BYU golfer CJ Lee records first-ever ace, advances to State Am’s Elite Eight

Ogden • Having survived an emotional match against former BYU teammate Preston Alder on Thursday morning at the 119th Utah State Amateur golf tournament, Cougar senior CJ Lee needed something to jump-start his Round of 16 match Thursday afternoon in 97-degree heat at Ogden Golf & Country Club.

His first-ever hole-in-one did the trick.

"I can finally say I'm a golfer now," Lee joked. "It's pretty amazing I've gone this long without one, but it is true."

Having birdied their opening hole, Lee used the ace on the 126-yard No. 2 hole against Weber State's Sean Badger to move out to a 5-up lead and held off the late-charging Texan to win 2 and 1 and move into Friday's quarterfinals. He will meet Weber State rising senior Kyler Dearden, who needed 22 holes to get past Boise State's Jacob Byers of Sandy in one of four matches Thursday that went past 18 holes.

Lee, 22, who prepped at Provo's Timpview High, is one of three BYU golfers in the Elite Eight, joining defending champion and fellow rising senior Patrick Fishburn and freshman Kelton Hirsch, 21, a Viewmont High product who redshirted this past season after a church mission to Mexico City.

"We've got a really solid squad at BYU. We are looking great," said Hirsch, who downed Luke Morgan 4 and 3 in the morning and new Taylorsville baseball coach Glen Spencer 2 and 1 in the afternoon. "CJ and Fishburn are always playing great, and I feel like I can keep up with them and be able to represent well for BYU."

Lee has dealt the past month with an intestinal disease that put him in the intensive care unit of a hospital in Arizona last month. After performing surgery because the blood vessels in his lower intestine had burst and were bleeding, causing him to lose dangerous levels of blood, doctors have reluctantly cleared him to get back on the golf course.

He's making the most of the opportunity, with the help of his caddie, longtime friend and former Provo Bulldog Janson Eisenstat.

"His job is to make sure I stay hydrated, drink enough water," Lee said.

The match of the morning went to former Dixie State golfer Kenny You, who eked past 17-year-old prep phenom Connor Howe, a Weber High senior who has committed to golf at Georgia Tech. You lost 2 and 1 to medalist Braydon Swapp in the afternoon.

Swapp, who calls himself "a late bloomer," was Utah State's No. 6 player most of the past season.

"Getting to the State Am quarterfinals, that's a big accomplishment," Swapp said. "I'm pretty happy with it."

In another thrilling extra-holes match, Byers was 2 up on Dearden with two holes remaining, but Dearden birdied the 17th and 18th holes to draw even then won it with another birdie on the 22nd hole.

"It was a great match," said Dearden. "It really just came down to who was going to make the last putt, and I happened to do it."

Dearden is a sentimental favorite, of sorts, because he agreed to let Aaron Smith continue their semifinal match last year at Alpine Country Club after Smith collapsed from heat-related exhaustion. Smith returned the next morning and won the match before getting stomped by Fishburn in the 36-hole final.

"I'd do it again," Dearden said. "No regrets. I did the right thing."

The other quarterfinalists are not as well known as Swapp, Dearden, Lee, Fishburn and Hirsch, but showed guts and mettle in Thursday afternoon's searing heat.

Tanner Taft, a 29-year-old electrical salesman from West Bountiful, took down Box Elder High's Jacob Marx in 19 holes to advance, while Dixie State's Nicklaus Britt, from tiny Fillmore in central Utah, eliminated Bountiful's Andrew Cottle, 2 and 1.

The eighth quarterfinalist is a local favorite, Ryan Sarlo, a former WSU golfer who is the son of Ogden G&CC head pro Craig Sarlo. Fishburn and Sarlo, who grew up at this club on Washington Boulevard just south of downtown Ogden, are best friends and would meet in the semifinals Friday afternoon if Fishburn gets past Britt and Sarlo gets past Hirsch.

drew@sltrib.com

Twitter: @drewjay