Monthly Archives: June 2021

The 2021 Utah Junior PGA Championship is sending two boys and two girls from the 16-18 divisions at Soldier Hollow Golf Course, held on June 14-15, to the Boys Junior PGA Championship at Kearney Hills Golf Links in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Girls Junior PGA Championship at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky.

The final round was a day of playoffs and extra holes to determine exemptions and champions.

In the boy’s qualifying division, Peter Kim and Parker Bunn stole the show, both going low to vault their way up the leaderboard.

Kim’s final-round 63 and Bunn’s 64 placed them tied for the lead at 11-under for the 36-hole championship. Though both earned the available exemptions, it took an extra four holes to determine a winner.

On the fourth playoff hole, Soldier Hollow’s uphill, par-four fourth hole, Kim’s nearly 400-yard drive left him with a pin-high chip, which he got up-and-down for birdie to win.

“it means a lot, I’ve won two tournaments in two weeks, and I’ve been in a little drought with wins, so it feels good to be back.”

Alternates for the Boys Junior PGA Championship are Jackson Rhees, who finished third at 7-under and KJ Ofahengaue and Carter Frisby who both finished 6-under for the event. The boy’s championship will be held July 12-15.

In the girl’s qualifying division, there was a three-way tie at the top after the first round between Ali Mulhall, Berlin Long and Sunbin Seo – all finishing at (-4) 68.

It was Mulhall who would separate herself from the field with a (-3) 69 in the final round to get to 7-under and win the Utah Junior PGA Championship.

“I was down heading to the back nine, but got it back. I made birdie on 10 and then eagled 16 and 18.”

Mulhall, who won her age division in the National Drive, Chip and Putt Championship at Augusta National back in April, will be adding to her already impressive resume when she competes at Valhalla on July 27-30.

A three-hole playoff was needed between Long and Seo, tied at 3-under, for the second exemption spot.

Long won the playoff with a par on the par-three third hole to earn her way into the Girls Junior PGA Championship.

“This was one of my biggest goals this season, to qualify for this tournament. I was able to go a couple of years ago and it was really fun. I’m excited to be able to qualify for it again.”

The extra holes didn’t stop with the older divisions, in the Girls 13-15 division, Kate Walker and Alyssa Meadows finished tied at 15-over after 36 holes.

A par on the first playoff hole was all that was required for Walker. She shot rounds of 82-77 to maximize her trip up from her home-town St. George. She won her division in last week’s Glenmoor Major as well.

Whitni Johnson finished third at (+34) 84-94.

In the Boys 13-15 division, a final-round 69 from Chase Burton was more than enough to come from behind and win. With rounds of (-2) 73-69, he won by three over Max Landon (+1) and Carter Papke and Will Olson who tied for third at 2-over.

Thank you to Soldier Hollow Head Professional Chris Newson and his staff for hosting the 2021 Utah PGA Junior Championship and best of luck to our qualifiers in Kentucky.

Click HERE for results.

Click HERE for tournament photos.

The 2021 Utah PGA Junior Series Majors season has arrived and the Glenmoor Major on June 11-12 at Glenmoor Golf Club didn’t disappoint with some final-round heroics.

With two Utah State Amateur exemption spots on the line for the Boys 15-18 division, Jackson Mauss shared the first-round lead with Rawson Hardy with a (-4) 68.

 However, every golfer knows that it doesn’t get real until the back nine of the final round in a Major and Mauss took that to heart with six birdies. A 30 on the back nine led to a (-7) 65 – 11-under for the tournament to take the top spot.

“It feels really good to win the Glenmoore Major,” Mauss said. “This was a big win for me. I always love to play at Glenmoore because of the great greens and the course is always in great shape.

“On the back nine, I hit eight of 9 greens and my putter caught fire. I only had 12 putts.”

It was KJ Ofahengaue that would claim the second State Am exemption, and win the Boys 15-16 Division, firing a (-5) 70-69 for the tournament.

“It feels great to get into the State Am,” Ofahengaue said. “I can’t wait to play. I’d like to qualify for match play this year and make a good run at it.”

In the Boys 13-14 division, the importance of those final-9 holes in a Major rang true again, as Max Landon finished eagle, par, birdie, eagle – to not only claim his third eagle of the day, but to win the division by three with rounds of (-2) 73-69.

“I knew what I needed to do the last couple of holes so I played pretty aggressive and tried to make some putts,” Landon said. It’s nice to win and It’s good to qualify for Promontory.”

The boys’ divisions didn’t take all the final-round heroics, in the Girls 17-18 Division, Millie Terrion started the final round two-strokes behind first-round leader Cheyenne Hansen and would go on to win by four with a final-round (-1) 71.

“I definitely figured out the greens a lot more today,” Terrion said. “I played last year in the Promontory event so it’s good to qualify again. I’m looking forward to it.”

Not only did Terrion come from behind to win her age division, she also won the Girls Majors Points division by one stroke.

It was Ashley Lam and Ellie DeMond who led the girls after round one with 74s but it would be Lam who would win the Girl’s 15-16 division with a final round 76.

“It means a lot to win since I’ve been playing a lot this week,” Lam said.

And to round out the Girl’s divisions was St. George resident Kate Walker that won the Girls 13-14 Division with rounds of (+12) 76-80, winning by 27 strokes.

“My putting and chipping were very good,” Walker said. “The win shows that I’ve worked hard.”

That’s a wrap for the first Utah PGA Junior Series Major of the season. With qualifying spots starting to fill in for the season-ending Promontory Major Championship, we look on to the Davis Valley View PGA Junior Major on Jun 30 – July 1.

A big thank you to PGA Head Pro Darci Olsen and the entire Glenmoor staff for hosting our championship with excellent tournament conditions and hospitality.

Results HERE

Tournament photos HERE

Davis County Director of Golf and Utah PGA Honorary President Dustin Volk won the 2021 Utah Section PGA Match Play Championship at Hubbard Golf Course at Hill Air Force Base on May 26^th, earning a career “Hat Trick” winning it for the third time.

Volk may have had the most challenging road to victory within this year’s bracket, facing Chris Moody, Tommy Sharp and Zach Johnson his last three matches. From 2012 to 2019, the Utah PGA Player of the Year consisted of those three PGA Professionals. Volk won the honor in 2011.

“I kind of got a little emotional, to be honest,” Volk said. “I’m grateful for my friends I compete against – Zach in particular, we had a good hug on our last hole. Just grateful for relationships and friendships.

“I was just trying to have fun. To be honest, the first couple matches I was tinkering with my swing and trying to find something. I made the turn with Moody and quit trying to tinker and just started to play. It freed me up.”

With a “what do I have to lose?” attitude, Volk found momentum that would carry him through three heavy-weight matches until he was holding the trophy at the end.

With a 2&1 victory against Moody, Volk found himself four-down after five holes in the semifinal match with Sharp. “I was a little down in the dumps but with that mindset, I got back in the match. I don’t have anything to lose, that’s how I’m looking at playing now.”

Volk won the semifinal match one-up against Sharp.

“I was pretty happy how I held it together being four down after five and winning the match, that was my best of the week. I won a couple holes, he clearly gave me a couple, but you take what you get and have a good attitude.”

Playing against a friend and co-worker in Zach Johnson in the championship match, Volk describes as “Awkwardly good.”

“We’re buddies and we work together. We played the match in 2 hours 20 minutes. Neither of us were playing awesome, we weren’t 9-under par, but it got to a point where I’m a couple up and we’re going into our 14^th hole and he hit it out of bounds, which isn’t hard to do there. That got me three-up with four to go. It was just true match play, I just didn’t make any huge mistakes.”

Volk won on their 17^th hole 2&1.

“It means a lot,” he said about winning. “With all the changes and the tense times, it means a lot. Hopefully winning will breed the desire to play more.

“It was fun to have some of those nerves in all of those matches. I could feel the pressure that I hadn’t felt for a few years.” Volk previously won the Utah PGA Match Play Championship in 2006 and 2010.

Click HERE for the 2021 Utah PGA Match Play Bracket.

Photos: Garrit Johnson / Fairways Media