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SALT LAKE CITY — When Martin Leon journeyed thousands of miles from his home country of Chile to play golf at the University of Utah, one place still felt like home: the golf course.
As the 2021 champion prepares to tee up the 125th Utah State Amateur championship next week at The Country Club in Salt Lake City, that is still the case — even for the first international winner in the history of the longest continuous golf tournament in the world.
"It was really nice. Not growing up in Utah, I didn't know what the state am meant," Leon said. "Me being the first international player to win it was great; it gave me a lot of opportunities, playing in Utah. I decided to spend the summers here, playing the UGA and other Utah events.
"It's a great time, and I think the level of play here is getting better and better," he added. "The support and the opportunity the UGA gives to constantly be competing is great. I'm really excited to see what the UGA does for future generations."
Utah's golf community is growing but still remains small enough that most players are familiar with each other through conversations in the local pro shop, the state amateur qualifier, or through the locally published Fairways magazine.
Leon wasn't initially planning on playing in this year's state amateur, though. But when he found out the entire weeklong tournament — from Monday and Tuesday's 36-hole stroke-play qualifier to four-straight days of match play — would be held on the home course of his college team, he passed up an earlier planned tournament in North Carolina to stay home for what he realizes may be "potentially my last year in Utah."
"It's an amazing opportunity," he said. "I'm just looking forward to it, for potentially one last state am."
The Country Club figures to play with firm and fast greens, which is the product of Utah's hot summers mixed with a late spring runoff that left much of the valley saddled under rain and snow deep into the spring. Any foreknowledge of the course would be welcome, as it will be for the Ute golfers like Leon and his teammates, past and present.
They might need it, too.
Defending champion Zac Jones, a rising junior at BYU, is back to defend his title among the 156-player field. So is two-time champion Jon Wright, a former pro who first played the event when he was just 15 years old and is now a member of The Country Club.
Some of the top competition may come from "the kids," though.
The state's top amateur tournament has become a haven for college golfers, whether at BYU, Utah, Utah Valley or across the state, though several self-described "old-timers" make a run at a title every year.
But this year's crop of youth may be special — from Leon to Jones to Jones' BYU teammate Elijah Turner. Peter Kim, a former Skyline star who will be a freshman at BYU in the fall, shot the low round of Thursday's media day preview at 4-under-par 68 in breezy conditions; and Simon Kwon, who played 16 events the past two years at Cal before opting for the transfer portal this spring, are among the other collegiate headliners.
"It's such a fun week, because you see so many familiar faces," said Kim, who advanced to the Round of 32 a year ago. "I think it's a really fun week."
BYU's Keanu Akina will be joined by his younger brother Kihei, the Lone Peak sophomore who won medalist honors at the 6A golf tournament, in the 42nd edition of the amateur championship at The Country Club in Salt Lake City (but only the second one since 1975).
Akina will be joined by fellow Utah junior golf standouts Cooper Jones (Zac's brother, who has signed with BYU), Parker Bunn and Boston Bracken.
"If you win this, you win the biggest amateur event in Utah. There are some bragging rights with it, but it's a good reunion for people like me who grew up a mile away," said Kwon, who finished runner-up to Jones a year ago. "The Utah junior golf association has done a great job of growing golf, too. It keeps getting better and better, and you're seeing out-of-state colleges reaching out to local golfers.
"They're all starting to notice that golf is very strong in Utah," he added. "They definitely are."
