Watts Cookin'
by Joe Watts
Joe Watts is the executive director of the Utah Golf Association

Summer - August - 05
The Utah State Am
The Oldest Continuous Tournament in the World

During the U.S. Open a television commentator made the statement that the North-South Amateur was the oldest continuous tournament in the world. The next day we had several calls at our office wondering about the validity of the statement. As you are probably aware, the Utah State Amateur is the oldest continuously held tournament in the world, not the North-South Amateur.

The North-South Amateur started in 1901, and the Utah State Amateur crowned its first champion in 1899. The California Amateur actually got started in 1900 and is also older than the North-South.

This statement is just more evidence that news travels faster from east to west than from west to east. In this case it’s been a century and the news about the Utah State Am still hasn’t reached the promoters of the North-South Amateur.

This year’s Utah State Am held at Wolf Creek Resort in the beautiful and serene Ogden Valley was a testament to the improved skill level of amateur golfers in the state.

There were about 725 entries in this year’s State Am that had a USGA Handicap Index limit of 9.9. Nine qualifying events later, the field had been cut to 148 players for the 36-hole stroke play test at Wolf Creek.

Ranked by handicaps this was by far the strongest field in the history of the tournament. Incredibly, more than half the 148 players were zero or plus handicaps. The median handicap, i.e. the 74th player in handicap ranking, was zero. The highest handicap to reach the 148 field had a 6.9 index.

There was a remarkable co-relation between the handicaps of the 148 players and those who made the final 32. If the 148 player field would have finished in direct handicap order the 32nd ranked player would have had a plus 1.1 handicap index. Of the actual 32 players who made it to match play, 23 of them had plus 1.1 indexes or higher. Of the final 32 all but three players had plus handicaps and the highest handicapper of the 32 players making it to match play was 1.2.

The tournament is an ideal blend of stroke play and match play. The stroke play portion eliminates all pretenders. The match play portion pits the very best in head-to-head matches.

After all was said and done the mantle of greatness fell on 18-year-old Michael McRae. His 36-hole championship match performance is best described as ‘steady and mature.’ He bogeyed only twice, and after losing holes to an ace and a spectacular birdie, he dug in and won four straight holes by going birdie, eagle, par, par to win on the 31st hole.

Winning the State Am is a huge achievement — even life altering for young Michael McRae. He will carry the title Utah State Am champion for the rest of his life. Sure, as former champion Glen Spencer said in the Champions Breakfast, “the new champion will still have some rounds in the 80s, and will oftentimes feel unworthy of the title, even embarrassed by it, but nevertheless, it will define him for years to come.”

We had 11 former champions get up in the early morning to drive to Wolf Creek for a 7 a.m. Champions Breakfast.

Bill Korns, who won it six times, is the tournament icon. He was greeted with great respect by the 32 match play finalists and all the other champions. Those in attendance included three-time champion Doug Bybee, two-time champions Arlen Peacock and Daniel Summerhays, along with other champions Todd Barker, Jon Mauss, Glen Spencer, Jason Wight, Steve Borget, Tommy Sharp, and Clark Rustand. Now Michael McRae will be joining this illustrious group at our future breakfasts.

Tommy Sharp made a very special effort to be to the breakfast and flew in from Phoenix where he has started his professional career. The trip was purely to pay his respect to the tournament, but he also ended up caddying for Pete Stone.

Doug Bybee, who still has competitive desires and is just three match victories shy of equaling the record of 37 held by Bill Korns, has a hard time coming to the breakfast when he hasn’t made it to match play. It tears him up not to qualify, but he always drags out of bed the next morning to come to the breakfast. Bybee has played in more matches than anyone else in history, 45, but Korns has a 37-5 record and Bybee stands at 34-11.

Bybee racked up three State Am titles in the 90s and created some talk about the possibility that someone could actually equal the record of six by Korns. That talk has quieted.

Then came Daniel Summerhays with back-to-back wins as a teenager and the talk became realistic. One of the great disappointments this year came when Daniel broke his toe playing volleyball two days before the tournament. He had just returned from an LDS Mission to Chile and was getting his game in shape when the accident sidelined him from this year’s event.

A wrap up of this year’s State Am wouldn’t be complete without a very special ‘Hats Off’ to Wolf Creek Resort for the magnificent manner in which they hosted the event. It was truly exceptional. They were way ahead of us, supplying every need before it was needed. They wrapped their arms around this great tournament and gave it a huge bear hug. Thanks to Managing Partner Steve Roberts, Director of Golf Rob Thomas, and new head professional Chad Stoddard, and the many wonderful staffers. The golf course, the food service, the enthusiasm and friendliness were all memorable.