Utah Men’s State Am: Layton High alum Liechty tied for 2nd after one qualifying round
Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner
Layton High golfer David Liechty takes a shot during the 6A boys golf state championship at Davis Park Golf Course in October 2021.Recent Layton High School graduate David Liechty shot a 1-over-par 72 to finish in a three-way tie for second place after the first round of stroke-play qualifying for the Utah Men’s State Amateur golf tournament at the Salt Lake Country Club.
Liechty, who is signed to play college golf at Utah Tech following a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, shot even par on the front nine, had a double bogey on the back nine, yet still finished as the top area golfer in the first round.
Shooting 5-over 76 and finishing tied for 20th were Weber State golfers Brendan Thomas and Hayden Banz, Tanner Telford (University of Utah golfer, Morgan High alumnus) and Reed Nielsen (playing out of Layton’s Valley View Golf Course).
Weber County teenager Parker Bunn, a two-time defending Region 5 champion on Bonneville High’s boys golf team, shot 6-over 77 and stands tied for 34th. Bunn has verbally committed to play college golf at Oklahoma State after high school.
Brennan Coburn (Layton High, Utah State, Valley View GC) shot 6-over. Gavin Campbell (Valley View) is tied for 60th at 8-over.
David Jennings (Valley View), Braxton Watts (Farmington High alum, Utah Utes golfer) and Rand Sargent (Valley View) are all 9-over and tied for 72nd.
Davis Johnson of Scottsdale, Arizona, shot 3-under to lead stroke-play qualifying.
The second round of qualifying starts at 7 a.m. Tuesday and is expected to finish after 9 p.m. Monday’s first round finished at about 9:10 p.m.
The top 64 golfers after both rounds of stroke-play qualifying will advance to the match-play portion of the tournament, which begins Wednesday with the rounds of 64 and 32. There will be a playoff to decide the final match play spots on Wednesday morning.
A complete and live-updating leaderboard can be found online on the Utah Golf Association website (uga.org) or at golfgenius.com/pages/3982041.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified David Liechty.