MONTGOMERY, Texas – Behind a pair of 73s from Arran Kanth and a season-low 69 from Shoichiro Kato, the UT Arlington men's golf team is in 6th place overall after the opening 36 holes at the Bentwater Intercollegiate on Monday.
 
Kanth was UTA's most consistent player over the course of both rounds as he didn't make anything worse than a bogey all day, and finds himself in a tie for 12th place at +4 entering Tuesday's final round.
 
As for Kato, the junior rebounded from an opening-round 80 with a 2-under 69 in the 2nd round on the Bentwater Yacht & Country Club's Miller Course. That moved him 32 spots up the leaderboard – the largest improvement of anyone in the 81-player field.
 
In the 1st round, every UTA player got off to an inauspicious start as all five either bogeyed or double bogeyed their respective opening holes in the shotgun format. That, unfortunately, set the tone for difficult opening round of the day with a 306 (+22).
 
However, the Mavericks bounced back with the 3rd-best round in the field for their second 18 with a 287 (+3) to propel four spots on the leaderboard and into sole possession of 6th place at +25, only one shot back of UTSA and eight of 3rd place. Host Sam Houston leads the 13-team tournament at +6, five strokes clear of Western Kentucky (+11).
 
LINEUP
T-12) Arran Kanth: 73-73: 146 (+4)
T-31) Shoichiro Kato: 80-69: 149 (+7)
T-36) Daniel Cronje: 77-73: 150 (+8)
T-50) Hiroki Miya: 76-77: 153 (+11)
T-72) Ethan Miller: 82-72: 154 (+12)
 
TEAM
6) UTA: 306-287: 595 (+25)
 
INSIDE THE SCORES
KANTH
1st Round: In the shotgun format, Kanth started on the 9th hole with a bogey and then recorded pars on 12 of the next 13 holes with a birdie on the par-4 15th breaking up the stretch and getting him to even par. However back-to-back bogeys on the 5th and 6th holes before two more closing pars produced the 73.
 
2nd Round: He started again with a bogey, but got it immediately back with a birdie on the par-5 10th hole. Kanth made two more bogeys before making the turn, and rolled in a birdie on the par-5 1st before giving it back with a bogey on the 2nd hole and closing with six-straight pars to post another 73.

KATO
1st Round: Starting on the 10th hole, he played his first seven holes in +7 before settling down and playing the final 11 holes in +2, rolling in his lone birdie on the par-4 5th.
 
2nd Round: Kato bogeyed each of his first two holes, but a stretch of three-straight birdies from holes 12-14 got him into red figures at -1. A bogey on the 16th leveled his scorecard, which is where he remained making the turn to the course's front side. There, he registered birdies on the 1st, 6th and 7th holes to get to -3 before a bogey on the 8th and par on the 9th resulted in the 69.
 
CRONJE
1st Round: An uphill climb is what Cronje faced as he opened his day going double-bogey-double and was +5 after only three holes. However, the South African played his final 15 holes in only +1 thanks to nothing higher than a bogey the rest of the way and a pair of birdies on the 12th and 5th holes.
 
2nd Round: He got off to a +4 start through nine holes after starting on the 8th hole, but over his closing nine holes he was -2. That stretch included four birdies, with the only hiccup being a double bogey on the par-4, 475-yard 6th hole.

MIYA
1st Round: Opened on the 8th hole with a bogey, but then parred nine-straight holes. Sitting at +1 more than halfway through his round, Miya ran into trouble with a triple bogey on 18 and a double bogey on the 1st and despite two birdies over his final four holes signed for +5 round.
 
2nd Round: He made nothing worse than a bogey, but was unable to card any birdies. Six bogeys and 12 pars later the New Zealand native signed for a 77.
 
MILLER
1st Round: A difficult opening round included three doubles or worse as the grad transfer wasn't able to record any birdies en route to an 82.
 
2nd Round: Starting on the 10th hole, he notched two birdies and two bogeys on his initial nine holes, and made just two bogeys and a birdie coming in for the 72 – a 10-stroke improvement from the morning to the afternoon.
 
THIS AND THAT
After making nine combined double bogeys or triple bogeys in the 1st round, UTA made just one in the 2nd round … Kato's 69 was just the second round in the 60s by a Mav through five spring rounds … as a team, UTA's 3.24 par-3 scoring average and 4.22 par-4 scoring average are both the 4th best in the field … Kanth's 3.00 par-3 scoring average is tied for the 3rd best among all players, and his 26 pars are the 3rd most.
 
NEXT UP
The final round will take place Tuesday morning with a shotgun start at 8 a.m. between holes 4-7. Live scoring will be available via 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 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.