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SALT LAKE CITY — Professional golf is returning to Utah with the return of the Utah Championship, the Korn Ferry Tour’s stop at Oakridge Country Club that tees off Thursday in Farmington.
For one prominent Utah golfer, the week will be his last as a touring professional.
Former BYU All-American Daniel Summerhays will retire from professional touring golf after this week’s Korn Ferry stop, he told the Deseret News in a story Sunday night.
He may play in an occasional pro tournament, and events like the Utah Open every year are certainly on the table. But for all intents and purposes, the 36-year-old Summerhays is ready to ride off into golf’s sunset.
“It’s hard to say it, but after a pretty long, above-average career on the PGA Tour, I’m going to step away and go another direction for a while,” Summerhays told the Deseret News. “I’m going to try the education system and move into a teacher-mentor role rather than the touring-golf-pro role.”
Summerhays said he plans to take a part-time teaching and coaching position at Davis High School, his alma mater, and spend more time with his family — including four children, ages 5 through 12, who all play golf.
Ranking among the “top-five” moments of his career was Summerhays’ contending for an individual title until the final few holes a year ago at Oakmont.
Read the full story in the Deseret News
More locals
Summerhays won’t be the only local golfer to tee it up at Oakridge this week, nor the only Summerhays.
Preston Summerhays, the two-time reigning Utah State Amateur champion and 17-year-old nephew of Daniel, also received one of three sponsors’ exemptions to play in this week’s Korn Ferry Tour stop. He played in last year’s tournament at Oakridge, shooting a two-day total of 144 to finish just two strokes off the cutline.
Former BYU golfer Patrick Fishburn, a Fremont High graduate from Ogden, received the third local sponsors’ exemption for the tournament. Other exemptions went to Jonathan Garrick and Bobby Bai, while eight-time PGA Tour winner Mike Weir will also be included in the field.
The 27-year-old former Utah State Amateur champion earned conditional status on the Korn Ferry Tour this season by finishing fifth in the McKenzie Tour’s Order of Merit in Canada. Fishburn has played in four Korn Ferry Tour events this year, with his best finish coming in a fourth-place performance at the Club de Bogota Championship in Colombia in February.
He previously played in the 2018 Utah Championship, finishing in a tie for 24th place.
The Utah Championship, which has a winning purse of $650,000, will not be open to fans. Each round will be televised on the Golf Channel, Thursday through Sunday from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. MT.
Tony on Tour
Rose Park native Tony Finau slipped in the final round Sunday of the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
After opening with a 4-under-par 66 and back-to-back 68s, Finau shot 1-under 70 Sunday to finish tied for 33rd with
Jim Herman, Matthew NeSmith, Sepp Straka, Mark Hubbard, Jon Rahm, Andrew Landry and Carlos Ortiz.
Webb Simpson won the event, holding off Abraham Ancer by one shot and a three-hour weather delay with five birdies in six holes on the back nine to clinch the tartan jacket.
"It was a crazy day," Simpson said after his second win of the year that moved him up to No. 5 in the World Golf Rankings. "I didn't get it going until 12 and then the putts started going in and I started getting confident. It's amazing to be standing here right now."
