Scott Brandt sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the 9th hole at Willow Creek Country Club on July 12 to take a 1-up lead over Joe Summerhays in the final match of the Utah PGA Senior Match Play Championship.
However, the back nine belonged to Summerhays.
Joe won four of the next five holes, clinching the victory on the 16th hole with a score of 3-and-2.
Joe Summerhays won his second career Senior Match Play title July 11th at Willow Creek Country Club. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
The 2024 Senior Match Play Championship began with a field of 31 players on May 28, including defending champion Mark Owen, who received a bye in the opening round at Stonebridge Golf Club.
The round of 16 also took place at Stonebridge, with winners advancing to the quarterfinals on June 25 at Bountiful Ridge. The semifinalists at Willow Creek included Matt Johnson, Scott Brant, Kevin Connole, and Joe Summerhays.
In the morning semifinals, Summerhays defeated Connole 7-and-6 and awaited the outcome of the Brandt/Johnson match, which extended to 20 holes, with Brandt securing victory with a par on the second play of the 18th hole.
65-year old former champion Scott Brandt has finished as runner-up in the Senior Match Play Championship for two consecutive years. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
Summerhays, 52, had a break for lunch before facing Brandt, 65, who had just emerged victorious. “I was a little concerned about that,” said Summerhays, now a two-time Match Play Champion. “I knew I’d come out a little flat.”
Indeed, Summerhays stumbled with a short chip shot on the 2nd hole, giving Brandt an early 1-up lead.
Brandt led three times on the front nine, thanks to birdies on holes 4 and 9, but Summerhays managed to even the match each time. Summerhays then took control, winning the par-5 10th, the par-3 11th, the par-5 12th, and the par-4 14th to go 3-up. After matching pars on holes 15 and 16, Summerhays claimed his second Match Play title in the last three seasons.
The Utah PGA senior circuit continues on July 17-18 at Toana Vista Golf Club in West Wendover, NV, for the Bob Rudd Utah Senior Open, where Summerhays will defend his title.
Guy Yocom covered a State Amateur final match between Eric Hogg and Doug Bybee. Bruce Brockbank also won a State Am match vs. Bybee. Randy Dodson’s magazine chronicled Bybee’s becoming the only three-time champion of the past 65 years. Garey Chadwick and Sherm Hatfield were Utah Golf Association board members and rules officials for nearly those players’ entire careers.
The Utah Golf Hall of Fame’s seven-member Class of 2024 is intertwined like no other group in the Hall’s history that dates to 1991. The 10th ceremony, planned for October, will increase the membership to 55. That number makes the Utah Golf Hall of Fame the most exclusive sports club in the state, considering that competitive golf has been played in Utah for 125 years.
The previous class was honored in 2021, after a one-year delay due to the pandemic. The next inductions are planned in 2028, resuming the every-four-years pattern.
BRUCE BROCKBANK JR.
Two head coaches, 63 years, two Utah Golf Hall of Fame inductions.
That’s the modern history of the Brigham Young University men’s golf program. Linking the late Karl Tucker and Bruce Brockbank is only natural, after Brockbank played for the Cougars, assisted Tucker and followed him as head coach. As of the 2023-24 season, Brockbank’s 32-year tenure topped Tucker’s 31 years on the job.
Brockbank grew up around Riverside Country Club in the 1970s and early ‘80s, modeling the swing and demeanor of BYU golfers such as Utah Golf Hall of Fame member Mike Reid. And then he was inspired by future Cougar teammate Steve Schneiter’s 1982 State Amateur victory, driving him to win two titles of his own. Fittingly, Schneiter is a member of the Utah Golf Hall of Fame class that preceded Brockbank’s.
The late Bruce Brockbank Sr. loved having BYU golfers visit the family’s home, creating good influences for his three sons and daughter, Stephanie, a two-time Women’s State Amateur champion. Counting those childhood days, Bruce Jr. has been associated with practically every BYU golfer of the past 50 years.
Brockbank’s playing credentials alone would have merited Utah Golf Hall of Fame consideration. He led Timpview High School to three state championships and, just before turning professional, won consecutive State Amateur titles. He compiled a 19-4 record in State Am match play, while twice finishing second. In 1987, the Utah Section PGA named him the Wesley Ruff Golf Citizen of the Year, when he won the State Am after losing in the previous year’s final match (in 2023, Simon Kwon, now a BYU golfer, became the first player since Brockbank to do so).
The State Am had become so important that “it was hard for me to turn pro,” Brockbank said. “That’s how much it meant to me.”
A victory in the prestigious Western Intercollegiate in California, as he outdueled future PGA Tour star Steve Stricker, highlighted his BYU career.
Brockbank was a BYU assistant coach when Masters champion Mike Weir played for the Cougars. As head coach, his first recruit was Matt Thurmond, now Arizona State’s highly successful golf coach. Thurmond described Brockbank as “universally liked and admired” in the profession., noting that his own “incredible college experience” led him into coaching.
Brockbank also developed PGA Tour players such as Brad Sutterfield, Daniel Summerhays, Zac Blair, Patrick Fishburn and Peter Kuest. Clay Ogden won the U.S. Amateur Public Links title as a BYU golfer.
Brockbank is a Utah Section PGA member, having worked as an assistant to Jack Lomento at Gladstan Golf Course in Payson while also assisting Tucker. He succeeded Tucker in 1992, launching a tenure that would take him into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame.
“Everything that Bruce does, he does the right way,” said BYU Director of Golf Todd Miller, who has played and coached in rhe program for 23 years. “It’s been good for me to be mentored by him, to watch him, to get a little bit of what he has, because I’m a different person.”
DOUG BYBEE
In one of the more poignant scenes of a State Amateur awards presentation, Doug Bybee’s voice caught in 1990 as he referenced two previous losses in final matches and managed to say, “Third time’s the charm, I guess.”
Six years later, his “third time” phrase took on a whole new meaning. Bybee became the storied tournament’s first three-time winner in 37 years, joining Utah Golf Hall of Fame member Lou North. And it keeps getting better: After more than another quarter-century, nobody has matched Bybee’s achievement.
Fair to say, Bybee has been more closely associated with State Amateur match-play success than any golfer since six-time champion Billy Korns in the 1940s (two of North’s wins came in stroke play). His record of 43 matches played was topped only by Dan Horner in 2023; with 33 wins, Bybee and Horner trail only Korns (37).
“There’s only one guy that leaves the State Am happy,” Bybee said. “That’s the cool thing that makes it even better. It’s always better when it’s something that’s really important to you. It’s even harder to win.”
The expression “Par ‘em to death” should go on Bybee’s Hall of Fame plaque. “I don’t necessarily strategize that way, it’s just the nature of my game,” Bybee said in the book “100 Years of the Utah State Amateur.”
Yet that phrase also serves to underestimate Bybee’s ability. He once made 14 birdies in two rounds at Bonneville Golf Course before losing in a playoff in the prestigious Salt Lake City Amateur (an event he won twice, while finishing second three times).
An alumnus of Box Elder High School and the University of Utah, Bybee grew up around the old Brigham Willows Golf Course in Brigham City, although the policy in those days didn’t allow him to play the course until he was 10. He caddied for his father, Ray. Once he started playing, he caught on quickly.
After his consecutive State Am finals appearances in the early 1980s, Bybee spent five years as a professional golfer before regaining his amateur status and working as a successful marketing executive in the food and golf industries.
Bybee remembers becoming aware of the State Amateur only in 1976, when Brigham City legend Reid Goodliffe beat Jimmy Blair in the final match. Vinny McGuire of the old University of Utah GC would become one of Bybee’s big influences. In Brigham City, Goodliffe was Bybee’s friend and mentor, teaching him both the value of pars in match play and the meaning of the State Am.
That’s why Bybee’s losses to fellow Hall of Fame members Eric Hogg in ‘81 and Steve Schneiter in ‘82 were tough to absorb. And it certainly entered his mind in ‘90 that he could become a three-time runner-up, before he defeated Spence Ahrend at Alpine Country Club.
The next year, he knocked in an 85-yard shot for an eagle on the first extra hole at Jeremy Ranch in a semifinal match vs. Ahrend, before topping Brett Taylor in the finals. In 1996 at Hobble Creek Golf Course, Bybee bookended his match-play week with victories over home-course players Doug Baxter and Robert Shunn, winning the last 36-hole match 10 and 9.
Also in ‘96, Bybee received the Utah Section PGA’s Wesley Ruff Golf Citizen of the Year award for the way he represented the Utah golf community.
GAREY CHADWICK
Ron Hitchcock long ago told a great story in presenting the Utah Golf Association’s annual Gold Club Award to Garey Chadwick. As a rising UGA player, Hitchcock once was amazed that Chadwick knew his name.
“It wasn’t until later that I realized Chadwick knew everyone’s first name,” Hitchcock said.
The irony of that story is some people are probably just learning Chadwick’s first name, via his Utah Golf Hall of Fame selection. Seemingly everybody knew him as “Chad,” the friendly administrator and rules official who’s “recognized as one of the good guys in golf,” as Hitchcock said.
Chadwick, who died in 2018 at age 80, forever will be linked to Sherm Hatfield in the Utah golf community. They were the co-honorees of the 2017 Utah Senior Open, shared the Utah Section PGA’s Presidential Service Award in 2014 and will join each other in the Utah Golf Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024.
Summarizing his father’s devotion to the game, Doug Chadwick said, “I know he loved doing it.”
Jake Miller, a former UGA Executive Director, always tried to pair new rules officials with Chadwick “because of his demeanor,” Miller said, likening his approach to that of Utah Golf Hall of Fame member Doug Vilven’s. “He was there to make players feel comfortable. He would take the lawyer-speak out of the rulebook and take it down to the player’s level.”
Chadwick’s 1995 Gold Club Award and 2018 UGA Volunteer of the Year recognition help illustrate his long span of contributions. So do Devin Dehlin remembering Chadwick as the captain of his Utah team in the 1984 Junior America’s Cup, and Bruce and Carolyn Summerhays once crediting him as “a friend and mentor for as long as we can remember … We always teased him that he helped raise our children.”
A former Ogden Golf & Country Club caddie and Weber High School baseball player, Chadwick bought his first set of golf clubs shortly after marrying his wife, Elaine, in 1958. She willingly shared him with the golf community, amid his work in architectural building supply. Chadwick spent 12 years on the UGA board, led junior traveling teams for a decade, served as the Utah Junior Golf Association president and was a U.S. Public Links committee member for 19 years. One of the UJGA’s age-group Player of the Year awards carries his name.
Service to golf was “pretty much his whole life, for sure,” Doug Chadwick said. “It kept him going and actually allowed my mom to participate too. Even when he quit playing golf, kept being involved in tournaments. … Even when I go somewhere to play golf, they bring his name up.”
Chadwick was a traditionalist. During an interview for the 2017 Utah Senior Open, Chadwick listed some of his favorite all-time elements of golf equipment: “wood woods, none of this metal stuff … steel shafts … wound balls.”
Those are long gone, but the way he treated people will have a lasting impact. UGA stalwarts such as Chadwick are “the real Hall of Fame guys, because they’re in the trenches,” said 2024 classmate Bruce Brockbank.
RANDY DODSON
Randy Dodson followed Joe Watts in Utah golf magazine publishing, so it is appropriate that Dodson is in the Utah Golf Hall of Fame class that comes after Watts’ group.
As owner and publisher, Dodson produces Fairways Magazine, designed as a quarterly celebration of Utah golf. As former State Amateur champion Dan Horner likes to say, “Fairways makes players feel more important than they actually are.”
The printed magazine itself is a well-designed marvel in this era; Dodson also has successfully expanded to daily, weekly and monthly digital products.. Beyond that, Dodson has become a major voice of Utah golf through his business arrangements with the UGA, the Utah Section PGA, professional tournaments such as the LPGA Epson Tour’s Copper Rock Championship and other groups via Fairways Media’s public relations work.
“I’m extremely happy that we’ve been relevant for over three decades,” Dodson said, crediting former associate Mike Stansfield and current Art Director Garrit Johnson, in addition to loyal advertisers.
Johnson salvaged records and other valuable items, helping Dodson overcome a 2019 fire that destroyed the former Fairways office in downtown Provo. That’s just one example of the team’s adaptability in a changing media world.
Fairways’ impact goes beyond words and pictures, though. The Utah golf community is nationally known for cooperation among various groups, and Dodson is among the unifying forces. “I felt like Fairways could help in that process,” he said. “Fairways could be the middle ground for everybody. … We always wanted to be a cheerleader for Utah golf, how ever that’s defined. I think we’ve done a good job of making sure Fairways is not just a UGA newsletter, but a Utah golf lifestyle publication.”
The strongest endorsement once came from Watts, the UGA’s longtime Executive Director: “The UGA would be invisible without Fairways,” said Watts, who described the magazine as “the UGA’s greatest achievement.”
Devin Dehlin, the Utah Section PGA’s Executive Director, labeled Dodson “very instrumental in the success and growth of golf in Utah.”
Watts and Dodson were driving forces of the book “100 Years of the Utah State Amateur.”
Dodson received the UGA’s Gold Club Award in 2014 and is a two-time winner of the Utah Section PGA’s Wesley Ruff Golf Citizen of the Year award. Dodson and Watts are among only six people who have earned both awards.
Dodson previously worked in advertising for newspapers in California, Massachusetts and Utah The transition to Fairways was not a direct handoff from Watts, although they share a strong connection. Dodson had started working for Peter Evans’ Utah Business magazine and, when Evans decided to sell the golf publication, Dodson and his wife, Tonia, took the leap.
Dodson had to “get myself entrenched in the golf world,” he said, while being influenced by the likes of Karl Tucker, Jeannie Goddard and Watts, all members of the Utah Golf Hall of Fame. He learned a lot from “people that see the importance of everybody getting along,” Dodson said. “I think I learned what what I’m supposed to learn, if I’m in that same group.”
SHERM HATFIELD
Sherm Hatfield’s road to the Utah Golf Hall of Fame was coated with ice. As a longtime season-ticket holder of the pro hockey team then called the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, Hatfield studied the “Decisions on the Rules of Golf” book between periods of games at the old Salt Palace.
Those 18-minute intermissions eventually led to a lot of 12-hour days on the golf course, serving as a rules official. Even in his late 70s, Hatfield was known for working 50-plus days a year in a volunteer job that he loved mostly because of the people involved.
Hatfield is one of only six individuals to have received both the Wesley Ruff Golf Citizen of the Year award from the Utah Section PGA and the Gold Club Award from the Utah Golf Association.
The other five already are in the Utah Golf Hall of Fame, or should be so honored someday. Friendship and parallel lives of service to the game will always connect Hatfield and Garey Chadwick, yet each has created his own distinction on the way to joining the Class of 2024.
The presentation of Hatfield’s Gold Club Award in 2014 promoted former UGA Executive Director Joe Watts to commend Hatfield’s “unselfish service, his good will, work ethic, compassion for others and his insistence on doing things the right way.”
Hatfield liked to practice “preventive officiating,” making sure players were aware of their options before proceeding. “I enjoyed helping people,” he said. “I’ve been ridiculed for sometimes saving them from doing something that would have caused them a problem.”
It all started when former UGA board member Brent Smith took him to a State Amateur final match at Wolf Creek in 1984. About the same time, he became acquainted with Chadwick, who was working a State Am qualifier at Mountain View Golf Course, where Hatfield was a men’s league leader.
They teamed up on the UGA board (Hatfield was the president in 1994) and as co-captains of Utah’s Junior America’s Cup teams, and have shared awards such as being named co-honorees of the 2017 Utah Senior Open. They were commended that year in a Salt Lake Tribune feature about volunteers in various sports. Bill Walker, then the UGA’s executive director, labeled them “the godfathers of volunteerism,” adding, “Whenever you call, they’re there to help out.”
Having grown up in West Jordan along 2200 West where Mountain View later would be built, Hatfield graduated from Jordan High (well before Steve Schneiter, who was inducted into the Utah Golf Hall of Fame in 2021). He started playing with his father and brothers at Mick Riley GC in the early 1960s after he returned from a military stint in Germany, then worked for Kennecott Copper and Jordan School District while becoming immersed in golf. Hatfield once shot a 68 at Mountain Dell GC, explaining why that number is part of his email address,
That’s not what got him into the Utah Golf Hall of Fame, though. His selection stems from nearly 40 years of contributions to tournament operations for the UGA and the Utah Section PGA. “They just run such good programs, both of them,” he said. “I was having a great time.”
His wife, Joyce, who died in June 2023, was “so supportive,” Hatfield added. “She never complained one iota” about his devotion to the game.
ERIC HOGG
Eric Hogg
The recent achievements of Mitchell Schow, Blake Tomlinson and Zac Blair in two of Utah’s biggest golf tournaments evoked the name of Eric Hogg. Induction into the Utah Golf Hall of Fame will ensure that Hogg is remembered forever.
Hogg, who died in 2014 at age 51, is among the nine golfers (including Blair) who have won both State Amateur and Utah Open titles. His 1981 State Am victory over Hall of Fame classmate Doug Bybee was the last meeting of University of Utah teammates in a final match until Schow topped Tomlinson in 2020. Hogg also beat Hall of Fame member Arlen Peacock in the ‘81 semifinals; he defeated BYU’s Eddie Heinen in the ‘89 final match.
Hogg’s 1991 rally to overtake Keith Clearwater, then in the prime of his PGA Tour career, came in one of the Utah Open’s most competitive eras as essentially a mini-tour event. It would be another 10 years before another homegrown Utahn (Kim Thompson) claimed the title.
Growing up in Salt Lake City, “Eric always had the support of my parents, don’t get me wrong, but so much of what he achieved was through his own passion and grit,” said his sister, Amy Porter-Nichols. “He would carry two bags of golf clubs, little sister in tow, over a quarter-mile to the city bus stop. We would ride to the course and I would watch him shag and sell golf balls so he could play a round. … He had a passion for golf and immense personal drive.”
Hogg took two individual state championships for a Skyline High School program that created a team dynasty in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Clark Garso, a high school and college teammate who became a PGA Professional, believes Hogg is one of the top 10 most talented golfers the state has produced, although a freak injury in the final stage of qualifying kept him from ever making the PGA Tour.
Garso cites Hogg’s “exquisite” chipping and putting ability, once demonstrated in a college tournament at The Country Club. Hogg shot 1 under par on the back nine, while hitting only one green in regulation.
“He was so competitive,” Garso said, “and I’m not talking just in golf. There was nobody that wanted to win more than Eric, and I’ve known a lot of great players.”
Bybee remembers his Ute teammate as “way more talented than anybody else … astronomically talented. He could do things that very few people could do.”
Hogg qualified for the 1989 U.S. Open. In the book “100 Years of the Utah State Amateur,” he said, “Playing in the U.S. Open and winning the State Amateur twice are my greatest thrills in golf.”
He also enjoyed the Utah Open victory at Willow Creek Country Club, the site of his State Am win vs. Bybee 10 years earlier. In an era when PGA Tour players with Utah ties often competed in the Utah Open, Clearwater took the two-stroke lead on the front nine of the final round before Hogg caught him. “It was nice to beat him; sure it was,” Hogg said a year later. “He was sure trying to win that tournament.”
That win ended up being the capstone of his golf career. “What a great victory, and it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” wrote Doug Boudreaux, the Utah Open’s media coordinator that year. “He was incredibly humble after the win, and the media ate it up.”
GUY YOCOM
Guy Yocom is in a class by himself in the Utah Golf Hall of Fame. A graduate of Salt Lake City’s West High, the school that also nurtured George Von Elm and Tony Finau, Yocom became distinguished on a national level like no other golf journalist from Utah, writing eight books and earning numerous awards from the Golf Writers Association of America.
For the sake of reference on the Utah Golf Hall of Fame’s all-time roster, consider him the Mike Malaska of the media. Malaska, another Weber State alumnus, grew up in Utah and became nationally renowned as a golf teacher, officially declared a “legend” of his profession by Golf Digest. Yocom’s job description was senior writer, by the end of a 36-year writing career with the magazine. Legend also would be an apt description.
“Utahn” is another label he embraces, leading him to say Utah Golf Hall of Fame membership “means more to me than any other kind of recognition could.”
Known as a skilled, conversational interviewer, Yocom created the “My Shot” feature that became a Golf Digest institution. His ability to go inside the minds of some of the game’s most celebrated figures turned those conversations into treasure troves of memories and insights. Those 125 monthly subjects were “just enormously rewarding” to conceive and develop, Yocom said. “I got to know them as people. They could always trust me, and they knew it.”
You want golf stories? Yocom has a full catalog, and he tells them well. Yet his greatest strengths were developing relationships and making famous people comfortable enough to tell their stories. One career summary said Yocom “interviewed Ben Hogan, won $20 from Phil Mickelson and got a lesson from Moe Norman.”
As an author, he has collaborated with the likes of Tiger Woods, Jackie Burke Jr. and Utah Golf Hall of Fame charter member Johnny Miller.
It all started at the Standard-Examiner in Ogden, where Yocom worked during and after his Weber State tenure with the Signpost school newspaper. In 1981, he watched Hall of Fame classmates Eric Hogg and Doug Bybee play in the State Amateur finals and covered Hall of Fame member Jimmy Blair’s Utah Open victory.
The irony of his golf writing career is that unlike Finau, Yocom never played the game while growing up in Salt Lake City’s Rose Park neighborhood (although he worked on the grounds at Rose Park GC after graduating from West). His dual loves of golf and writing bloomed in Ogden, where his associations with two-time State Amateur winner Mitch Hyer and some Weber State golfers spurred him to become a very good player.
“I just fell in love with golf … just wrote about it all the time.” Yocom said.
So how do you get from the Standard-Examiner to Golf Digest? Talent aside, being “really noisy” and persistent is Yocom’s explanation of his initial hiring. That’s also how he worked his way into writing assignments for the magazine, and he thrived for more than three decades in an environment where “you’re really kind of soaring with eagles,” he said. “I learned so much, and people were so helpful.”
Feature written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe.
Bruce and Joe Summerhays faced Dustin Volk and Pete Stone in the championship match of the Utah PGA Four-Ball Championship held on June 27th at Jeremy Ranch Country Club. The final match guaranteed a return to the winner’s circle for one of the former champion teams.
Bruce and Joe Summerhays are now two-time winners of the Utah PGA Four-Ball Championship. The sons of Utah Golf Hall of Fame member, Bruce Summerhays Sr., first won the event in 2017. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
Throughout the afternoon, following the morning semifinals, the teams of long-time Section members seemed destined for a prolonged battle. Each team had won only one hole through the front nine. Team Summerhays won the par-4 5th hole when Joe made a 15-foot birdie, putting his team 1-up. Volk tied the match on the par-3 8th by sticking his tee shot just 2-feet from the hole for an easy birdie.
Two-time Utah PGA Four-Ball champions, Dustin Vollk and Pete Stone finished in the runner-up spot June 26th at Jeremy Ranch Country Club. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
The match remained tied until the par-4 15th, where all four players had birdie opportunities. Volk remarked to Stone, “One of us has to make these.” Bruce Summerhays in jest responded, “I’ll do my best,” and then sank a 20-foot birdie putt to give his team a 1-up lead with three holes to play.
The sides then matched birdies on the par 5 16th and pars on the par 3 17th for the Summerhayses to remain 1-up heading to the uphill par 4 closing hole. Hitting one of his best drives of the day, (Joe Summerhays and Volk played the “senior tees” while Bruce and Stone played back one tee box), Joe had just a wedge into the forward hole location. After Volk’s and Stone’s birdie attempts missed, the Valley View Professionals conceded Summerhays’ putt to end the match with a 2-up win for the Summerhays brothers.
To reach the final match the Summerhayses defeated defending champs Tracy Zobell and Ryan Rhees 3 and 1. Team Volk/Stone overcame Davis County Golf coworkers Zach Johnson and Kaden Jones 4 and 3 in semifinal matches played earlier that morning.
A total of 55 teams entered the championship this year with several top teams receiving byes in the opening round of 64.
Utah PGA Tournament Director Aaron Goodman said, “The Four-Ball Championship is one our team events that has continued to grow in popularity and participation. Having the rounds scheduled and at different high-end courses has been really fun. Thank you to Valley View, Davis Park, Thanksgiving Point, and Jeremy Ranch Country Club for hosting this year’s championship.”
Kate Walker, Emma Lillywhite, Lincoln Markham and Brock Porter (photo above), four of Utah’s best junior golfers have qualified to play in the 48th Boys and Girls PGA Junior Championship at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, MD later this summer.
Utah Junior PGA Championship medalist Kate Walker (R) and runner-up Emma Lillywhite qualified for the national event later this summer with strong performances at Soldier Hollow Silver Course.
The Silver Course at Soldier Hollow was the host June 10-11th for Utah’s Junior PGA Championship qualifier in the boys and girls 16-18 age divisions of the Utah PGA’s Junior Series. Players also competed in the Boys and Girls 13-15 age divisions but were not competing for the national qualifier spots.
Two-time 4A State individual champion Kate Walker of Crimson Cliffs earned medalist honors on the Silver Course with a 5-under 139 performance on rounds of 71-68. Battling throughout the day for the runner-up qualifier spot were Lone Peak’s Aadyn Long and Timpview’s Emma Lillywhite. Deadlocked at (-2) 142 after the final round, Long and Lillywhite played the par 5 9th playoff hole twice before Lillywhite won the hole with a par the second time through.
Kate Walker watches her shot during the Utah Junior PGA Championship on her way to a win of the Girls 16-18 qualifier division. (Photo Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
Five alternates for the national event were named as Long, Navy Hubbs (T4,+1), Kaylee Westfall (T4,+1), Alyssa Meadows (T6, +3) and Adley Nelson (T6, +3) as the next five on the final round leaderboard.
With consecutive rounds of 65 Crimson Cliffs’ Lincoln Markham, a BYU commit, finished (-14) 130 to claim the top spot in the Boys 16-18 division, one shot better than runner-up qualifier Brock Porter of Desert Hills. Markham and Porter will head to the Junior PGA Championship July 30-August 2 at Congressional CC.
Boys 16-18 Medalist, Lincoln Markham (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson
Rounding out the top five boys alternates were Max Landon (3rd place, -11), Noah Moody (T4, -10), Jaxon Erickson (T4, -10), Cayson VanBeekum (T6, -9) and Cole Taylor (T6, -9).
Fairways Media summer intern Arden Louchheim caught up with the qualifiers and Utah PGA Junior Golf Director Cassie Campos following play. Watch the video below for comments and highlights from the final round of the Utah Junior PGA Championship.
Utah Junior PGA Championship “The Qualifiers” video by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson
Hazel Peters won the Girls 13-15 division with a (+7) 151. She was followed by Saylor Wagner at (+12) 156. In the Boys 13-15 division Corver Barnes earned the win with rounds of 76-64 – 140. A shot behind Barnes was Joseph Corcell at (-3) 141. Click here for the final round leaderboard for all flights.
On the road to capturing his second career Utah PGA Match Play Championship title, Sunset View GC Head PGA Professional Casey Fowles, who first won the event in 2020, had to get past three other former champions in Zach Johnson (Final Match, 5 & 4), Matt Baird (Semifinal Match, 2 & 1) and three-time champion Dustin Volk (Quarterfinal Match, 7 & 5).
Riding what Fowles called a “hot putter,” he made multiple birdies in each match on the way to engraving his name for a second time on one of the Utah PGA’s major trophies.
With defending champion Jordan Gibbs move to Colorado earlier this year, Fowles was awarded the No. 1 seed and a bye in the opening round in the tournament of 64 Utah PGA Professionals at Hill Air Force Base’s Hubbard Memorial Golf Course.
Utah Golf Radio host Paul Pugmire caught up with the champion for a victory lap Q & A.
Q: This is match play. But, let’s start with this; you are known for occasionally going stupid low, putting up really low numbers. Did you have any of those out there this week?
A: Well, it’s funny, I haven’t really done that for the last couple years, so I don’t want to say I’ve been playing really well, but for some reason, this week, I hit the ball pretty well, and I made a lot of putts. And normally that’s a good combination. That’s a good formula. It doesn’t happen very often. But it was fun to play well all week.
2024 Utah PGA Match Play Champion, Casey Fowles. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
I got a bye in the first round which was huge coming from (home in) Delta, because that saved me a 4:00 a.m. wake up call to get up here. So that was really helpful. And honestly, every match I played was really competitive, and there wasn’t any match where I felt like, this is, you know, going to be a cakewalk. Everyone played well, and I just played really well. I made a lot of good putts, especially against Dustin Volk.
Q: So yeah, Dustin has beat everybody in this tournament, on this course.
Former three-time Match Play Champion and 2024 Quarterfinalist, Dustin Volk. (2023 photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
A: It’s like his own course where he grew up playing and stuff. His dad (Wayne Volk) was the Pro here for a long time. So yeah, he knows every nook and cranny. It’s interesting watching him play it, because he’s going to see where you want to hit it and which side of the hole you want to be on, and that type of stuff. He works his way around this place really well. I had to career-it it out there to beat him. I think I was like 9-under through 17 holes or something, to just barely beat him.
Q: Dustin was the first of three consecutive former champs you had to go through to get to this thing. So you get through Volk, and that gives you Matt Baird, another tough lift.
2022 Match Play Champion and 2024 Semifinalist, Matt Baird. (Photo: Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson)
A: Yes, sir. Matt’s a tough out. He’s very competitive, so you got to play well to beat Matt. There’s not going to be much given to you. And really, that’s kind of the same way with everybody out here, once you get past those first matches, those last three, four matches, you just have to play really well, because there’s not going to be much given to you. I played really well this morning (Semifinal Match) to beat him.
Q: You did, and for your efforts, you get Zach Johnson. That puts an exclamation point on what you’re saying here.
2019 Match Play Champion and 2024 runner-up, Zach Johnson. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
A: Yeah, exactly. I mean, Zach is just uber-consistent. If he gets an iron in his hand, it’s going at or near the pin, and he’s a great putter too. We kind of went back and forth. I was fortunate this week, I got off to a great start in every match. I got up early, which always helps playing from that position where you don’t have to feel like you’re pressing and playing golf different than you would normally play. And that was kind of my focus. Was just trying to play the golf course, you know, play my own game, and just kind of let the chips fall. And so, yeah, we kind of went back and forth there for a little bit. And then I made a great birdie on a long, tough par three, (217-yard, No. 6). That kind of got me going a little bit. And then I just kind of went on a little run on him there in the middle of the round.
Q: Was that on hole six? One would expect that No.6 can be a beast. Tell me about making two on six.
A: It was into the wind this morning, I smoked a five iron and then this afternoon, it was a little bit downwind, and I watched Zach hit his shot a little bit deep. So I hit a 7-iron, just launched it way up in the air with the wind, and it still went farther than I thought. I had about a 20-footer and just made a really good putt. It was one of those that I had to play a couple feet of break, because the greens out there are so, so quick, and they had some good pins out there. So it was just one of those putts that, you know, just got the right line, right speed, and went in. We were back to square at that point. Getting that one was huge, and gave me a little momentum.
Teeing off on the par 4 9th hole at Hubbard Memorial GC, Casey Fowles had just a 1-up lead over Zach Johnson in the championship match. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
Going into No.9, we both hit some close ones in there but he had a tougher putt than I did, and his just slipped by and I made mine. After that, I made a few more birdies. (Fowles made the turn 2-up.)
Q: So you closed him out on 14, 5 & 4. What was the turning point?
A: If I’m looking back, we tied seven and eight … probably that putt on nine. I feel like when I made birdie and he made par…then he kind of got in some tree trouble on 10. So I think just a combination. He was right in there, 9-10, and then I made about a 20-footer on 11. So that was kind of boom, boom, boom. And then I made another birdie on 12. And so, yeah, it was just kind of right through there (middle of the round). I think after No.9, I just got on a run.
“I hit the ball pretty well, and I made a lot of putts,” said 2024 Match Play Champion, Casey Fowles. “And normally that’s a good combination. That’s a good formula. It doesn’t happen very often. But it was fun to play well all week.” (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
Q: That makes sense looking at the card, but one would expect Zach to cap your birdie on the par 5 12th. Were you surprised that (a birdie) four won the hole?
A: He kind of got a bad break off the tee. We thought his drive was perfect, and it must of caught a tree and ended up in the fairway bunker. He had a terrible lie in the bunker, and then he actually had a great chip shot that took a bad bounce, so he had a couple tough breaks on the hole. He still almost made birdie, but yeah, that was one you don’t really expect to get with a birdie. Again, I kind of had the momentum on my side at that point, and he had a couple bad breaks on the hole so that was another big point in the match.
Q: Your name is already on this trophy, and on several others. It remains that this is one of the Section’s majors. This is one that all your colleagues in the Section talk about. What does it mean to you to win it again?
A: That means a ton because it’s so hard. It’s so hard to win because it doesn’t matter how well you’re playing, you can run into a buzzsaw at any time. These guys can just go low at any point. To get all the way through it is awesome. It’s a great feeling to feel like you’ve played good and beat some really good players. So yeah, it means a ton, means a lot.
Video highlights from the Utah PGA Match Play semifinals and championship match June 12th at Hubbard Memorial Golf Course by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson.
Noah Moody, a Northern Idaho College commit, and Avery Kraatz, who will play for Sonoma State University, captured the first Utah PGA Junior Series Junior Major of the year at Glenmoor Golf Club, June 5-6.
With the win both players were awarded an exemption into Utah’s AJGA event later this summer. Due to a conflict for Kraatz, Madalyn Hadley who finished tied for second place has accepted the exemption.
Boys Glenmoor Junior Major champion, Noah Moody.
Moody shot (-3) 73-68 – 141 at Glenmoor, a full six shots better than second place finisher Eastyn Ewell. Krew Saunders won the Boys 13-15 division at (+3) 76-71 – 147.
In the Girls 16-18 division, Kraatz finished (+20) 164 to best three players, Hadley, Reimi Bleyl and Katelin Bingham, who tied for second place with a (+23) 167. Mikaila Lieu finished on top of the Girls 13-15 division at (+15) 159.
Girls Glenmoor Junior Major champion, Avery Kraatz.
“Winning a Junior Major so early in the season is a true confidence builder,” said Kraatz. “I just came off a state championship (5A) win with my team and this was my next tournament back, so I’m happy to have these wins to fuel me through the inevitable highs and lows of the summer season.”
In the 2024 season the Majors Series will consist of one and two-day events throughout the summer for junior golfers ages 13-18. In order for players to gain a Junior Major Membership and be able to compete in the 2024 Major events, juniors had to qualify from one of two Q-School 18-hole tournaments or be exempt in through previous tournament experience listed on the UtahPGA.com website.
In addition to the winner’s exemption into Utah’s AJGA event, the top three boys and top two girls in the 13-15 and 16-18 age groups qualify for the season ending Junior Major Championship July 29th at Hobble Creek GC.
Many thanks to Glenmoor Golf Club for hosting the Glenmoor Junior Major.
This season, Rich coach Kam Jarman said his players have practiced in every difficult condition imaginable — rain, snow, hail and wind.
Each of those practices strengthened the resolve of his players, something Jarman said made a big difference during the 1A state tournament this week.
Sitting in second place after Tuesday’s first round, Rich improved by four strokes in the second round on Wednesday as it slowly pulled away to capture its first 1A state championship since 2014.
The Rebels finished with a two-day total of 706, with Wayne in second with a 720 and Valley in third with a 725.
“The weather has just been poor up in Bear Lake. The kids have just battled the weather. I’m just proud of them ‘cause they’ve worked so dang hard,” said Jarman.
Rich had two players finish in the top 10, which was obviously important. Just as important, however, was how Rich’s No. 4 and No. 5 golfers alternated good rounds and poor rounds, which meant the Rebels never had to count a score over 100.
“It’s just the whole team working together. I’m just so happy for them and their hard work,” said Jarman.
Rich’s Noah Parry finished second with a two-day 165, while teammate Jaden Desch tied for seventh with a 172.
Medalist honors went to Wendover senior Trejin Tangaro, who shot an 81 on both days to finish with a 162 and a three-stroke advantage over Parry.
Driver was key for Tangaro, who said he was consistently in the fairway in the second round.
“My driver was always straight and in the fairway. That was probably the best part of my game today. It kept me out of a lot of trouble,” said Tangaro.
He caught a break early in his round on No. 4 as his approach shot hit the flag stick on the fly and dropped down close to the hole, and he made par.
Without the favorable bounce, Tangaro would’ve gone well past the green and been in danger of double-bogeying.
“It was a good thing he hit the flag,” said Tangaro.
A year ago Tangaro finished tied for third at state, and it gave him the confidence that he could get over the hump as a senior.
“When I saw last year how good I did against the 2024 class I knew had a shot so I came into this year knowing I’m not going to let anybody else outwork me. I’m going to do the most I can to win,” said Tangaro.
Behind Tangaro in first and Parry in second, Valley’s Ivan Spencer and Piute’s Swade Olsen tied for third with 167s, followed by Monticello’s Traken Lee in fifth with a 169.
The Utah town with no golf course is now home to a state championship girls golf team.
Manila High captured the 1A state championship at Lakeside Golf Course in Bountiful on Wednesday as it shot a 392 to edge Monticello by 16 strokes for its first state title in school history.
The Mustangs placed four golfers in the top 10, including medalist Abby Schofield, who won it as a sophomore and finished second a year ago.
But the team title is what Schofield was most pleased with on Wednesday.
Manila sophomore Abby Schofield earned medalist honors while leading the team to the 1A State Championship title. (Photo: Utah PGA/Cassie Campos)
“I’m gonna be honest, the team title means the most to me just because all my friends, the support I’ve had through them has been amazing. If I didn’t have them I couldn’t do it, and I really have to thank all my junior friends because they really helped me through the season just keeping me positive and never let me down,” said Schofield.
Without a golf course nearby, Manila’s golfers practice mostly on a golf simulator unless they drive the hour and a half to a nearest golf course in Green River, Wyoming or Vernal.
Schofield said the simulator is good driver and longer irons, but nothing replicates the touch around the green like a real course.
Manila did it better than anyone else on Wednesday. Last year’s state champ Monticello finished runner-up with a 408, while Valley finished third with a 417.
Manila coach Jay Schofield had a hunch his team would be in the hunt for the title if Schofield shot in the low 80s and all of his other golfers broke 110. He also reminded them to have fun.
Manila junior Kallie Bair shot a 101 to finish tied for fifth, while junior Sadie Davis and sophomore Janie Christensen tied for eighth. The other two golfers whose scores didn’t count toward the team title both shot right around where their coach hoped they’d be, with Reagan Brown shooting a 107 and Kate Bambrough a 112.
“The six girls, the time, the dedication, they work hard every single day,” said Schofield.
He added that his daughter in particular was extra motivated this year after finishing second at state last season, two strokes behind the leader.
“She put in the time and effort to make sure that she was going to be competitive. It’s really on her, all the time she put into it,” said coach Schofield.
Abby Schofield made the most of the par 5s on Wednesday as she made two birdies and an eagle to finish with an 83. She drained a long putt for eagle on No. 6 after a great approach shot.
Monticello’s Elise Lewis finished runner up with a 94, while teammate Cambree Chamberlain finished third with a 97. Valley’s Rachel Cox was the other golfer to break 100 as she shot a 99 for fourth place.
Waterford’s Evelyn Azares knew she’d hit a great approach shot, but even she was stunned when she walked onto the No. 18 green at Glendale Golf Course and saw that she only had a four-foot putt for birdie.
In that moment, Azares wasn’t even thinking about winning, but rather she had a shot to make birdie on her final high school hole in a career that included a 131 her freshman year.
“I hit that shot, and I knew I could not have made it go any better than that. Stepping onto the green and seeing how close that shot was, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, if I make this putt and end with a birdie, that would be amazing.’ I wasn’t even thinking about winning,” said Azares.
2A State Individual Champ, Evelyn Azares of Waterford. (Photo: Deseret News/Scott Winterton)
Tied with American Heritage’s Bethany Braddy heading into that final hole of the 2A state tournament on Tuesday, Azares rolled the birdie putt straight into the heart of the cup to capture 2A medalist honors and put the finishing touches on a remarkable career of perseverance.
“I came from shooting a 131, so now that I’m winning this it sums up all the hard work. This is so surreal for me,” said Azares, who finished fourth at state as a junior.
Azares shot a 42 on the front nine at Glendale but then settled down with a 39 on the back nine to shoot a nine-over 81.
Braddy shot an 11-over 83 to finish in second place, with Beaver’s Heidi Harris and Millard’s Lindsay Starley tying for third with 85s.
For Harris, her 85 was a season-best round, according to coach Chanda Gardner, and was one of the catalysts to Beaver’s repeat state championship.
Beaver’s depth allowed it to shoot a team score of 371, a 10-stroke improvement upon last year, when it narrowly beat Rowland Hall 381 to 383.
Beaver High girls celebrate a back-to-back 2A title run.
This year’s team title was nearly as tight, as it wasn’t until the final groups started to come in that Beaver narrowly pulled away from second-year program American Heritage, which made a 56-stroke improvement from a year ago to finish second with a 379.
Overcoming a 13-stroke deficit, Cedar played what coach Laycee Johnson called “elite level golf” on Thursday in wet, blustery conditions and won the first girls golf state championship in school history.
4A Girls Golf State Champion: Cedar High
Cedar came in at 106-over 682, while Green Canyon placed second at 110-over 686; Crimson Cliffs, which led after the first day, took third at 111-over 687.
Cedar, of course, is one of the oldest high schools in the state; Crimson Cliffs, from the St. George area, and Green Canyon, near Logan, are two of the newest.
Crimson Cliffs, one of Cedar’s Region 9 rivals, didn’t go home empty handed, however, after having a six-shot lead when Thursday began.
Crimson Cliffs sophomore Kate Walker repeated as 4A medalist, firing a closing-round 77 Thursday after Wednesday’s sparkling 65 had given her a commanding lead in the individual championship.
4A individual champion, Kate Walker of Crimson Cliffs. (Photo: Fairways Media Garrit Johnson)
“It took so much hard work and time and dedication to accomplish my goal,” Walker said. “Every year, that is my goal — to win state, because I know that I can.”
Conditions were considerably more difficult Thursday, with wind, rain and even hail battering the golfers at the course in Saratoga Springs on the west shores of Utah Lake.
“The first day my goal was to go low, and I did,” said Walker, who is also an accomplished swimmer, having placed fourth in the 100 butterfly at the 4A state swim meet.
“The second day, keeping the lead was my goal, and I did that. It didn’t go as planned, but it was good.”
Crimson Cliffs’ Kate Walker opened the tournament with a (-7) 65 at TalonsCove Golf Club. (Photo: Fairways Media Garrit Johnson)
That 7-under 65 is going to draw the attention of more college coaches, who can begin contacting her on June 15, per NCAA rules. She said she wants to commit relatively early and just focus on improving her already stellar game.
“BYU would be awesome,” she said.
Walker calls herself “self-motivated” and “driven” and noted that St. George-area pros Reed McArthur and Doug Roberts have helped her a lot with her game, along with her father, Jason Walker, whom she claims she can “beat pretty easily.”
Orem’s Kaylee Westfall placed second at 9-over 153, while Pine View’s Alyssa Butterfus was third at +11.
Pine View dropped to seventh in the team race after having won the last three 4A state team titles.
For Cedar, which won its first region championship last week, it was the culmination of a lot of hard work that began years ago, its coach said.
“These girls set high goals this year and they did everything I asked them to do,” said Johnson. “Our team motto was ‘be elite,’ and that was to be positive, believe and be confident in every swing, and that is exactly what those girls did today.”
Cedar’s top finisher was Taylyn Wilson, who came in fifth at 18-over 162. RaeLee Johnson, the coach’s daughter, tied for seventh, while Breelle Evans was 12th, Denym John was 29th and Rachel Blodgett was 52nd.
“They are the best of friends. They cheered everybody on. If you wanted a dream team to coach, that was those girls,” Johnson said. “They are amazing. They are great in school, academically. They are the nicest girls you will ever meet.”
And now they are state champions.
Story by Deseret News sportswriter, Jay Drew. Republished with permission.
