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Samantha Phelan Returns to Defend Mary Lou Baker Open Title Against Deep Field with Plenty at Stake

A year ago, Samantha Phelan arrived at the Mary Lou Baker Open simply happy to be competing again.

She returns Monday as the defending champion, with a much different summer behind her and considerably more at stake.

The Utah Tech rising senior will headline a 60-player field for the Utah Golf Association’s Mary Lou Baker Open, Aug. 10-12 at Glenmoor Golf Club. The 54-hole stroke play championship brings together many of Utah’s top women amateurs, collegiate players and a few professionals while also carrying significant implications in the UGA Women’s Player of the Year race presented by Primo.

Defending champion, Utah Tech rising senior Samantha Phelan returns this week looking to successfully defend her title at Glenmoor Golf Club.

For Phelan, the week begins with a title defense that would have been difficult to envision when she arrived at TalonsCove Golf Club last August.

Phelan was playing her first tournament after undergoing wrist surgery in May. Following weeks away from competitive golf, she returned with modest expectations and left with one of the biggest victories of her career.

“It was the greatest confidence boost to go out and win my first tournament back,” Phelan said. “After taking so many weeks off from competitive golf, I thought it would be more difficult to get back into the tournament mindset and flow.”

Instead, Phelan shot rounds of 69-70-67 for a 10-under-par 206 and a one-stroke victory over professional Ali Mulhall.

As reported by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe, the championship ultimately came down to Phelan’s decision on the 54th hole.

Standing 120 yards from the green at No. 18, Phelan and her father and caddie, Paul, had discussed playing safely toward the middle of the green. Phelan changed her mind, attacked the right-side hole location and hit her approach to four feet. She made the birdie to win.

A year later, she sees that shot as more than the one that won the tournament.

“That shot has changed the way I approach things,” Phelan said. “I used to define myself as a very conservative player. However, as I continue to play bigger tournaments and take my game to the next level, I have learned when it is a good time to take the riskier shot.”

Phelan finished fourth at the UGA Women’s Winterchamps in March, part of a strong Utah Tech showing behind champion Navy Hubbs. During the college season, Phelan tied for second at the Bobcat Desert Classic at the Golf Club of Estrella in Goodyear, Arizona, shooting 74-69-71—214. She entered the final round in contention and birdied No. 17 on her way to the runner-up finish.

She believes one of the biggest differences in her game is confidence on the greens, particularly when a round or tournament reaches its results-defining holes.

That showed again last month at the 120th Utah Women’s State Amateur at Oakridge Country Club.

Phelan hits a tee shot during the 120th Utah Women’s State Amateur at Oakridge Country Club, where she advanced to the semifinals before falling to eventual champion Ashley Lam on the 19th hole.

Phelan defeated Taylyn Wilson 6 & 4 in the Round of 32 and Sydney Richards 5 & 4 in the Round of 16 before eventually reaching the semifinals. There, she pushed champion Ashley Lam to the 19th hole before being eliminated.

The run reinforced what Phelan has learned about the importance of momentum in her game and gave her another boost entering the final stretch of the UGA summer schedule.

Now Lam and Phelan meet again at Glenmoor, this time in stroke play and as the top two players in the current UGA Women’s Player Performance Rankings.

The Mary Lou Baker Open field includes the top six players in the current rankings: Lam, Phelan, Kate Walker, Navy Hubbs, Kelsey Chugg and Whitney Banz. That makes the championship the most important remaining event in the race for UGA Women’s Player of the Year presented by Primo, with only the UGA Senior Women’s State Amateur left on the schedule. The rankings determine the season-ending Player of the Year honor.

2026 Utah Women’s State Amateur champion Ashley Lam enters the Mary Lou Baker Open atop the UGA Women’s Player Performance Rankings.

Lam comes to Glenmoor following a memorable July in which she defeated six-time champion Chugg 1 up in the 36-hole final of the Women’s State Amateur. Phelan was one of the players who nearly stopped that championship run.

Walker, the reigning UGA Women’s Player of the Year, remains squarely in this year’s race. Hubbs already owns a UGA victory this season after winning Winterchamps, while Chugg’s record in Utah women’s golf makes her a factor whenever she enters a championship. Banz adds another of the state’s established players to a field that also includes college golfers from programs outside Utah.

The makeup of the field is part of what the UGA envisioned when it expanded the Mary Lou Baker Open to 54 holes in 2025. The change made the championship eligible for World Amateur Golf Ranking consideration and established it as a late-summer opportunity for collegiate players preparing to return to school.

That timing is especially meaningful for Phelan.

She will return to Utah Tech this fall for her senior season with one goal in mind: earning her first collegiate victory.

Phelan says she has not spent much time studying the Player of the Year standings. Her approach at Glenmoor will be much like the one that carried her through last year’s final round: staying with her game plan, handling what is directly in front of her and being confident when it’s time to play aggressively.

Samantha Phelan’s confidence continues to grow as she prepares for her senior season at Utah Tech with a goal of winning her first collegiate victory.

“It feels good coming back as a defending champion, but I’m reminding myself not to put too much pressure on myself,” she said. “I know my job is to just focus on my game and take the tournament one shot at a time.”

There will be one familiar presence alongside her. Her father will again be on the bag.

A year ago, that partnership ended with Phelan overriding the safe play on the final hole, firing at the flag and walking away with the trophy.

At Glenmoor, against a field filled with the players chasing her, and the players she is chasing, Phelan gets the chance to do it again.

The 2026 Mary Lou Baker Open begins Monday at Glenmoor Golf Club and concludes Wednesday after 54 holes of stroke play.

Click here for a look at the upcoming Mary Lou Baker Open pairings and tee times. 

Feature and photos by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson and Garrit Johnson.