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Utah Golf Association Senior Player of the Year

 

Siddens Top Senior in Player of the Year Race

 

By Kurt Kraghtorpe

 

 

Any golf season that starts with two holes-in-one within the first five holes is destined to be great. Kirk Siddens followed through on that nearly impossible achievement, earning another UGA Men’s Senior Player of the Year award.

 

Siddens went on to win the Coral Canyon Amateur’s senior division to launch his season, then added a St. George Amateur victory the next week. He also was the low senior in the Utah Mid-Amateur Championship and won the Utah Senior Four-Ball Championship with Karl Avant.

 

By the time these annual awards are presented, the start of the year in January seems like a long time ago. Yet Siddens’ first competitive round of 2019 remains indelible. Due to a shotgun start, his aces on Coral Canyon’s Nos. 3 and 6 came during his first five holes.

 

His challenge, then, was to refocus on the rest of that round and the remainder of the tournament. He succeeded in each case, although the results varied.

 

Siddens completed a first-round 65, despite being “as nervous as I’ve ever been in a golf tournament,” wanting to capitalize on those two “1s” on his scorecard. He added a second-round 75 and “held on for the win, fortunately,” he said.

 

Siddens contended for the overall title in the Mid-Am at Valley View Golf Course, before settling for the senior title. He usually plays with Brett Sampson in the Four-Ball, but Sampson was unavailable this year so he teamed up with Avant at the Ogden Golf & Country Club. They shot 66-66 to finish two strokes ahead of Ron Davis-Randy Hicken.

 

Kirk Siddens totaled 339 points on the UGA Senior Men’s Player Performance Rankings and is the 2019 UGA Men’s Senior Player of the Year.

 

Tournament Wins:

Coral Canyon Amateur

St. George Amateur

Utah Mid-Amateur Senior

Utah Senior Four-Ball (with Karl Avant)