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Francis • A month after she was named assistant coach for both the men's and women's golf teams at Southern Utah University, Sadie Palmer is proving to her future players that she can still play the game.
Palmer, an SUU graduate who was an assistant coach at Westminster College before landing the job to assist head coach Richard Church, fired a 4-under-par 68 in windy conditions at Victory Ranch Golf Club on Tuesday and leads the stroke-play qualifying portion of the 110th Utah Women's State Amateur.
"First of all, it was really fun," Palmer said after what she called one of the better rounds — but not the best — of her career. "I really enjoyed it. Making four birdies in a row is always nice."
The second and final round of stroke play will be held Wednesday, and the low 15 golfers plus defending champion Kelsey Chugg, who shot a non-counting 80, will enter match play on Thursday.
A Tooele native, Palmer opened with a bogey on the first hole when she misjudged the speed of the greens and knocked her first putt off the slick green. She recovered nicely, shooting an even-par 36 on the front nine before going on a birdie binge on the back nine.
She birdied the 475-yard par-5 12th hole and then reeled off birdies on holes 14-17 with putts ranging from 3-8 feet before making a bogey on the difficult par-4 18th.
"It really came down to the fact that I was hitting it close all day," Palmer said, noting that 65 is her career low round. Despite being one of the top female golfers in the state the past 10 years, Palmer has never won this tournament. She was runner-up to Natalie Stone in 2010.
A pair of high school golfers, Provo's Naomi Soifua and Bingham's Tess Blair, are tied for second place, five shots back of Palmer at 73. BYU golfer Brooklyn Hocker, last year's runner-up, is alone in fourth place at 74.
Blair is the younger sister of 2014 champion Sirene Blair, a San Diego State golfer who is skipping the State Am because she qualified to play in the U.S. Women's Amateur in Springfield, Pa. Soifua, 17, won the Women's Stroke-Play Championship last month at Bountiful Ridge.
Current and former BYU golfers Kendra Dalton and Lea Garner are at 3-over 75 along with SUU golfer Miranda Reyes of Mesa, Ariz., and former University of Montana golfer Tara Green, a Weber High product from Harrisville in the Ogden area.