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Utah State Amateur: BYU teammates, homegrown Utahns will meet in final match
When he gets going well on the golf course, Cole Ponich has that Rory McIlroy bounce as he walks down the fairway. The way he’s playing this week, Cooper Jones thinks he could beat almost anyone.
Everybody gains confidence by reaching the final match of the Utah State Amateur Championship, and the degree of self-belief of these BYU teammates hardly could be higher, going into Saturday’s 36-hole duel at Ogden Golf & Country Club.

BYU teammates Cole Ponich and Cooper Jones will face each other in the championship match of the 126th Utah State Amateur Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. at Ogden G&CC. (Photos: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
Jones, a 3-and-2 winner over Weber State alumnus Brendan Thomas in Friday’s semifinals, has needed to play No. 18 only once in five matches. Ponich, who beat University of Utah golfer Davis Johnson 4 and 3 in the afternoon, has navigated a tougher road, including a 22-hole battle in the round of 64. Regardless, each player likes where he is and how he got here.
“Honestly, with my game right now and how I’ve been playing … I don’t think anybody can compete with me if I putt as well as I’ve been putting and hit the ball as well as I’ve been hitting,” Jones said.

Cole Ponich attributes his resurgence to “being back in the zone” as he told writer Kurt Kragthorpe. (Photo: Fairways Media/Randy Dodson)
Ponich: “It’s pretty cool. The last couple rounds, I’ve felt myself go back into that zone that I haven’t felt in a long time.”
The result is what appears to be a historic final pairing in the 126th State Am. A meeting of current BYU golfers happened in Provo in 1980, when Erich Gott beat Jerry Rose, but they were Californians. Jones, of Lone Peak High School, and Ponich, of Davis, are homegrown Utahns.
Jones is motivated by knowing this is his last shot at a title for two years, with a church mission scheduled to begin in September. What’s more, he can join Zac Jones as the first pair of Utah-born brothers to claim State Am titles. Three members of the Idaho-based Hiskey family won Utah’s premier trophy, ending with Babe Hiskey’s victory in Ogden in 1962.
Neither finalist has come close to this stage of the State Am, with Jones having by far the most attempts lately. He went 1-3 in match play the previous three years, but has overcome those scars this week. In Friday morning’s quarterfinals, Jones was a 4-and-3 winner over Utah Tech’s Zach Felts, who had beaten him in last summer’s round of 64 at The Country Club in Salt Lake City.
Ponich made a rare State Am appearance in the pandemic-delayed 2020 event in September at Jeremy Ranch Golf & Country Club, losing in the first round. Ponich beat former BYU teammate Elijah Turner 3 and 1 in the quarterfinals, while Johnson was a 3-and-1 winner over Aidan Thain of Salt Lake City.
Thomas deserves credit for delivering Friday’s most memorable shot, in the only one of the six matches that went to No. 18. Keith Hansen of the Utah Golf Association set up the par-3 hole at only 128 yards, with the hole location on the front-right area of the green, flanked by a bunker and steep dropoff. Tied with Jackson Rhees, Thomas went right at the flagstick and ended up making a 6-foot birdie putt for the win.
Day five recap of the 126th Utah State Amateur written by Fairways Media senior writer, Kurt Kragthorpe.