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ALPINE -- Remember Caddyshack, when Bill Murray made the phrase "Cinderella story" famous? Well here's a real one from Sunday's final rounds of the Utah State Am.
Utah's Joe Parkinson's an 18 year old graduate of Lone Peak High, heading to BYU after he goes on a church mission. He barely got into the Utah State Am, having lucked into the spot as an alternate when someone withdrew last week. Joe went 18 holes, twice, to reach the 36th hole match play final round.
Sunday Parkinson completed his dream run to the title. He had a one shot lead over Stu Gold heading into their 36th hole. Gold struggled on the last hole with a bogey. Parkinson putted one in for par and Gold conceded. You won't find a more amazing week at the State Am.
In Parkinson's victory remarks he said, "Ever since they switched it to Alpine, I wanted to get in so bad, because I knew I could win out here. So I told them the night before I was just going to show up at 6:30 a.m. and I was lucky that someone withdrew the night before and, um, you know, I told my dad I knew I could take advantage of that and I knew I could get here."
And as if that wasn't magical enough, after his victory, Parkinson had his girlfriend bring up his mission call papers.
He opened the envelope and read it out loud to the gallery, "Elder Joseph Richard Parkinson," unsuccessfully fighting back tears. "you are hereby called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Florida, Tampa Bay mission."
Joe will be leaving on September 22nd and will be speaking Spanish on his mission. Maybe he'll run into LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the sunshine state.
