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Utah Golf Association Co-Men’s Player of the Year
Summerhays adds to hisTrophy Case as UGA Co-Player of the Year
By Kurt Kragthorpe
In 12 days of golf spread over two weeks, Preston Summerhays competed in four stroke-play rounds and 12 matches on the biggest stages of Utah amateur golf and national junior golf.
His performance was unlike anything in Utah golf history, in any age group or level of competition. Summerhays repeated as the State Am champion one Saturday and became the U.S. Junior Amateur winner the following Saturday.
He’s mostly an Arizona resident as a high school junior in Scottsdale, but Summerhays has deep Utah roots and is proud to win a prestigious award “in a state where golf is so relevant,” he said.
Spending the summers with his family in Davis County, Summerhays became the first back-to-back winner of the State Am since his uncle Daniel in 2000-01 and then became the first Utahn to win the U.S. Junior Am since Scott Hailes in 1995. He beat Utah State golfer Chase Lansford 7 and 6 in the State Am final match by making 14 birdies in 30-holes at Soldier Hollow Golf Course.
Summerhays then rallied from 3 down after 16 holes in the morning round to beat Bo Jin of China 2 and 1 in the United States Junior Am’s final match at the famed Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio. His approach shot out of thick rough to within 8 feet on the par-4 No. 17 led to a close-out birdie and ranks as “the greatest shot of his life,” said his father, Boyd.
Preston Summerhays totaled 421 points on the UGA Player Performance Rankings and is a 2019 UGA Men’s Co-Player of the Year.
Tournament Wins:
Utah State Amateur
U.S. Junior Amateur