Caleb Hicks: 69-70-73: 212 (-1)
T-34) Hiroki Miya: 72-70-72: 214 (+1)
T-48) Alberto Menacho: 75-73-69: 217 (+4)
T-84) Daniel Cronje: 77-76-76: 229 (+16)
T-86) Zak Jones: 76-79-75: 230 (+17)
INSIDE THE SCORES
HICKS
An opening birdie on the par-4 13th got Hicks' round off to a fast start, but unfortunately for him it would be his only one of the day. Over the next 17 holes, the Arlington native put 14 pars on his scorecard along with a trio of squares and signed for a 73.
MIYA
Starting on the par-4 14th, Miya opened with a double bogey but got both of those strokes back over the next five holes with a pair of birdies. From there, the New Zealander carded 11 pars over his final 12 holes with the lone blemish coming as a result of a bogey to post a 1-over 72.
MENACHO
Following the aforementioned hole-in-one, Menacho played the ensuing 12 holes in level par (one birdie, one bogey) and remained at -1 with four holes to play. That's when things got real interesting as he birdied the par-4 10th, but made a double bogey on the par-4 11th before bouncing back with consecutive birdies on the par-3 12th and par-4 13th to post just his second-career round in the 60s.
CRONJE
Cronje registered a pair of birdies and had his card at -1 through six holes, but couldn't maintain that level of play with a stretch of bogeys and then a closing double on the nearly 500-yard par-4 14th to post 76.
JONES
Jones made nothing worse than a bogey – of which he had five – but only carded one birdie en route to his 75.
THIS AND THAT
UTA finished 2nd in the field in par-5 scoring average for the tournament (-18, 4.60) … the Mavs tied Cal State Fullerton for the most eagles in the field … Menacho tied for 7th in par-3 scoring over the 54 holes at -2 (2.83) … Hicks tied for the individual lead in eagles with two and tied for the 5th-most pars with 38 … this was the latest start to a season for UTA since the 2016-17 campaign … it was the first time in the 58-year history of Fresno State hosting a home tournament that the event was contested at Kings River Golf & Country Club.
NEXT UP
With the late start to the season, UTA will be slated with a very busy October with four tournaments. First up, the Mavs head to Dallas for SMU's Trinity Forest Invitational this coming Sunday-Tuesday, Oct. 2-4.
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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.
