Utah Championship: Preston Summerhays finishes in top 10, leads local pack Sunday
Ogden area pulls together 'significant' effort to support tournament
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- Farmington native Preston Summerhays exits the green during the 34th Utah Championship on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Ogden Golf and Country Club in South Ogden.
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- North Ogden native Connor Howe looks on during the 34th Utah Championship on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2025, at Ogden Golf and Country Club in South Ogden.
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- Kaysville native Daniel Summerhays exits the green during the 34th Utah Championship on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2025, at Ogden Golf and Country Club in South Ogden.
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- Farmington native Preston Summerhays watches his putt during the 34th Utah Championship on Sunday, Aug. 4, 2025, at Ogden Golf and Country Club in South Ogden.
SOUTH OGDEN — It wasn’t the big prize, but Preston Summerhays won over his peers all the same.
Family, friends and fans alike dished out high-fives, fist bumps, “atta-boys” and everything under the sun as the Farmington native finished his seventh stop on the PGA’s Korn Ferry Tour.
Summerhays, a 23-year-old pro and recent Arizona State graduate, finished 15-under with the only bogeyless scorecard of all five Northern Utahns in action during the final round of the Utah Championship on Sunday at Ogden Golf and Country Club.
New York native Julian Suri emerged as the individual champion at 18-under with seven total birdies on his final round.
Summerhays finished tied for sixth at 15-under for the tournament.
Birdieing five times on Sunday, Summerhays flipped the script on his uncle, Daniel Summerhays, who opened his round tied for eighth and ahead of the younger Summerhays by two strokes when the final round began.
The elder Summerhays briefly led the field Sunday following birdies on holes 5 and 7, but ultimately slid to 12-under and tied for 22nd. He’d bogey twice on the back nine, but pick up a birdie on 17.
Turning pro earlier this year, the 23-year-old Summerhays capped his seventh Korn Ferry Tour event with birdies on holes 11, 12 and 15 upon capping his UTC run. Summerhays carded 69, 64, 67 and 65 between four rounds of golf this weekend, and knew Sunday could’ve been his lowest.
“I had the potential of having an extremely low round today,” Summerhays said. “Lots of putts that were right on the edge, barely short. But I’m pretty happy with how the week went and where my game’s at. It’s fun to do it in front of a home crowd.”
Describing his weeklong rounds, Preston Summerhays felt especially confident about seizing the course’s birdieable holes on Sunday but admitted he left a few putts out there. He’d post a tourney-high eight birdies during his 6-under second round on Friday.
“When the course does give you an opportunity to make birdie, I took advantage of those holes and hit great drives,” Summerhays said. “I’ve always been a solid iron player, so just rely on those, but I think taking advantage of the easy holes overall has been pretty good.”
Preston Summerhays exits the tournament with new expectations for his continued run on the Korn Ferry Tour, as well as new caddy candidate for the remainder of the tour and potential posteason. Grace Summerhays has lent her services to her brother’s cause all week.
“It was a lot of fun with her this week,” Preston Summerhays said. “It’s great, you know, our relationship with each other. She knows me very well, I know her very well. If I’m in a little funk, she knows how to snap me right out of it. Even today, I was playing really good and just having that couple of putts, great putts just not going in, she could tell I was a little upset and she’d just crack a joke and kind of bring me back down to reality. It’s been awesome having her on the bag.”
Another fresh college graduate, Davis High and BYU alum Cole Ponich, wrapped his first-ever pro UTC appearance 12-under and tied for 22nd alongside Daniel Summerhays. Rebounding from a tough start, Ponich birdied three times on the front nine and carded a 2-1 birdie-bogey ratio on the back.
Weber High and Georgia Tech alum Connor Howe rivaled Ponich at 11-under and tied for 37th. Howe birdied his first hole and followed up with a double-bogey on the second, but the North Ogden native went on to birdie holes 4, 5, 10, 11 and 13 to clean up his early-round fault.
Ogden native Mitchell Schow bogeyed three times on Sunday, finishing 8-under and tied for 54th.
Five locals made the cut for the first Utah Championship hosted in Ogden, which is scheduled to host two more Korn Ferry Tour tournaments through 2027. Jeff Robbins, president and CEO of the Utah Sports Commission, has ties to nearly all of them.
Led by Robbins, the Utah Sports Commission is at the heart of bringing top-tier sporting events to the Beehive State, and each played a key role in organizing the nine-year road to the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Robbins handed fellow Salt Lake native Tony Finau his first professional exemption in 2006, the same year a 16-year-old Finau defeated future colleague Daniel Summerhays at Solider Hollow in Midway. Finau hosted his annual pro-am last Monday at OGCC.
Finau, as well as Ogden native Patrick Fishburn, are current pros who’ve benefited from Robbins’ promotion of the game. Today, those resources are boosting the profiles of fledging pros Howe and both Summerhayses, who each made the cut this weekend.
“Utah’s a bit of an unkept secret in terms of this golf,” Robbins said. “You’re thinking winter, snow, so I think what we’ve done and the impact we’ve made to the community of golf is significant.”
Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski, South Ogden Mayor Russell Porter, the Weber County Commission, and the staff at OGCC were among Robbins’ highest praise for sinking their teeth into professional golf and seizing the opportunity in front of their community.
“I think if you told anyone moving an event that the first year would’ve gone this smoothly, I don’t know that they would’ve believed anyone,” Robbins said.
“What the community’s done, wrapping their arms around this, from our public officials to the club and also the citizens coming out and supporting this, it’s been remarkable and we just want to keep building on it,” Robbins said.
Connect with reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X@ctbecker.
