One of those exemptions is Weber High alum Connor Howe, meaning a relative hometown return as the Utah Championship moves to Ogden Golf & Country Club for the first time.

It will be Howe’s second go at the Utah Championship. Howe made the cut in the 2024 event held at Oakridge Country Club in Farmington, then shot a bogey-free final round to score 15-under and tie for 36th.

Howe, 25, won individual high school state titles in 2016 and 2017 before a five-year career at Georgia Tech. He helped the Yellow Jackets reach the final day as national runner-up in the 2023 NCAA championship tournament. Georgia Tech won two ACC championships in Howe’s time there. Howe recently finished third at the Colonial Classic on the GPro Tour.

The Korn Ferry Tour is the PGA Tour’s undercard tournament that qualifies top players for a PGA Tour card. The Utah Championship began in 1990 as the Utah Classic, then on the Ben Hogan Tour. The first seven tournaments were in Provo, the next 16 in Sandy, spent two years at Thanksgiving Point, and was in Farmington since 2017.

KFT and the Utah Sports Commission announced in October 2024 that the tournament would move to Ogden Golf & Country Club, where it will be played at least for the next three years.

The other exemptions went to Peter Kuest and Kihei Akina. Kuest, 27, is a BYU alum who finished fifth in the 2022 Utah Championship and has played in 15 KFT events this year. Akina, 19, won three state titles at Lone Peak and is committed to BYU. He finished 49th in the 2024 Utah Championship and missed the cut by one stroke at the PGA Tour’s Black Desert Championship.

The Utah Championship is scheduled July 31 through Aug. 3. Ticket sales and other spectator information is available online at utahchampionship.com.