As Jackson Shelley rolled in an eagle putt from the 14th-hole fringe, his external excitement remained pretty subdued. Internally though, the Skyline senior’s mind was screaming, ‘let’s go.’
Shelley’s eagle helped him increase his lead at the 5A state championships to four strokes, and he made the lead hold up down the stretch to claim 5A medalist for the second time after winning it as a sophomore.
Shelley finished with 13-under, 131 at Glen Eagle Golf Course in Syracuse to finish four strokes ahead of Salem Hills Hills freshman Carson Peterson. It was Peterson’s strong play that made Shelley gamble a bit and take out his driver and go for the green on No. 14 instead of laying up. He felt like he needed a jolt of momentum.
The older Shelley was the catalyst to the success.
“I just can’t say enough about Jackson. He can do everything with the golf club in his hand. I’ve never had anybody hit it as far as he hits it, and he also has soft touch, he can do everything,” said James.
In many ways, Skyline won the tournament with its terrific opening round on Monday. It shot a 274 and held a 13-stroke lead heading into Tuesday’s final round, where it shot a 279. Olympus and Woods Cross each had slight better scores on Tuesday, but the gap was too much to overcome.
“We were still trying to attack and we didn’t try and play less aggressively, but yesterday we were hot, guys were making shots, but today we played a little smarter, ” said James. “Utah golf is getting so good now, there are so many guys now.”
Shelley in particular was red hot on Monday as he shot a 9-under 63 with seven birdies and two eagles. He was 6-under through the first six holes.
“I played well, I hit a lot of good tee balls, and I was playing, so it was a good day,” said Shelley.
On Tuesday he parred his first five holes before finally birdieing No. 6. At the turn he was 12-under.
When Peterson birdied his 12th hole — he started on the back nine — he was only two strokes back at 10-under. Shelley was checking the scores and very aware how close it was and decided to get aggressive on No. 14.
East’s Sean Lampropoulos finished in third place with an 8-under 136, with Bonneville’s Josh Wallis in fourth with a 7-under 138.
The was a four-way tie for fifth between Olympus’ Will Pedersen, Bountiful’s Ty Cottle, Cedar Valley’s Brayden Hester and Shurtz.
“Really proud of Caden Shurtz. What a great job to make it in the top five, that’s amazing for him. He transferred over from Olympus and he’s fit in so well with the team,” said James.
Utah 5A Boy’s State Championship recap written by James Edward and posted with permission by the Deseret News Sports. Photos by Utah Section PGA and the Shelley family.