Grace Summerhays isn’t back to defend the Utah Women’s State Amateur championship she won last year as a 16-year-old, but another teenager appears ready to make a run for the title.
Adeline Anderson, an incoming freshman on the BYU women’s golf team, fired a 1-under 71 on Monday at Oakridge Country Club in Farmington to win medalist honors in the only round of stroke-play qualifying.
Anderson, 18, who is from Ventura, California, and plays locally out of Fox Hollow Golf Club, was the only golfer to break par and edged future BYU teammate Apelila Galeai, who shot an even-par 72.
Former Bingham High and Sacramento State golfer Tess Blair, the 2018 champion, tied for third with Claire Whisenant at 74.
The format was changed this year, as stroke-play qualifying was cut in half to 18 holes and the field for match play expanded to 32 players. The round of 32 matches begins at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning with Anderson taking on Whitney Banz, a Westminster College golfer.
Banz and Kerstin Fotu, the 2019 champion, made pars on the first playoff hole, Oakridge’s par-5 No. 1, to make match play and eliminate Amy Erickson.
The three golfers had tied for 30th after shooting 11-over-par 83s on the difficult course.
Sixty-eight golfers entered the competition, which concludes Thursday with the semifinal matches and championship match.
Anderson, who won 14 junior golf tournaments in the last five years in California and was the 2019 Ventura County (California) Female Golfer of the Year, birdied three of the four par-5s en route to the win. The oldest of four children, Anderson is a second semester freshman at BYU who will begin playing for coach Carrie Roberts and the Cougars this fall.
All of the favorites advanced to match play, including four-time champion Kelsey Chugg, who lost to Summerhays 3 and 1 in the finals last year when Summerhays became the youngest winner in the 114-year history of the event.
Aadyn Long, 14, finished in a tie for fifth at 75 on Monday and will attempt to break Summerhays’ record.
The oldest match-play qualifier is Park City’s Annette Gaiotti, who shot an 81 on Monday to tie for 26th. Gaiiotti, who is 68, will face former Skyline High star Whisenant, now a member of the Pomona-Pitzer women’s golf team, in a first-round match.