As a member of the newly created U.S. National Junior Team, Kihei Akina might be BYU’s most celebrated golf recruit since U.S. Junior Amateur champion Mike Brannan.
Sunday will mark 50 years since Brannan’s win over a strong field of professionals and Cougar teammates at Riverside Country Club. Akina has a great shot at his own victory in the Larry H. Miller Utah Open.
The Lone Peak High School graduate would join Brannan as the only 19-year-old champions in the 99-year history of the tournament. Akina eagled the par-4 No. 2 with a 60-yard wedge shot in the second round, while carding six birdies and one bogey for a 65.
Akina is 13 under par, one stroke ahead of 33-year-old amateur Cole Ogden (65-67), a former BYU golfer. They will be joined in the final threesome by former Utah Valley University star Brady McKinlay (66-67), who’s competing for the $25,000 first prize among the pros.
Three years ago, having shot 67-67 at age 16, Akina played with eventual champion Blake Tomlinson in the last group. He settled for a 72, tying for 11th place. His approach this time is “just to be loose, have fun, just another round of golf,” he said. “I feel comfortable with my game.”
Akina was on the road this summer for what “felt like forever,” he said, while his game produced mixed results. He missed the 36-hole cut in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship in Ogden in early August and failed to make match play this week in the U.S. Amateur in San Francisco.
He has been sharp at Riverside, though. So, more surprisingly, has Ogden. At 33, he works in medical sales, having long ago given up his pro golf ambitions. The 2013 State Amateur champion reached the round of 16 in that event last summer and finished the 2024 Utah Open with a 65, tying for seventh place among amateurs.
After posting a 29 on the back nine Friday to complete a 65, he started the second round on that side and shot a 35. An eagle on the par-5 No. 7 (his third of the tournament, on three different holes) gave him a 67.
“My mind-set about golf in general has changed a lot, just because it’s not what I’m trying to do full-time,” he said. “I’m not worried about the paycheck and it’s not affecting my life.”
Ogden played the first two rounds with his brother, Clay, a two-time champion in the tournament’s Oakridge Country Club era. No two brothers have claimed Utah Open titles since Emery and Al Zimmerman won a combined six times in the 1930s and ‘40s.
McKinlay recently married Caylyn Ponich, the Women’s Golf Coach at Southern Utah University. She’s the sister of 2024 State Amateur champion Cole Ponich, who’s playing as a rookie pro.
The 36-hole cut came at 1 over par. Provo’s Nicklaus Miller, 13, who’s believed to be the youngest contestant in the tournament’s 99-year history, shot 76-70 and was among a big group of golfers missing by one stroke.
In the Section Sidebar competition for Utah Section PGA Members and Associates, Spencer Wallace (67-68) has a two-shot lead over Zach Johnson and Utah Golf Hall of Fame member Steve Schneiter.
Schneiter (69-68) leads the Senior Sidebar for 50-over players by one stroke over Riverside teaching professional Matt Baird (67-71).
Click here for the Larry H. Miller Utah Open 36-hole leaderboard.
36-hole recap story written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson.