(Scott Sommerdorf | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kelsey Chugg (Weber St.) holds up the winner's trophy after she defeated Anna Kennedy (BYU) to win the 111th Utah Womens State Amateur Championship held at Davis Park Golf Course in Fruit Heights, Friday, August 4, 2017.
Fruit Heights • Utah Golf Association membership director Kelsey Chugg won the Utah Women’s State Amateur golf tournament for the fourth time on Friday afternoon, defeating BYU golfer Anna Kennedy 2 up in the championship match.
Chugg, 26, didn’t play flawless golf at Davis Park Golf Club, not too far from the course she grew up playing, Schneiter’s Riverside Golf Course. But her putting was terrific.
She also won the Women’s State Am in 2012, 2013 and 2015.
Kennedy, a 20-year-old from Parker, Colo., never led in the championship match. Chugg won the fourth hole with a par and never relinquished the lead. She pushed the lead to two holes with a birdie on No. 8 and three holes with a par on No. 13.
Kennedy won No. 15 with a birdie and No. 17 with a par to trim the deficit to one hole, but Chugg sank a putt for par on the 18th green to clinch the championship.
In the semifinals Friday morning, Chugg defeated Provo teenager Naomi Soifua 1 up in a rematch of the 2012 championship match that Chugg won at Logan Golf & Country Club despite getting stung by a bee on the 13th hole.
Soifua, who played in the Men’s State Amateur last month, grabbed a quick lead with a birdie on the opening hole. But Chugg took control with birdies on hole Nos. 2 and 3 and never trailed after that.
Soifua made a late charge and squared the match with a par on No. 16, but Chugg sank clutch birdie putts on No. 17 and No. 18 to make it to the finals for the fourth time in six years.
Kennedy played in six events for BYU in the 2016-17 season, but was not among the team’s top five players. She stumbled early in her semifinal win over another Cougar golfer, Annie Yang, but recovered nicely and used the three par-3s on the back nine to take the lead. She closed out the match on the 17th hole to make it to the championship match for the first time.
Chugg’s march to her fourth title was difficult the entire way. She needed 21 holes to defeat Weber State’s Kiselya Plewe in a Round of 16 match Thursday morning, and 19 holes to oust defending champion Kendra Dalton in the quarterfinals Thursday afternoon.