This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Farmington • Christian Brand stepped out of the scoring tent just before noon Friday, happy with everything about his second round of the Utah Championship.

And then Kyle Wilshire teed off shortly afterward and birdied the first seven holes. Brand's lead? Gone. He can keep his course record, though.

Brand's 10-under-par 61 and Wilshire's 62 headlined another day of birdie-making frenzy at Oakridge Country Club in the $700,000 Web.com Tour event, presented by Zions Bank. For weekend golfers thinking about changing putters, these guys' results should be convincing. They're making seemingly everything and positioning themselves for a big breakthrough this weekend, although their low scores barely distinguish them from the field.

Wilshire is 16 under par, two strokes ahead of Brand. Four players are 13 under. Not even changing one of Oakridge's par-5 holes (No. 10) to a par-4 is deterring the low numbers. The cut came at 6 under. Of the two Utahns competing, Joe Parkinson (72-69) came the closest, missing by five shots. Gipper Finau (75-74) tied for last among the 153 golfers who completed 36 holes.

Parkinson was one of 129 players shooting under par for two rounds, with 77 of them returning for the weekend. Oakridge is short, especially for golfers adjusting to higher altitude, but not as easy as touring pros are making it look.

Wilshire's opening run of seven birdies came on the back nine, as the members play the course. At that stage, he had played 25 holes and stood 14 under. He wobbled with a bogey on the par-3 No. 11, but birdied three of his last four holes.

Brand shot an 11-under-par 61 on the SwingThought Tour in Nebraska almost exactly a year ago. He posted a 27-under total to win the mini-tour event by seven strokes, earning $4,500. Sunday's winner will collect $126,000 and likely advance to the PGA Tour in October.

Chesson Hadley is there this weekend, using his partial PGA Tour access to play in the John Deere Classic after winning the Web.com Tour's recent New York stop. He's tied for fifth in Illinois, validating the strength of the Web.com Tour — as Wilshire, Brand and others are doing at Oakridge.

"You shoot low scores when you're not even really trying. … You're not even thinking, you're just playing," Wilshire said. "It's not something I'm uncomfortable with. This is why you play, man — go out and shoot the low score. You're trying to win."

Wilshire, a former Central Florida golfer, and Brand, a West Virginian from Marshall University, each could use a victory, Wilshire's best finish this season is a tie for 38th place, while he has played a full schedule. Brand started the season with conditional status and took advantage of a sponsor exemption to post two top-25 finishes, giving himself more playing opportunities.

Brand's 61 came after he bogeyed his first hole, No. 10. He immediately launched a five-birdie run and made 11 of them in all, topped by a 40-foot putt on No. 9 after a bad break. Having his ball land in a big divot in the fairway is not ordinarily what happens during a round of 61, but Brand responded well. Sizing up the last putt, he told his local caddie, Jarrick Tilby, "Let's pick a line and be aggressive."

That method worked again. "We just stayed positive, chatted, joked around and envisioned good shots all day," Tilby said.

Much more good stuff will be required this weekend, with a lot more birdies to be made. As Wilshire said, "It's important just to keep the pedal down."

Twitter: @tribkurt —

Utah Championship scores

At Oakridge Country Club

Farmington, Utah

Purse: $700,000

Yardage: 7,045 ; Par 71 (36-35)

Second round

Kyle Wilshire 64-62 — 126

Christian Brand 67-61 — 128

Rob Oppenheim 66-63 — 129

Tyler Duncan 63-66 — 129

Taylor Moore 66-63 — 129

Brice Garnett 64-65 — 129

Abraham Ancer 67-63 — 130

James Driscoll 62-68 — 130

Lanto Griffin 66-65 — 131

Jim Knous 67-65 — 132

Billy Kennerly 66-66 — 132

Luke Guthrie 67-65 — 132

Greg Eason 69-63 — 132

Denny McCarthy 69-63 — 132

Adam Long 67-65 — 132

Sam Ryder 67-65 — 132

Samuel Del Val 67-65 — 132

Blake Adams 68-64 — 132

Adam Schenk 65-67 — 132

Ben Silverman 66-67 — 133

Michael Gellerman 65-68 — 133

Andrew Landry 68-65 — 133

Mark Anguiano 68-65 — 133

John Chin 68-65 — 133

Tom Lovelady 65-68 — 133

D.H. Lee 66-67 — 133

Zecheng Dou 66-67 — 133

Byron Smith 66-68 — 134

Charlie Saxon 70-64 — 134

Matt Harmon 66-68 — 134

Wes Roach 64-70 — 134

Kurt Kitayama 69-65 — 134

Dan Woltman 68-66 — 134

Jimmy Gunn 69-65 — 134

Erik Barnes 70-64 — 134

Roberto Diaz 66-68 — 134

Jacques Blaauw 66-68 — 134

Jason Gore 67-67 — 134

Alexandre Rocha 69-66 — 135

Matt Atkins 62-73 — 135

Michael Johnson 69-66 — 135

Sepp Straka 67-68 — 135

Vince Covello 66-69 — 135

Bo Hoag 67-68 — 135

Andrew Yun 67-68 — 135

Andrew Putnam 69-66 — 135

Brian Davis 66-69 — 135

Jeff Gove 68-67 — 135

Tommy Gainey 67-68 — 135

Blake D. Trimble 69-66 — 135

Anders Albertson 67-68 — 135

Peter Lonard 70-65 — 135

David Skinns 65-70 — 135

Max Marsico 66-69 — 135

Carlos Ortiz 68-67 — 135

Nate Lashley 67-68 — 135

Mark Hensby 67-68 — 135

Michael Arnaud 67-68 — 135

Zack Fischer 67-69 — 136

Jeremy Paul 68-68 — 136

Austin Cook 67-69 — 136

Chris Naegel 70-66 — 136

Michael Letzig 69-67 — 136

Jon Curran 68-68 — 136

Max Rottluff 68-68 — 136

Scott Gutschewski 67-69 — 136

Dawie van der Walt 68-68 — 136

Greg Yates 72-64 — 136

Ben J. Campbell 70-66 — 136

Ben Taylor 67-69 — 136

Scott Harrington 66-70 — 136

Roger Sloan 67-69 — 136

Brandon Harkins 66-70 — 136

Nicholas Thompson 65-71 — 136

Corey Conners 66-70 — 136

Beau Hossler 68-68 — 136

Aaron Wise 70-66 — 136 Failed to make the cut

Alex Prugh 69-68 — 137

Henrik Norlander 66-71 — 137

Sebastian Cappelen 72-65 — 137

Talor Gooch 69-68 — 137

Justin Lower 70-67 — 137

Ted Potter, Jr. 69-68 — 137

Dan McCarthy 69-68 — 137

Michael Hebert 69-68 — 137

Drew Weaver 68-69 — 137

John Mallinger 68-69 — 137

Jamie Arnold 69-68 — 137

Stephan Jaeger 71-66 — 137

Kyoung-Hoon Lee 69-68 — 137

Len Mattiace 69-69 — 138

Chris Baker 70-68 — 138

Adam Svensson 70-68 — 138

Andrew Svoboda 69-69 — 138

Derek Ernst 69-69 — 138

Albin Choi 69-69 — 138

Ryan Yip 67-71 — 138

Conrad Shindler 71-67 — 138

Nick Rousey 71-68 — 139

Paul Barjon 71-68 — 139

Alex Kang 72-67 — 139

Travis Gonda 70-69 — 139

Sebastian Vazquez 67-72 — 139

Justin Shin 68-71 — 139

Vince India 65-74 — 139

Ethan Tracy 66-73 — 139

Taewoo Kim 69-70 — 139

Justin Hueber 67-72 — 139

Seth Reeves 70-69 — 139

Jake Sarnoff 68-71 — 139

Armando Favela 70-70 — 140

Ken Looper 70-70 — 140

Jarin Todd 71-69 — 140

Eric Steger 73-67 — 140

Daniel Chopra 71-69 — 140

Kyle Thompson 70-70 — 140

Scott Smith 73-67 — 140

Steve Allan 72-68 — 140

Marc Turnesa 71-69 — 140

Erik Compton 67-73 — 140

Ben Kohles 69-71 — 140

Bryan Bigley 68-72 — 140

Jin Park 68-72 — 140

Chase Parker 70-70 — 140

James Erkenbeck 69-71 — 140

Timothy Madigan 73-68 — 141

Joe Parkinson 72-69 — 141

Xinjun Zhang 71-70 — 141

A.J. McInerney 70-71 — 141

Also

Gipper Finau 75-74 — 149