Provo • Ten years ago, Garrett Fotu’s future in golf looked bright.

The second cousin of PGA Tour star Tony Finau qualified for the U.S. Amateur as a 16-year-old Lone Peak High phenom, won Utah high school individual and team championships and earned a scholarship to the University of Minnesota.

But after attending Minnesota for a semester, followed by a stint at a junior college in Texas, a church mission to Seattle and a year with the BYU golf team before getting cut, Fotu was starting to lose his passion for the sport.

He turned pro in the summer of 2015, but after an unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the PGA Tour, and with his wife expecting their first child, Fotu gave up the game.

Well, he’s back.

Now 26, the Centerville resident finds himself tied for second place with another Utahn, Hurricane’s Dusty Fielding, in the 92nd Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open after two rounds at Riverside Country Club in Provo. Fotu shot a 7-under par 65 on Saturday and is at 11-under 133, a shot behind Colorado’s Zahkai Brown, low pro in the last two Utah Opens.

Brown, Fotu and Fielding will be in the final group Sunday, teeing off at 11:30 a.m. in the race for the $20,000 first-place check.

“I didn’t think I would be in this position, honestly,” Fotu said. “I thought I would have to shoot a little bit lower. But I am glad I was able to grind it out and play smart down the end and make a couple birdies coming in. But I mean, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. It is kind of surreal. … But I feel confident and am especially humbled just to be in this situation.”

Oddly, while Fotu is making a comeback in competitive professional golf, Fielding, 35, is contemplating retirement. He told The Salt Lake Tribune that next month’s Sand Hollow Open might be his last tournament as a playing professional.

As for Fotu, whose father Manase is cousins with Tony Finau’s father, Kelepi, he was working in corporate branding sales for his father-in-law until about a year ago, when he got the bug to give a career in golf one more try.

“I can’t explain it any other way. It was just divine intervention,” Fotu said when asked why he came back. “I just felt like it was what I needed to do, and Heavenly Father needed me to do. I think that is where my passion has really burned, from that thought and that prompting, and I have been able to ride that from there ever since.”

Fotu had a top-five finish at the Provo Open in June, but didn’t see this coming. However, he’s received some mentoring from his more famous golfing cousin and is now hoping to follow in Finau’s footsteps.

“Hopefully I am able to fast track off him and kinda catch his draft all the way to the PGA Tour,” Fotu said.

Samuel Saunders of New Mexico took the lead midway through his round Saturday afternoon, but made bogeys on his final three holes and dropped to fourth with a two-day total of 134.

“Yeah, I had it going and then I totally gave it away there at the end,” said Saunders, 26. “So I am upset about that. But it’s OK, I played really well for 15 holes. I am probably in pretty good shape for tomorrow, so that’s good.”

Saunders, who goes by Sam, is often confused with another pro golfer by the name of Sam Saunders. However, that Sam Saunders is the grandson of golf legend Arnold Palmer and is on the PGA Tour.

How often are they mixed up?

“Every single time, pretty much,” Saunders said. “I have never met him, but apparently he’s a good guy.”