by Jay Drew
Jay Drew is a sports writer for the Salt Lake Tribune and a frequent contributor to Fairways

Winter - February - 07
2007 Utah Golf Preview

One of the most memorable years in Utah golf history unfolded in 2006, leaving the state’s golf enthusiasts with one singular question: What will 2007 bring?

A year after amateur Clay Ogden played in the Masters, BYU star Rachel Newren won the Women’s State Am at The Country Club of Salt Lake City, Tony Finau became one of the youngest winners in Men’s State Amateur history and Annika Sorenstam played in the Champions Challenge, 2007 promises to produce more of the same.

While the tournaments themselves stole the headlines in 2006, look for Utah’s ever-growing crop of outstanding golfers to crowd back into the picture this year.

Here’s a look at what else Utah golf fans will be following this season:

Finau Follows Up
Finau, the West High senior who won the State Amateur at Soldier Hollow Golf Course last July, will make news shortly when he announces where he will play his college golf. Then he will defend his State Am title at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club July 11-15 in Lehi.

The State Am was last held at Thanksgiving Point in 2003, and will also return to its normal format, after the field was doubled last year to take advantage of Soldier Hollow’s two 18-hole layouts.

Finau assuredly will be one of the favorites, but he will have plenty of company. BYU golfer Daniel Summerhays, who lost to Finau in the 2006 championship match, started 2007 well by winning the St. George Amateur, and was one of the hottest college golfers in the country last fall. The McRae brothers — Michael and Robert — will also be in the hunt, after phenomenal seasons in 2006.

Women’s Am Encore
Shortly after winning the Women’s State Am in 2006, Newren said it would be her last, because she plans on turning pro early this summer when her eligibility concludes at BYU.

This year’s tournament is July 30-Aug. 2 at Park City Municipal Golf Club.

The 101st is wide open with Newren’s departure, and it will be interesting to see the caliber of the field after the event at The Country Club drew the best field in years.

The former champions that Rachel Newren beat in August—BYU Women’s golf coach Sue Nyhus, Lachell Poffenberger and Tenille Howe-Slack—will be back in the role as favorites, along with 2006’s biggest surprise, Lynsey Myers.

The Professional Events
The Utah EnergySolutions Champions is back once again on the Utah golf calendar and is probably second only to the Champion’s Challenge as the state’s premier golf event for spectators.

The 2007 event on the Nationwide Tour will be held Sept. 5-9 at Willow Creek Country Club, but won’t include the defending champion.

Craig Kanada won the Nationwide Tour Championship at the Houstonian after taking the Utah event and earned his PGA Tour card.

Kanada returns to the big tour for the first time since 2001 after finishing 11th on the Nationwide money list. The Utah win was his first in 212 starts on the Nationwide Tour. He came back from a three-stroke deficit to Bryce Molder and downed Molder and three others by a shot.

This year’s Utah EnergySolutions Championship will be televised by the Golf Channel.

Speaking of the Champion’s Challenge, the popular scramble that annually brings some of golf’s biggest names to Utah will be held at Thanksgiving Point August 20-21.

Last year, tournament host and course designer Johnny Miller and his son, Andy Miller, shot a tournament-record 18-under-par to win, the first time the elder Miller has won his own tournament.

The Millers edged Annika and Charlotta Sorenstam, who shot 15-under.

The premier tournament for local pros, Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open, will move to Oakridge Country Club in Farmington this year after being held at TalonsCove in Saratoga Springs the last two years.

Bountiful’s Pete Stone won the event and the $15,000 first-place check and earned an exemption into the Utah EnergySolutions Championship for his efforts.

Another tournament always on the radar of Utah’s top pros is the Provo Open. This year’s Provo Open will be contested May 31-June 2 at The Reserve at East Bay Golf Club. Local favorite and defending champion Brett Wayment should be back to go for two in a row.

Utahns on Tour
Draper’s Mike Weir, the former Brigham Young standout, put together another solid year in 2006 and finished in the top 40 (No. 33) on the PGA Tour money list for the sixth time in the last eight seasons. The Canadian has reported that his back and neck injuries of the past few years have seemingly healed, and he is ready to return to his pre-2005 form.

Another former Cougar, Dean Wilson, is Utah’s only other current PGA Tour regular. Wilson, who lives in Las Vegas, played in the season-opening Mercedes Championship at Kapalua’s Plantation Course thanks to his win in the 2006 International. Wilson had his best season ever in his fourth full season on Tour, and finished 22nd on the season-ending money list.

Four other Utahns — Brad Sutterfield, Boyd Summerhays, Garrett Clegg and Steve Schneiter — came close to earning their Tour cards at the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in December, but all four came up short of finishing in the top 30.

All four will have varying status on the Nationwide Tour this year, along with Provo’s Dan Forsman, Sandy’s Todd Tanner and St. George’s Jay Don Blake.

The 2007 Champions Tour will again include two Utahns, Provo’s Mike Reid and Farmington’s Bruce Summerhays. Both were entered in the first Champions Tour event of 2007, the Turtle Bay Classic in Hawaii in late January.

Annie on Tour
Highland’s Annie (Thurman) Young had conditional status on the LPGA Tour in 2006 by posting a five-round total of 371 at that tour’s qualifying tournament. However, she was able to play in only five events — two via her LPGA status and three via Monday-qualifying — and made the cut in just one.

She finished 31st on the Futures Tour money list and played in three events on the Cactus Tour, finishing in the top five in all three.

Young made the cut at the LPGA Tour Qualifying Tournament in December, but failed to make the top 15 to earn LPGA Tour privileges this year.

That means she will return to the Cactus and Futures tours in hopes of finishing in the top five in either, or both.

The Rising Juniors
As previously noted, the biggest news from Utah’s junior golf ranks this year should come from West High’s Tony Finau, one of the most-recruited golfers in state history.
Finau’s younger brother, West junior Gipper Finau, will also again be one of the state’s top juniors. Last summer, he became the youngest golfer to make a cut in Nationwide Tour history at the Utah event.

Ogden’s Jeffrey Jones, Patrick Fishburn and Denny Job, Santaquin’s Garrett Moss and Brigham City’s Joseph Wight are also considered among the state’s top juniors.

The top female juniors in the state this summer should be Alpine’s Selu Fotu and Salt Lake City’s Jenteal Jackson. Sami Crouch of Park City is also worth watching.