MONTGOMERY, Texas – On the strength of a pair of even-par rounds of 71 by Daniel Cronje and Arran Kanth, the UT Arlington men's golf team registered a season-best finish thanks to a final-round 289 which moved the Mavericks into sole possession of 5th place.
 
Kanth led the Mavs for the second-straight tournament to begin the spring slate as the grad transfer finished the three rounds tied for 8th at +4 thanks to a closing 18 which featured two birdies and two bogeys.
 
As for UTA, the Mavs bettered their previous-best leaderboard placement of 6th in Mexico last week with the aforementioned 5th-place showing at Bentwater Yacht & Country Club's Miller Course thanks to the +5 final round.
 
After opening the tournament with a +22 1st round, UTA collectively played the final two rounds in +8 to jump from T-10 after round 1 to 6th thru 36 holes and 5th following action on Tuesday outside Houston.
 
Host Sam Houston won the 13-team event at +3, 17 shots clear of runner-up Western Kentucky.
 
LINEUP
T-8) Arran Kanth: 73-73-71: 217 (+4)
T-26) Daniel Cronje: 77-73-71: 221 (+8)
T-36) Shoichiro Kato: 80-69-75: 224 (+11)
T-41) Hiroki Miya: 76-77-72: 225 (+12)
T-54) Ethan Miller: 82-72-75: 229 (+16)
 
TEAM
5) UTA: 306-287-289: 882 (+30)
 
INSIDE THE SCORES
KANTH
In the shotgun format he started on the par-3 4th hole with a bogey and made another bogey two holes later to sit at +2 after three holes. However, the Englishman settled down nicely on the 6,788-yard track with pars on all of his remaining holes except two, which he birdied – the par-4 15th and par-5 1st.
 
CRONJE
Cronje got off to the opposite start as Kanth as he birdied his first two holes of the day – the 6th and 7th – and added another circle on the par-3 11th to move to -3 after only six holes. He would, similar to Kanth, par 10 of his closing 12 holes with the lone hiccups being a bogey on 13 and double bogey on 17.
 
KATO
A roller coaster of a round for Kato featured a team-most four birdies, but also a team-high-tying two doubles bogeys and four bogeys. All told, it produced a final round of 75.
 
MIYA
Miya joined Kanth as the only Mavs who did not have anything higher than a bogey on their card in the final round. The New Zealand native resided at +3 with five holes remaining, but rolled in birdies on the 1st and par-4 5th holes to conclude his day with a 72.
 
MILLER
Miller bookended his round with an opening double bogey on the par-4 7th and a closing double bogey on the par-4 6th. In-between he made two bogeys and two birdies consecutively on the 1st and 2nd holes to sign for the round of 75.
 
THIS AND THAT
Kanth ranked 2nd in the field of more than 80 players in pars for the week with 40 … he also tied for 6th in par-3 scoring average (3.07) … as a team, UTA's 164 total pars were the 3rd most in the field, and its 36 birdies tied for the 4th highest … the Mavs posted a 3.25 par-3 scoring average and a 4.21 par-4 scoring average to both rank 5th out of 13 teams.
 
NEXT UP
UTA will have a month break before returning to action at the Grand Canyon Invitational hosted at the GCU Golf Course in Phoenix Mar. 12-13.
 
FOLLOW THE MAVS SOCIALLY
For up-to-date news, photos and videos of the UTA men's golf program, follow us on X: @UTAMavsMGolf, Instagram: @UTAMavsMGolf and Facebook: /UTAMavsMGolf.
 
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.