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Utah Mid-Amateur: Dallin Wheatley wins ‘from out of nowhere’

As the final round of the 39th Utah Mid-Amateur Championship unfolded June 4th at Valley View Golf Course, eventual champion Dallin Wheatley’s name was probably not on anyone’s mind as a likely winner.

That’s not a slight to Wheatley, considering his own view of himself in relation to some of those golfers ahead of him: Devin Andrews, who took a three-stroke lead after 36 holes. Home-course player Reed Nielsen, who won this event at Valley View in 2019. Former BYU star David Timmins, a reinstated amateur. Kenny Palmer, the recent playoff runner-up in the Salt Lake City Amateur. And three-time champion Dan Horner.

That’s quite a list, and Wheatley knew it. “Honestly, I never thought I would win,” he said. “I didn’t think my game was in a place for that, and there’s a lot of amazing players out here.”

Dallin Wheatley shot rounds of 68-72-66 at Valley View Golf Course to finish (-10) 206 to become the 39th Utah Mid-Amateur Championship’s winner.

Well, he became one of them Thursday, when Wheatley “kind of came out of nowhere,” said Luke Fratus, the Utah Golf Association’s Director, Championships & Golf Operations. That’s what a back-nine 31 will do for you. Wheatley’s run of six birdies over the last 11 holes gave him a 66 and a 10-under-par total for 54 holes. He finished one shot ahead of Timmins and two in front of Horner and Nielsen.

A shot back of Wheatley was runner-up, David Timmins.

As he awaited Fratus’ awards presentation, Wheatley called his wife, Oakley, and proudly declared that his name would be going on the permanent trophy. The reward is “a little piece of history that I’ll always be able to look at,” he said later.

Prior to Thursday, Wheatley was known mainly in Utah golf for making a hole-in-one against former Box Elder High School teammate Jacob Marx during a first-round loss in match play in last summer’s State Amateur at Logan Country Club. He did win the 2024 Salt Lake County Amateur, but acknowledged a “short history” of success: “This is definitely at the top.”

The 28-year-old Wheatley, who works for Zions Bank and lives in Plain City, qualified for his first Mid-Am appearance (for golfers 25 and older) at Eagle Mountain GC, his childhood course. He missed the cut in the State Am qualifier at the same venue the next day, but is now exempted into the field at Soldier Hollow in July.

He may not have believed that as of early Wednesday morning, when he couldn’t find his ball after his drive down the right side of the par-4 No. 10 and opened with a double bogey. Wheatley recovered by posting a 68, good for a six-way share of the lead. An afternoon 72 left him tied for ninth place, five shots behind Andrews, who would card a final-round 74. Andrews tied for fifth with Cooper Wayment and Cole Ogden, who closed with a 66.

After a birdie and a bogey on his first seven holes Thursday, Wheatley had lost ground. But then he got hot. His run of five back-nine birdies was highlighted by a putt on the par-3 No. 12 that was somewhere between the length estimates of fellow competitor Devin Tovey (50 feet) and Wheatley (“like, 120” feet). What’s indisputable is that Wheatley’s return to his “old, trusty” Scotty Cameron putter propelled him to this victory.

Three-time Utah Mid-Amateur champion and current UGA Board member Dan Horner tied for third place alongside former champion Reed Nielsen.

On the back nine, he kept telling himself just to make one more birdie, and he kept doing it. In the end, he stood above the No. 18 green and watched the lengthy tying, birdie attempts of Horner and Timmins run past the hole. He was thrilled to win, and he was a deserving champion. “It’s really cool,” Wheatley said, “to come out on top of a field like that.”

Former champion Reed Nielsen earned a T3 finish at (-8) 208.

LOW SENIOR

Mark Gardiner and Shane McMillan arrived in a tie for low senior honors from different directions. No playoff was staged, after Gardiner, the reigning UGA Super-Senior Player of the Year, and McMillan, a two-time Senior Men’s Player of the Year, posted 8-over-par totals.

Mark Gardiner (photo) and Shane McMillan tied for Low Senior honors.

Gardiner (73-71-80) eagled the par-4 No. 1 in each of Wednesday’s two rounds, holing shots from 100 and 64 yards, respectively. He steadied himself Thursday after a front-nine 42, before bogeying No. 18 and settling for the tie between the only senior golfers who made the 36-hole cut.

McMillan (75-74-75), playing almost an hour in front of Gardiner in the final round, was 1 under for the day through 14 holes but bogeyed No. 15 and triple-bogeyed No. 18.

Click here for complete final results.

39th Utah Mid-Amateur Championship feature written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography provided by Fairways Media’s Garrit Johnson.