- Bowen Mauss wins 127th Utah state amateur golf championship, defeating BYU's Simon Kwon.
- Mauss, 18, is the youngest champion since 2019, showing sportsmanship in semifinals.
- Kwon, a seasoned golfer, praised for his match-play skills, advances to finals again.
LOGAN — The latest in a run of 127 Utah state amateur golf champions almost had his reign end before it began.
Bowen Mauss wouldn't have it any other way.
The Arizona State incoming freshman held off BYU golfer Simon Kwon 5 and 4 to win the 127th Utah state amateur championship Saturday afternoon at Logan Country Club.
At five months past his 18th birthday, Mauss became the youngest state amateur champion since Preston Summerhays won back-to-back titles in 2018 and 2019.
"I've been wanting to win this four a long time," said Mauss, whose title run included a 1-up win over his brother Jackson who came back and caddied for him.
But in Friday's semifinals, Mauss was about to turn himself in for a penalty that likely would've cost him his shot at the title of the oldest continuously held golf tournament in the world.
That's when Mauss sent a shot on the par-4 17th hole into a bunker and — whether due to the setting sun blaring directly in his eye or the low light of the late-summer twilight — thought he saw movement under his ball.
The recent Corner Canyon graduate alerted the on-site rules official, who consulted Utah Golf Radio host Paul Pugmire, who happened to be standing several feet from Mauss' ball — and ruled that Mauss' ball did not move, and he went on to a 1-up win over Utah Tech golfer David Liechty.
A day later, he was standing with a dozen or so friends and family accepting the trophy and an exemption into the United States Amateur in August at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.
But if that infraction, even with the slightest movement, had cost him the championship, Mauss said he would've accepted it. He wouldn't want to win with any doubt in his conscience.
"I've always wanted to be honest, as much as I can. That's how golf is supposed to be," he said. "I still don't know right now if I did touch the sand or not. … But I could never live with myself if I didn't say something about it."
None of which surprised his family, including his brother who returned to Logan at the request of his sibling to caddy for the golfer who eliminated him.
"He's a really honest kid," said Jackson Mauss, who just completed his freshman season at BYU. "He's called a lot of penalties on himself, and he did not want to win a hole where he felt like he cheated.
"He wanted to make sure that he won properly."
That didn't make the championship match against the 2023 amateur winner any easier.
Kwon had the pedigree, and the amateur champion two years ago at The Country Club in Salt Lake City took victories on two of the first three holes to go 2-up.
But Mauss is no slouch, either. The Salt Lake City Amateur champion debuted on the PGA Tour at the Black Desert Championship — after capturing medalist honors in 2023 in the Chargers' first of two straight 6A titles.
"I knew there was a ton of golf left, and I just had to stay strong throughout the round," Mauss said. "It's been a long week already, the body was really tired. I just had to stay resilient."
Mauss took a 3-up lead through 17 before Kwon pulled back a birdie on the 18th green to cut the deficit to two strokes midway through the 36-hole championship.
He out-dueled Kwon 4-2 to take a 4-up advantage through 27 holes, then went 5-up on the par-5, 549-yard 10th hole before eventually conceding the match on the 14th green.
It's just the third state amateur loss for Kwon, the former Skyline High star who will be a senior at BYU in the fall. He's 17-3 in the past three years, advancing to the title match in three of the past four years — a first for a Utah golfer since his college coach Bruce Brockbank 40 years ago.
"I think I've been a pretty good match-place golfer the last few years; I feel like I've pretty much thrived in it," said Kwon, the grandson of World Golf Hall of Famer Johnny Miller who transferred from Cal. "This week's a long week, though. It's always good to see what your mind can do. Your mind can always do more than you think it can do."
The 128th Utah state amateur championship returns to Soldier Hollow Golf Course next summer for the first time in four years.
