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Weber State Braylyn Bayer Earns Medalist Spot at Oakridge CC

The 120th Utah Women’s State Amateur golf tournament is loaded with current and former BYU golfers who are highly capable of claiming the individual championship on Thursday.

Also in the field at Oakridge Country Club are former champions Grace Summerhays and Arden Louchheim (the 2025 winner), six-time champion Kelsey Chugg and a blast from the past, 1994 and 1995 champion Steph Belnap.

Weber State golfer Braylyn Bayer, a rising junior from Bonners Ferry, Idaho, could not care less about that.

Braylyn Bayer’s (-1) 71 set the pace on Day 1 at Oakridge Country Club.

After all, Bayer had to repay her dad for making the 12-hour drive from a small town near the Canadian border to caddy for her on Monday.

Now 62-year-old Curt Bayer gets to stay in the area for another day, maybe longer.

That’s because Braylyn Bayer won medalist honors in the stroke-play qualifying portion of the tournament on Monday, firing a 1-under-par 71 to edge BYU golfer Nya Palmer and recently graduated BYU golfer Sunbin Seo by a shot.

Utah Tech golfer Samantha Phelan, BYU golfer Whitney Banz (the 2025 medalist at Wasatch Mountain) and New Mexico State golfer Rylee Salome were two shots back at 73.

“It is really cool (to be the medalist),” Bayer said. “I didn’t know until my dad told me on the last green, so that was kind of fun to not know and be out there with him, and just (play) a good round.”

Bayer said she “made a couple of long putts” to become the surprise medalist, including a 35-footer on No. 1 at Oakridge — No. 10 for her as she played the back nine first. She also made an eagle from 3 feet away on No. 16.

“I am glad he doesn’t have to drive home tonight and go to work tomorrow. He can keep caddying for me, so that’s nice,” she said of her 62-year-old father.

Bayer wasn’t listed among the favorites by the Deseret News in an article previewing the tournament on Sunday, but she is still an accomplished college golfer. She won medalist honors at the Sun Mountain Intercollegiate in Missoula, Montana last fall while competing as an individual, earning herself a spot in the full-time lineup.

“I have a really great team at Weber, and my coach is amazing, so I couldn’t say enough good things about Weber,” she said.

Amanda Hanneman made a 12-footer for birdie on the first playoff hole to advance, and will face BYU’s Palmer, a freshman from Las Vegas, in a Round of 32 match Tuesday morning.

BYU’s Aadyn Long

The other six golfers made pars on the first playoff hole, leaving six women in the fight for the last two berths. BYU’s Schroeder made a 15-footer for birdie and BYU’s Aadyn Long made a 30-footer for birdie to advance, eliminating Lindsay Cook, Addison Branham, Madalyn Hadley and Kaylee Westfall. Hadley rolled in a 50-footer for birdie on the 18th hole to make it into the playoff.

Click here to read the complete Stroke Play Qualifying recap by Deseret News sportswriter Jay Drew.

Photos by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson