(Fairways Media) Blake Tomlinson hits his opening tee shot at Riverside CC in the final round of the Utah Open on Aug. 21, 2022. He would go on to make eagle the hole with a chip in on his approach shot.
Provo • For the second straight year, an unlikely “2″ decided the outcome of the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open.
For once, thanks mainly to three eagles, Blake Tomlinson finished better than No. 2 in a major Utah golf event.
The former University of Utah star, a two-time runner-up in the State Amateur in this decade, pitched in twice from just inside of 50 yards on par-4 holes and made a 35-foot putt for another eagle Sunday’s final round at Riverside Country Club. That explains why after autographing the pin flags from each hole, Tomlinson grabbed the ones from Nos. 1, 7 and 16 and carried them out of the clubhouse, along with the oversized check for $20,000.
“It’s awesome, it’s ideal … it’s incredible to win in my home state,” he said.
Tomlinson’s two-stroke victory over PGA Tour player Zac Blair of Orem and Texas pro Jere Pelletier came via a 66-67-65 showing for an 18-under-par total. His family members and friends roared as his golf ball trickled across the green on No. 16 and, while Tomlinson ran a few steps to see around a bunker, dropped into the hole.
Asked if he could distinguish the cheers of his mother, Annette, Tomlinson said, “I think everyone heard her. Got a loud family, for sure.”
They all deserved this moment, after Tomlinson was so classy in his State Am defeats. He’s only the fourth ex-Ute golfer to win the Utah Open, following Billy Johnston in 1960, Eric Hogg in 1991 and Bruce Summerhays in 2008.
Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open
(a-amateur)
198 ($20,000) – Blake Tomlinson (66-67-65). 200 ($12,000) – Jere Pelletier (69-66-65), Zac Blair (66-68-66). 202 ($7,000) – Matt Snyder (67-68-67). 203 ($6,000) – John Oda (66-68-69). 204 ($4,500) – TK Kim (68-70-66), Zahkai Brown (67-70-67). 205 ($3,700) – Ben Geyer (66-70-69), a-Zac Jones (66-68-71), Clay Ogden 67-66-72. 206 ($3,200) – Derek Fribbs (70-69-67), Brandon Kida (69-70-67), Daniel Summerhays (68-70-68), a-Kihei Akina (67-67-72). 207 ($2,800) – Kavan Eubank (72-67-68). 208 ($2,500) – Matt Marshall (74-70-64), Todd Tanner (67-75-66), a-David Timmins (65-74-69), Austen Christiansen (70-69-69).
A graduate of Skyline High School (like Hogg), Tomlinson lost to Ute teammates Mitchell Schow and Martin Leon in the State Am final matches in 2020 and ‘21. He also has delivered some impressive victories in Utah, winning the Salt Lake City Open as a teenager and making a hole-in-one on a par-4 at Bonneville GC in taking the SLC Amateur in 2020.
Those moments, along with his collegiate success in leading the Utes to their first NCAA Championship appearance in 34 years in early June, prepared Tomlinson for Sunday’s challenge amid a crowded leaderboard.
The feeling was “similar, oddly enough,” he said. “I’ve put myself in those positions quite often, and so it’s almost comfortable being uncomfortable.”
The final round began with a leaderboard that only a state open could produce, a year after Colorado pro Derek Fribbs’ double eagle on the par-5 No. 15 lifted him to a three-shot win. The co-leaders at 11 under Tomlinson, whose conditional status gave him only two starts as a rookie this summer on PGA Tour Canada, and Farmington’s Clay Ogden, a two-time Utah Open winner who only dabbles in tournament golf in his mid 30s.
Lone Peak High School sophomore Kihei Akina, one of many rising stars in the Utah Junior Golf Association, joined them in the final threesome. Also at 10-under were Blair, rehabilitating from a shoulder injury and preparing for his return to the PGA Tour; State Amateur champion Zac Jones of Lone Peak/BYU and Honolulu native John Oda, a former UNLV golfer who advanced from a playoff in Monday qualifying.
Most of those Utahns lost ground Sunday, when out-of-state players emerged as Saturday’s rain caused the course to play softer and easier – except for the mud that stuck to Blair’s ball and caused him to bogey the par-5 No. 15. Pelletier made a run with a 65, only to bogey No. 18 just as Tomlinson was making his eagle on No. 16.
Blair left Riverside feeling satisfied with his six-tournament preparation for the 2022-23 season that starts in mid-September in Napa, Calif. His goal this summer was to “get some tournament reps, see if I could golf still, see if you could ‘em when they count,” he said. “I feel like I definitely did that.”
Blair was hoping to join his father, Jimmy, as a winner of both the State Amateur and the Utah Open. He settled for a $12,000 check that added to his combined earnings of $4.5 million on the PGA and Korn Ferry Tours, while Tomlinson earned money that he needed to feed his career ambitions.
He decided the $6,500 entry fee and travel expenses for multiple stages of Korn Ferry Tour qualifying were too expensive, so he’s targeting the upcoming Provo Open and “whatever I can find” to prepare for another shot at PGA Tour Canada’s Q-school in the spring.
(Fairways Media) Blake Tomlinson with caddie Kyler Dunkle plays in the final round of the Utah Open on Aug. 21, 2022, at Riverside Country Club in Provo.
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