One of her current BYU teammates joined Adeline Wach in the final group and their coach watched them play Tuesday. Yet the triple-digit temperature made the setting a little different than the last time they got together.
They were not in Ireland anymore.
The Cougars’ two-week, 12-round tour got them accustomed to 70-degree weather, unlike the summer heat in Provo. “You know you’re coming back to it,” Wach said with a laugh and a shrug. “You can’t change the weather. You just deal with it.”
Riding around Timpanogos Golf Club in a cart and wearing a sleeveless shirt were Wach’s concession to the conditions, and she thrived. She shot 67-66 for an 11-under-par total and a six-stroke victory over former BYU teammate Kerstin Ngakuru in the 8th Siegfried & Jensen Utah Women’s Open.
Ngakuru (71-68) earned $2,000 as the low professional.She credited Wach for motivating her in an effort to stay ahead of former Weber State golfer Kiseyla Salcedo (73-68) in the pro competition.
“Oh, man. She stayed consistent the whole day,” Ngakuru said of the former Adeline Anderson, the 2022 Women’s State Amateur runner-up. “It really pushed me, honestly, to keep up with her. It’s really impressive for her to go low one day and go even lower the next.“
Wach isthe sixth straight collegiate winner of the Utah Women’s Open, joining BYU’s Ngakuru (the former Kerstin Fotu) and Lila Galea’i on that list. She tied the tournament record set by former BYU assistant coach Lea Garner, a pro who won the first two events in 2017 and ‘2018 on this course, prior to Timpanogos’ extensive renovation.
Having taken a four-stroke lead into the final round,Wach was never really threatened. She liked the way she approached the day, saying, “I’ve been working a lot on sticking to my process, no matter what. And so I felt like I had to do that a little deeper and kind of feel my process a little bit more, because it’s hard to follow up a good round.”
The native of Southern California punctuated Tuesday’s round with an eagle on the par-4 No. 14, a hole that was set up as driveable. Her conservative strategy worked wonderfully. After a 6-iron shot off the tee, she pitched in from 67 yards. “When I hit it, I thought it was super long, but I looked up and everyone’s saying it went in,” she said. “So that was fun.”
Devin Dehlin, Executive Director of the Utah Section PGA, observed during the awards presentation, “Looks like we’ve got a lot of blue in the house.”
BYU golfer Whitney Banz (71-70) contributed to that picture, tying for third place overall with Salcedo, who was recently named an assistant coach at Fort Lewis College in Colorado.
Wach and her teammates missed this year’s Women’s State Amateur while in Ireland, but she’ll be a contender in next week’s Utah Women’s Stroke Play Championship at Mountain Dell GC. And then she’ll use her winner’s exemption into the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open at Riverside Country Club, where Ngakuru became the first woman to make the 36-hole cut in 2021, playing as a collegian.
Wach credited BYU coach Carrie Roberts for “working with me all summer,” helping her become more steady.
As for Ngakuru, this was her last tournament prior to LPGA Tour qualifying, starting Aug. 22 in Rancho Mirage, California. “I see things paying off and, mentally, it feels like I’m in a good place,” she said after making 11 birdies in two days.
Women’s State Amateur runner-up Ali Mulhall (73-69), who placed fifth, will join Ngakuru in the LPGA pursuit. She’ll remain an amateur through the first two stages, though.
Other notable performances included a closing 69 for Lone Peak High School senior Adley Nelson, who finished sixth, and eight birdies in two rounds by Garner, who tied for seventh with Utah PGA Professional Haley Sturgeon. Garner’s $1,150 check boosted her Utah Women’s Open career earnings to more than $13,000.
Many thanks to Timpanogos Golf Club PGA Professional Brett Watson and his staff for hosting the 8th annual Seigfied and Jensen Utah Women’s Open.
Utah Women’s Open recap story written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photos by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson.