Midway • After two pairs of University of Utah golfers dueled for the last couple of State Amateur titles, BYU’s Zac Jones was hoping teammate David Timmins would join him at Soldier Hollow Golf Course in Saturday’s final match of the 124th tournament.
Those plans fell apart when Simon Kwon rallied to beat Timmins with two clutch birdies in the quarterfinals, but Jones came through on behalf of the Cougars in the end. The BYU sophomore from Lone Peak High School surged to a big lead in the morning round of the 36-hole match and took a 4-and-3 victory over Kwon, a 2021 Skyline graduate who chose the University of California over BYU.
Having returned from a church mission in the middle of last July’s State Am, Jones played in seven tournaments between the spring and fall seasons, but was not in BYU’s postseason lineup. The challenge of getting his game back further drove him to hold the State Am trophy. “Honestly, my struggles and my frustration kind of made it possible,” he said. “This game will beat you down and keep you down there.”
Jones stayed on top of the State Am field from start to finish. A pair of 66s on the Gold and Silver layouts made him the stroke-play medalist, then only one of his first five matches went to No. 18. In the final match, Jones went 5 up after 12 holes and withstood Kwon’s comeback attempts in the afternoon.
Trying to hold back tears, Kwon said, “I had a lot of good rounds, beat a lot of good players. So, just focus on the positive. … There’s always going to be mixed feelings, but at the end I’m probably proud.”
A grandson of golf legend Johnny Miller, Kwon was hoping to give the extended Miller family its first State Am victory. With wins over four in-state college players and a high school junior, Kwon reached the finals 18 years after his uncle Todd Miller forfeited the last match rather than play on Sunday, in the tournament’s traditional schedule that was subsequently altered.
Jones also is a product of a prominent Utah golf family, as of one three brothers (he’s in between Tyler and Cooper) who made State Am history by advancing together into the 64-golfer bracket for match play. Their father, Clark, also qualified for the 288-player field at Soldier Hollow.
Zac Jones was a 12-year-old caddie at Soldier Hollow in 2013, when his father won a first-round match. The roles were reversed this time, as the champion drew from the family’s golf culture of sibling competition, growing up around Alpine Country Club in Highland. “I’ve played with pressure, playing against them has really helped,” he said, smiling about the motivation of the loser having to do his brothers’ weekly chores, such as laundry and lawn care.
At multiple stages Saturday, Jones appeared to be on his way to an easy win. Kwon kept responding. In the afternoon, he was 5 down before winning Nos. 7 and 8. The tee on the par-4 No. 9 (Soldier Hollow this year changed the nines of the Gold Course, reverting to the original routing) was moved up to about 300 yards, and Kwon’s drive rolled past the flagstick and onto the back fringe.
Jones’ tee shot settled in the greenside rough, and his difficult chip trickled into tap-in range. Kwon then three-putted, creating one of those classic match-play reversals.
“It’s kind of a momentum thing,” Jones said. “If I don’t hit my chip good, his putt gets a lot easier.”
Jones became the first active BYU golfer to win the title since Kelton Hirsch in 2017. Utah’s two-year reign ended in the round of 32, when defending champion Martin Leon was upset by Bridger Holmes.
“For sure, it’s a big deal,” Jones said of restoring the Cougars’ presence in the historic tournament.
The 125th State Amateur is booked for The Country Club, which first hosted the event in 1899 at its original Gilmer Park location in Salt Lake City.
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