TUNICA, Miss. – Behind a tournament-best 3-under final round, the UT Arlington men's golf team wrapped up its regular season with a co-championship at the Tunica National Intercollegiate on Tuesday thanks to a birdie on the 54th hole by
Caleb Hicks.
Sitting in 3rd place entering the final round, UTA was one of only two teams in the 12-squad field to post a round below par on Tuesday. That resulted in the Mavericks finishing at 1-under 863 to tie #72 and host Arkansas State atop the leaderboard, and a playoff was not contested as each school brought a trophy back to their respective campus.
With just a couple of holes to play, UTA possessed a two-shot lead at -3. Bogey-free through his first 16 holes and residing at -3 himself heading to the 17th,
Caleb Hicks made a double bogey on the par-4, 468-yard hole, leveling things with Arkansas State on the team leaderboard at -1.
While that was happening,
Daniel Cronje bogeyed 18, moving UTA one stroke behind A-State.
Hiroki Miya followed a few minutes later with an important par on the 18th. Seeing that transpire in front of him, Hicks needed a rebound birdie on the par-4, 443-yard closing hole to tie the Mavs with the Red Wolves at -1.
Not a single player in the field all day had birdied the 18th hole, which played to a stroke average of 4.25. Unfazed, the 5th-year Arlington native stuck his approach to about 10 feet and calmly dropped the only birdie by 71 players to propel the Mavs to their first title of the season.
The tournament championship represents the 34th all-time in program history, and first in just over two years since claiming Sam Houston's Bearkat Invitational on Apr. 13, 2021. It also gives UTA plenty of momentum heading into next weekend's Western Athletic Conference Championship.
UTA SCORES
Team
T-1) UT Arlington: 284-294-285: 863 (-1)
Lineup
T-5) Caleb Hicks: 69-74-70: 213 (-3)
T-17) Cameron Beck: 68-80-70: 218 (+2)
T-22) Zak Jones: 77-71-72: 220 (+4)
T-22) Hiroki Miya: 71-76-73: 220 (+4)
T-30) Daniel Cronje: 76-73-73: 222 (+6)
INSIDE THE SCORES
HICKS (-2, 70)
Hicks birdied the par-5 3rd, par-3 11th and par-5 16th holes before the aforementioned double – the only one of the day by UTA – on the 17th. The T-5 finish is the first top-10 performance of the season – and equals a career 2nd best – for Hicks, who has now delivered four-straight top-25 showings dating back to early March.
BECK (-2, 70)
The freshman bounced back nicely from a 2nd-round 80 to post his second under-par round of the tournament. Thanks to a team-leading six birdies in the final round, Beck raced out to a -4 start through 11 holes before a stretch of three-straight bogeys on holes 12-14. But a birdie on the 15th moved him back to -2, and three-consecutive pars to close out his round gave the freshman his first top-20 showing in an NCAA event and his best finish in a 54-hole tournament by 18 strokes.
JONES (E, 72)
After six-straight pars to begin his round, Jones followed with three birdies and three bogeys in a 10-hole stretch before closing pars on 17 and 18 to get into the clubhouse at even par. The 220 total is the graduate student's 3rd-best 54-hole performance of the season.
MIYA (+1, 73)
An eagle on the 3rd was sandwiched between a stretch of four bogeys in six holes, and Miya made the turn at +2. However, settle-down birdies on the 11th and par-5 14th got him back to level par for the day before one bogey coming in resulted in the round of 73.
CRONJE (+1, 73)
A pair of birdies on the front side produced a 1-under 35 at the turn. After consecutive bogeys on the 12th and 13th holes, the South African birdied 14 to get back to even for the day before the unfortunate bogey at the last. The round concluded an extremely consistent regular season for Cronje as all 29 of his rounds have been a score of 78 or less.
THIS AND THAT
UTA finished 2nd in the field in both par-3 scoring (+10, 3.17) and par-4 scoring (+22, 4.15) … the Mavs were 3rd in par-5 scoring (-19, 4.68) … UTA's three eagles were tied with North Alabama for the most, and their 51 birdies were equal with UNA and one behind Southeastern Louisiana (52) for the most this week … Hicks tied for 2nd individually in par-3 scoring (E, 3.00) and matched for 5th in par-5 scoring (-7, 4.42) … Beck was T-5 in par-4 scoring (+1, 4.03), and his 13 birdies were tied for the 4th most in the field … Hicks made 38 pars to represent a tie for the 5th most.
NEXT UP
The Mavs will head to the WAC Championship at Boulder Creek Golf Club in Boulder City, Nev., Apr. 28-30. This will be the first time UTA competes in the WAC Championship since their only other year in the league in 2012-13 when it placed 2nd.
Gallery: (4-18-2023) Men's Golf @ Tunica National
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.
FOLLOW THE MAVS SOCIALLY
For up-to-date news, photos and videos of the UTA men's golf program, follow us on Twitter: @UTAMavsMGolf, Instagram: @UTAMavsMGolf and Facebook: /UTAMavsMGolf.
