Farmington • Daniel Summerhays is feeling comfortable about playing as a co-leader in Sunday’s final round of the Utah Championship, figuring he has experienced every possible outcome.
That’s not quite true. Partly due to his unusual entry point of professional golf, he never has won a tournament that offered him prize money. That could change at Oakridge Country Club, where a home-course victory would add another chapter to a family history of more than 50 years at this venue – covering the exploits of himself and his brother, father, uncle and nephew.
None of those performances in the State Amateur or the Utah Open, though, provided any immediate rewards resembling what’s available to Summerhays, who’s tied with Justin Lower at 11 under par after posting 66-68-68. The $130,500 check and 500 points would move him inside the Korn Ferry Tour’s top 25 for the season and give him genuine hopes of returning to the PGA Tour at age 35.
All of that is a bonus to Summerhays, who’s motivated to win just because of what the achievement would feel like to him and the hundreds of friends and relatives who created undoubtedly the biggest gallery in the tour’s 30-year history at four venues in Utah. “I’m actually just flat-out excited to see what [Sunday] holds,” Summerhays said.
It should be a wild adventure, with seven players within two shots of Summerhays and Lower. So this Sunday round at Oakridge won’t be a case of match play between two golfers, as with Summerhays and Billy Harvey in the 2000 State Am. There’s much more to tell about the Summerhayses and Oakridge, with highlights including wins for Bruce Summerhays (Daniel’s uncle) in the 1966 State Am and the 2008 Utah Open at age 64, plus a State Am win last June for Preston Summerhays (Daniel’s nephew) at 15 and near-misses in big events for other, closer relatives.
Daniel Summerhays will be fighting his own final-twosome memories as a pro golfer, even though he completed a victory on this tour as an amateur from BYU in 2007. That win in Ohio gave him reason to turn pro, partly explaining why he has played at this level or higher for 13 seasons without winning – having never gone through the mini-tour stage as many pro golfers do.
Summerhays took a three-stroke lead into the final round of the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament in 2017 and tied for 10th place. On this tour, he played in the last twosome in Knoxville, Tenn., in May 2018 and tied for seventh. He believes he has learned from those experiences, and feels “zero pressure” to perform in front of his fans.
“It’ll be easier, because they love me no matter what, and they’ve all seen me do some really bad things on the golf course,” he said, laughing. “And some great things.”
Summerhays held a two-stroke lead late in Saturday’s round, but he three-putted No. 17 for a bogey after a wedge shot “baffled” him by coming up way short. Right about then, Lower was making a 30-foot birdie putt on No. 18.
Lower played in the final group in Louisiana in March and finished second. “I know with Danny, he’s going to be the crowd favorite,” Lower said, so his strategy will be to “try to ignore everything else and just focus on the game. … It’s nerve-wracking, for sure, but it’s fun. It’s where you want to be, it’s what you live for, it’s why we do it.”
In addition to Summerhays’ quest, two other Utahns have a lot of incentive Sunday. Former BYU golfer Zac Blair and Park City’s Steele DeWald are tied for 22nd place. Blair, who settled for a 71 after playing the back nine (the front nine for Oakridge members) 2 over par Saturday, can move up in the tour standings with a good showing. DeWald, playing as a Monday qualifier, would advance to the next event in western New York with a top-25 finish after giving himself a chance with a third-round 67.
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Storylines
Farmington product Daniel Summerhays is tied for the lead with Justin Lower in the Utah Championship, going into Sunday’s final round at Oakridge Country Club. They will tee off at 3 p.m.
• Seven other players are within two strokes, including the Korn Ferry Tour’s Nos. 2 (Robby Shelton) and 4 (Lanto Griffin) players.
• Park City’s Steele DeWald is tied for 22nd and can advance to the tour’s next stop with a top-25 finish.
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