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Cole Ogden Follows in Clay’s Footsteps, Wins Medalist Honors at Utah State Am; Match Pairings

Cole Ogden is following in his brother’s footsteps and that’s a good thing. His older brother Clay was medalist at the 2006 Utah State Am in 2006 at Soldier Hollow with rounds of 67-70-137, and Tuesday Cole duplicated the feat by winning medalist honors in the 2013 Utah State Am, also being played at Soldier Hollow.
Cole’s medalist rounds were 71-67-138, one higher than Clay’s score, but he had two strokes to spare as Joe Parkinson and Christian Jensen finished at 140. Parkinson won the title in 2010 and Jensen was runnerup last year at The Country Club.
Clay, as all Utah golf fans know, went on to greater fame, winning the USGA National Public Links Championship and by virtue of that championship got to play in the Masters. Cole is following in some mighty big footsteps.
(Monday, Clay won a spot in the Web.com tournament that begins Thursday at Willow Creek Country Club and so the Ogden family and fans will be running back and forth between Soldier Hollow and Willow Creek to watch their performances. See UGA web page for details of that qualifying in a separate story.)
First seed honors always go to the previous champion and Jon Wright earned that spot last year when he won the State Am at his home club at The Country Club. Clay’s medalist honor makes him the second seed.
The 36-hole qualifying test generally requires a playoff to determine the last few spots of the match play brackets. This year was no different. There were 14 players who shot 150 and there were only three spots available for those who shot that number.
The three survivors of the 14-man playoff were Travis Miner, Craig Wilson, and Brandon Hargett. Miner and Wilson birdied the first playoff to earn seeds 30 and 31, and Hargett was the only par on the second hole and became the 32nd seed. Suffering the bad taste of losing a playoff were Zach Johnson, Keith Olson, Adam Tebbs, Mike Branca, Tyler Abegglen, Michael Coopman, Dylan Chugg, Jeff Ford, Mike Jurca, Dan Nuttall, and Kris Thompson.
There are some mighty good players in that group which seems to validate the UGA decision to extend match play to 64 players.
Thus defending champion Jon Wright will be paired against Brandon Hargett in the first round of match play that begins early Wednesday morning. Although Hargett is the 64th seed it will be no easy task for Wright. Just a couple of weeks ago Hargett won the Art City Amateur, which belies a 64th seed. He is an outstanding player and Wright will have his hands full from day one.
Cole Ogden, who in addition to being medalist also happens to be one of the hottest players on the Utah amateur circuit at this time, will face Craig Wilson. Ogden has won three big events recently, Glen Eagle Am, Provo Open, and Valley View Am and earlier won the Dixie Red Hills Am. He plays on the BYU golf team and seems to be upping his game in an effort to fill the gap left by Zac Blair’s graduation.
Failing to make the cut were former champions Darrin Overson and Steve Borget, but there are still six former champions in the field. In addition to Wright and Joe Parkinson there are Dan Horner, Jeff Evans, Todd Barker, and Clark Rustand.
Former runner-ups who advanced to match play are Christian Jensen, Stratton Schulz, and Kirk Siddens.
The expansion of match play to 64 requires an extra round of match play. This year’s champion will have to win six straight matches where in past years the task was five straight.
The round of 64 will be Wednesday morning.
Thursday’s morning round of 32 will be preceded by the annual Breakfast of Champions at which former champion Bruce Brockbank will be the guest speaker. The Round of 16 will be Thursday afternoon.
The quarterfinals and semifinals will be held Thursday and the 36-hole championship match will be held Saturday. The players are required to walk during the last two days of the tournament.
The scores are posted on this web page in the regular tournament result location.
The pairingsfor Wednesday are as follows:7:30- (1) Jon Wright vs. (64) Brandon Hargett7:39- (33) Preston Richards vs. (32) Carey Shinkle7:48- (16) Devon Purser vs. (49) Mike Jorgensen7:57- (17) Nicholas Smart vs. (48) Nate Nyman8:06- (8) Kenny You vs. (57) Sammy Cole8:15- (25) Jordan Hammer vs. (40) Connor Van Gilder8:24- (9) Dan Horner vs. (56) Joe Webber8:33- (24) Ryan Brimley vs. (41) Dave Poggi8:42- (4) Joe Parkinson vs. (61) Brady Stanger8:51- (29) Todd Barker vs. (36) Steve Poulson9:00- (13) Jordan Rodgers vs. (52) Todd Francis9:09- (20) John Owen vs. (45) Noah Cook9:18- (5) Jeff Jolley vs. (60) Joey Olsen9:27- (28) Eric Rustand vs. (37) Casey Halliday9:36- (12) Jeff Evans vs. (53) Colton Dallimore9:45- (21) Clark Jones vs. (44) David Jennings
10:03- (2) Cole Ogden vs. (63) Craig Wilson10:12- (31) Gentry Hicks vs. (34) Jonathan Oettli10:21- (15) Kai Ruiz vs. (50) Clark Rustand10:30- (18) Jacob Wagstaff vs. (47) Hayden Christensen10:39- (7) Tanner Higham vs. (58) Dana Nelson10:48- (26) Kirk Siddens vs. (39) Cody Wass10:57- (10) Kalin Peterson vs. (55) Brett Sampson11:06- (23) Steven Croft vs. (42) Jeff Powars11:15- (3) Christian Jensen vs. (62) Tyler Miner11:24- (30) Jacob Holt vs. (35) Rafe Johnston11:33- (14) Kelton Kirsch vs. (51) Tommy Higham11:42- (19) Stratton Schulz vs. (46) Bjorn Trejo11:51- (6) JT Timmons vs. (59) Chris Hermansen12:00- (27) Connor Jones vs. (38) Tommy Forsman12:09- (11) Seokown Jeon vs. (54) Matthew Bushman12:18- (22) Charlie Duensing vs. (43) Reed Nielsen