News

A bold showing in the cold: Utah 56.5, Arizona 39.5

Golden leaves were flying off the trees behind Oakridge Country Club’s No. 9 tee as Kelsey Chugg prepared to play her last hole of the 32nd Utah-Arizona Shootout.

The late-October scene in Farmington was idyllic, except for the cold, wind and rain. Or maybe that was just how the home team liked it.

“It’s always fun,” said Kelsey Chugg, who likes getting to know a rotating cast of teammates. “We want to win, but I think we have a good time.”

The wind-chill factor was in the 30s, and so was Utah’s score in Tuesday’s singles matches. The 56.5-39.5 victory was driven by a 32-16 trouncing in individual play.

Maybe this was not quite like the snowstorm at Tuhaye in 2017, and a home-climate edge is not the only explanation for Utah’s strong showing, with contributions from all 16 players over three rounds. But the final-round weather didn’t hurt the Utahns, that’s for sure.

“The conditions today certainly favored us,” said Utah Golf Association veteran Dan Horner. The Arizonans “never play in it and to me, it just felt like a wet, early spring day.”

Randy Hicken added, “I definitely think we had a slight advantage because of the weather. It seems like most of us play in those types of conditions a few times a year.”

Hicken and Rick Llloyd, his friendly rival in UGA Super-Senior competition all year, joined women’s at-large contestants Ali Mulhall and Chugg as Utah’s stars of 2024. Each of those four players contributed to grabbing at least 7.5 of a possible 9 points in three matches, in a format that awards one point for the 18 holes and one point for each nine in the interest of extending the competition.

Chugg is a Shootout fixture, and this year’s lineups provided a couple of twists. Because college golfers are ineligible for other in-season team events, this was the first time her partner (Mulhall) was the golfer she had beaten in the Women’s State Amateur final match during the summer. And with Robin Krapfl filling an at-large position for Arizona, Chugg faced the reigning Utah Senior Women’s State Amateur champion in each match.

“I had a great time with Ali,” said Chugg, who won her sixth title in July. “It was definitely more fun playing with her than playing against her.”

Same story for Hicken regarding Lloyd, who beat him in the Super-Senior division of two UGA final matches in an eight-day span of August and September in the Senior State Amateur and the Utah Four-Ball Championship.

“It was great to play with Rick,” Hicken said. “I think that his and my games are very similar, so we’re able to feed off of each other.”

There were a bunch of other Utah success stories. David Jennings and Steele Dewald led a late rally for a 24.5-23.5 lead after Monday’s Foursomes and Four-Ball matches, when the weather was more typical of Utah in October. Kenny Palmer was Monday’s stalwart for the home team, contributing to a six-point effort with two different partners, Horner swept his opponent Tuesday, when Utah also got important points from the likes of Nuny Khamken, Kareen Larson, Jon Wright, Shane McMillan and newcomer John Fox.

Shootout veteran Dan Horner dismissed the late fall playing conditions saying, “…to me, it just felt like a wet, early spring day.”

The victory improved Utah’s record to 20-12-2 in the event that started in 1992, after being conceived of mainly by the late Joe Watts, the UGA’s longtime Executive Director.

“It’s always fun,” said Chugg, who likes getting to know a rotating cast of teammates. “We want to win, but I think we have a good time.”

Horner added, “The event’s always fun because we get to compete against very good players, and reconnect with old friends and make new ones.”

Utah-Arizona Shootout feature written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography provided by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson.