CANCUN, Mexico – On the strength of Arran Kanth's season-low-tying 68, the UT Arlington men's golf team had a 21-shot improvement on Tuesday in the 2nd round from a wind-impacted opening round at the Los Vaqueros Intercollegiate from Playa Paraiso Golf Club.
 
Monday featured winds which sat at 25 mph and gusted upward of 50 mph, but more benign conditions on Tuesday allowed the Mavericks to take advantage and jump from 7th place into a tie for 5th on the overall leaderboard with a 294 (+6) – an improvement from a season-high 315 in the 1st round.
 
The Mavs (609, +33) are just one shot out of 4th place and 10 back of 3rd place entering Wednesday's final round thanks in large part to Kanth, who fired the 3rd-best round of the tournament and in the process matched a season low set in the fall.
 
With just seven holes to play, the grad transfer sat at +1 before carding five-straight birdies from holes 3-7 en route to a brilliant 4-under showing which has only been bested so far this week by a pair of 67s from tournament-leading VCU (587, +11).
 
For his efforts, Kanth recorded the largest jump on the leaderboard in the 54-player field as he moved up from a T-41 position into a T-15 spot and only five shots out of a top-5 showing.
 
UTA SCORES
T-15) Daniel Cronje: 75-76: 151 (+7)
T-15) Arran Kanth: 83-68: 151 (+7)
T-23) Ethan Miller: 80-73: 153 (+9)
T-29) Hiroki Miya: 77-77: 154: (+10)
49) Diego Nuno: 84-82: 166 (+22)
T-5) UTA: 315-294: 609 (+33)
 
T-23) Shoichiro Kato*: 75-78: 153 (+9)
* Individual
 
INSIDE THE SCORES
CRONJE
Like the rest of his teammates, Cronje began his morning on the 10th hole and raced out to a 3-under start through five holes. Bogeys on holes 15 and 17 dropped him to -1, but a birdie on the 18th resulted in a 2-under 34 score going out. However, a triple bogey on the par-5 5th and a trio of bogeys coming in yielded his 76.
 
KANTH
Kanth was a pedestrian +1 making the turn to the front side after a double bogey on the par-3 12th and a birdie on the par-5 14th. But that all changed on the aforementioned 3rd hole with a birdie – one of only five all round by the field on the par-4, 354-yard hole – and that spearheaded the torrid stretch. When he stepped to the 8th tee box he stood at -4, but a bogey on the par-4, 463-yard hole – which played as the hardest in the 2nd round at nearly a shot over par – dropped him to -3 before a resilient bounce-back birdie on the par-4 9th produced the 68.
 
MILLER
Miller was the only UTA member to not record anything higher than a bogey in the 2nd round, and in the process moved up the leaderboard eight spots. He recorded a bogey and a birdie each on his front side – the course's back – and dropped two more shots on the front side before a birdie on the par-5 7th settled his day with a very respectable 1-over 73 – 2½ shots better than the field average.
 
MIYA
Miya didn't have anything on his card worse than a bogey until his 17th hole, the course's 8th, when he made a quadruple bogey. The redshirt senior had rolled in three birdies against four bogeys and resided at +1 walking off the 7th green before the quad on the next hole resulted in a second-straight 77.
 
NUNO
Competing in just his second collegiate round, true freshman Nuno – who arrived at UTA in advance of the spring semester – opened the day at +5 through only three holes. He bounced back nicely with birdies on the 15th and 18th to get back to +3 at the turn, but a 43 coming in sent him to a closing 82.
 
KATO
Competing as an individual, Kato began his day with a birdie on the par-4, 424-yard 10th. However, a triple bogey on the 11th followed by another triple bogey on the 15th derailed what was an otherwise really clean card as the junior transfer recorded 14 pars and just a single bogey on the par-5 5th to produce the 78.
 
THIS AND THAT
Kanth has 10 birdies through the two rounds, which are the 2nd most in the field (12) … Kanth and Cronje are both tied for the 2nd-best par-4 scoring average in the field at exactly 4.00 (E) … Kato's 3.13 (+1) par-3 scoring average is tied for 4th, while Miya's 4.63 (-3) par-5 scoring average is tied for 5th … the field scoring average was 75.56, nearly 3½ shots better than the 79.0 average in Monday's 1st round.
 
NEXT UP
The final round will begin with a shotgun start at 7:30 a.m. CT (8:30 local ET). UTA will commence action between holes 10-14 and will be paired with host and fellow WAC member UT Rio Grande Valley and Wichita State.
 
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 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.