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Black Desert Championship: Zac Blair makes the cut; Kihei Akina barely misses

Kihei Akina did not want to be proven right.

When he completed his second round of the Black Desert Championship presented by Greater Zion, the Lone Peak High School senior received a lot of congratulations for seemingly making the 36-hole cut, becoming the subject of a Golf Channel interview Friday afternoon.

Akina lamented having missed a 10-foot birdie attempt on his last hole, which he figured he would need to play the weekend rounds at Black Desert Resort. The next morning, his prediction officially became correct. When the second round was completed after being suspended by darkness, the cut line had moved to 5 under par and Akina missed by a stroke.

Of the nine players in the field with Utah ties, only PGA Tour veteran Zac Blair of Orem advanced. And as it turned out, the 14-foot birdie putt Blair made on his second-to-last hole was necessary.

The consolation for Akina is more time to regroup for Monday’s start of the Class 6A state tournament at Riverbend Golf Course. But he would have loved to spend the weekend in Southern Utah, extending his PGA Tour debut.

He’ll have good memories of the last-nine comeback that gave him a shot to keep playing, even while wishing he had made that 10-footer after a decent bunker shot on the par-5 No. 9.

“I thought I had to get to 5 (under) just to be safe; 4 will probably be pretty close,” Akina (69-69) said after his round. “The putt on 18, I thought I had to make it.”

He did, and he didn’t. Yet to make that putt matter at all, Akina had to deliver four birdies in a five-hole stretch, after posting three bogeys in the middle of his round. His response was impressive.

“Yeah, I was struggling pretty good,” he said. “I just told myself I belong out here. … I told myself if you play the best golf that you’ve ever played, then you’ll be fine.”

He practically did so, with a ball-striking exhibition that produced those four birdies from inside of 15 feet.

Akina, who’s committed to play for BYU in 2025, nearly pulled off a cut-making sweep of Utah’s two PGA Tour-brand events. He tied for 49th place in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship at Oakridge Country Club in August, shooting 66-69-69-67.

“Yeah, I drew a lot from the Korn Ferry event,” he said. “Just using that experience kind of helped me here. … Obviously, the field is a lot better. So you have to play really good golf just to compete out here.”

Blair understands that as well as anybody. Making every possible cut is vital to his job status for 2025, and he hopes to make a move this weekend. He’s No. 110 in the FedExCup Fall standings; in November, the top 125 players will keep their tour cards.

“It’s always nice making cuts,” said Blair, (68-69). “That’s the only way you get the chance to kind of get in contention later in the week.”

Blair actually will have to play better this weekend, just to stay at No. 110.

PGA Tour rookie Patrick Fishburn (71-69), who’s also from Fremont High School and BYU, played the first two rounds with Blair. Not even a run of birdies on his last three holes was good enough for Fishburn, who’s projected to remain No. 85 in the standings, basically having clinched his card with five events remaining.

The results for the other Utahns:

St. George native Jay Don Blake (73-79) completed his 500th PGA Tour appearance with pars on his last four holes and an appreciation of his achievements in parts of five different decades, starting in 1987. “Just a blessing of great friends, great family and a great career,” he said.

Sandy resident Mike Weir (68-74), who birdied six of his first nine holes in the opening round, played the next 27 holes in 6 over par. He’ll return to PGA Tour Champions for the closing stretch of the season.

Former BYU golfer Peter Kuest (74-71) played his last 14 holes in 3 under.

Corner Canyon High School’s Bowen Mauss (73-73), who will compete against Akina in the 6A state tournament, said after the first round, “I take away from the day that I can hang with anybody if I have my ‘A’ game. I definitely didn’t have it today, but still hung in there and tried.”

BYU senior Zac Jones (76-70) left Black Desert Resort feeling “a little bit better about my game and how it can size up with these guys on tour,” he said.

Dustin Volk (80-77), Davis County’s Director of Golf, also rallied. He played his last nine in 1 under par.

PGA TOUR Black Desert Championship round two recap written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography provided by Fairways Media.