If 26 year-old Matt McCarty goes on to win the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship by a shot, he will have to credit one of the luckiest breaks you will ever see on a golf course.
McCarty and new pro Karl Vilips lead the tournament at Farmington’s Oakridge Country Club through three rounds, each sitting at 20-under par 193 heading into Sunday’s final round.
Daniel Summerhays, a KFT regular, is at -15 and tied for 13th place after shooting a 5-under 66 on Saturday, while BYU golfer and State Am runner-up Cooper Jones is tied for 18th at -14. Jones, 20, who will depart on a church mission next month, also shot a 66 Saturday.
But the day belonged to McCarty, who continued to zoom up the leaderboard. He shot a 70 on Thursday, a 62 on Friday and a 61 on Saturday to move into a tie for the lead with Vilips, who had a 64 in the third round.
McCarty is from Scottsdale, Arizona, and played at Santa Clara University in the Bay Area of Northern California for five years. He’s familiar with Utah golf and high-elevation golf, having played in BYU’s PING Cougar Classic on multiple occasions in his college career.
He made 10 birdies Saturday, including five straight on holes 13-17. On 17, his 20-foot birdie putt was off line by a good foot or so but banked off a playing partner’s ball marker and rolled into the hole.
A commentator on the Golf Channel suggested McCarty “find the nearest 7-Eleven and buy a lottery ticket,” which many Utahns know would take him to Idaho because Utah does not have a lottery, but the point was made.
The left-handed McCarty’s rise up the leaderboard was no fluke, however.
Two weekends ago he won the KFT’s Price Cutter Charity Championship by three shots with a 25-under 263 in Springfield, Missouri. It was redemption, of sorts, for the Arizonan because the week prior he was in the hunt at The Ascendant in Colorado and shot a final round 75 to tie for fifth.
McCarty is seventh on the KFT points list and has already secured his PGA Tour card for 2025.
Vilips, 22, is getting close to earning his, remarkable considering he’s only played in three events before this week. From Perth, Australia, Vilips recently wrapped up his college career at Stanford and is ranked 10th on the PGA Tour University list.
Having Monday-qualified to get into The Ascendant four weeks ago, he tied for 13th there to get into the next week’s event, where he tied for 15th. He placed second alone last week at the NV5 Invitational in Illinois, and has rocketed to No. 44 on the points list.
“I just think being really confident in my game has been a big key,” he told the Golf Channel. “Not being worried about anything going wrong and just going out there and trying to make a lot of birdies had made a big difference.”
Obviously, it will take another round in the mid-60s for the leaders, or better, to take home the $180,000 first-place check. Last year, Canadian Roger Sloan shot -24 to win; BYU golfer Tyson Shelley tied for 12th at -17 and BYU golfer Carson Lundell, now a pro, tied for 40th at -13.
Saturday, Utah-connected golfers not named Summerhays or Jones played reasonably well, but not good enough to stay in contention.
Former BYU golfer Peter Kuest shot a 67 and is tied for 44th at -11. Former BYU golfer Max Brenchley, an amateur, shot a 68 and is tied for 62nd.
BYU commit Kihei Akina, a rising senior at Lone Peak High, shot a 69 and is tied for 62nd. Former Weber High and Georgia Tech golfer Connor Howe, from Ogden, shot a 70 and is tied for 69th.
Lundell shot a 70 and is tied for 75th.
The Golf Channel will televise Sunday’s final round, beginning at 1 p.m. MDT.