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Kate Walker Adds Another UGA Milestone

The ending of 3rd UGA Utah Girls’ Junior State Amateur Championship tells you everything you need to know about Wednesday’s final match at Bonneville Golf Course.

Birdie for Kate Walker, par for Aspen Taylor.

Actually, there’s a lot more to say, including a discussion of some historic numbers. Yet the biggest takeaway of Walker’s 7-and-6 victory in the 36-hole duel is that the winner seized the trophy, far more than any suggestion that Taylor lost it.

Which brings us to that first key number: seven. Walker, the reigning UGA Women’s Player of the Year, won seven consecutive holes in the middle of the match, going 6 under par in that stretch.

Champion Kate Walker plays an approach shot during the 3rd UGA Utah Girls’ Junior State Amateur at Bonneville Golf Course.

And her run was part of an epic, 15-hole span when one player or the other won the hole, with no ties. That’s likely never happened in the 128-year history of amateur golf matches in Utah.

So let’s take inventory of what Walker realized what happening, in the moment:

The 15-hole period of volatility? No.

The run of seven holes she won, to go from tied in the match through 15 holes to 7 up after the first four holes of the afternoon round? Yes.

The exemption into the U.S. Girls’ Junior Amateur that accompanies this victory? No, not until the awards presentation, when UGA Executive Director Easton Folster handed Walker an embossed invitation.

A three-time Class 4A state medalist for Crimson Cliffs High School in Washington, Utah, Walker recently shopped herself to BYU after asking to be released from hometown Utah Tech. “I didn’t have a plan … It was lucky there was a spot for me,” she said.

Taylor will be a Farmington High School junior in August. She placed fifth in the Class 6A tournament in May.

Walker had lost in the quarterfinals of the UGA Girls’ Junior State Am last June, shortly after winning the Girls 15-18 title in the Utah Junior Golf Association’s Utah State Junior Amateur. She later became the runner-up in the Women’s State Amateur, pivotal to her winning the UGA Women’s Player of the Year award. She was the first high school golfer to claim that honor since 2012.

At Bonneville, Walker won each of the last six holes Tuesday morning in a 6-and-5 quarterfinal victory over Claire Olafsson. She then won Nos. 12 and 13 to go 4 up in an eventual 3-and-2 semifinal win over Orem graduate Kaylee Westfall, last week’s UJGA champion and a Class 4A rival of Walker throughout their high school careers. Westfall had reached the semifinals with a 2-and-1 win over defending champion Navy Hubbs, the No. 1 seed, who was Walker’s partner in a UGA Women’s Spring Open victory in April.

Aspen Taylor’s runner-up finish capped an impressive week against Utah’s top junior golfers.

Taylor was by far the more surprising finalist. She posted an 83 in Saturday’s qualifying round, before earning the No. 14 seed in a 5-for-4 playoff. In the semifinals vs. No. 2 seed Natalie Mclane, Taylor won Nos. 11, 12 and 13 with birdies to go 4 up in a 4-and-3 victory. Taylor had started match play with a 4-and-3 upset of 2025 runner-up Remi Rawlings.

And then she was tied with Walker after 15 holes Wednesday. At that point, she said, “You’re kind of thinking anything can happen. Yeah, I felt good. I felt like I was on a roll and we were heading in the right direction.”

With the championship trophy in hand, Walker celebrates a victory that further cemented her place among Utah’s premier junior golfers.

Walker was a little bit frustrated after three-putting on No. 15 and losing her lead. The morning round, as of that moment, was “just rocky,” she said. “It wasn’t my best stuff.”

But just like that, she found her game in a match that illustrated the blessing and curse of 36 holes. In an 18-hole match, Taylor would have lost by a more respectable 2-and-1, instead of the eventual 7-and-6. Then again, she can be proud to have won seven holes vs. an outstanding, experienced player. Her only trouble was that Walker won 14 of the 30 holes.

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3rd UGA Utah Girls’ Junior State Amateur championship feature written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson.