Utah State Amateur winner Kelton Hirsch
(UGA Photo)
OGDEN, UT (July 15, 2017) - Kelton Hirsch was 1 down after the first five holes of the 119th Utah State Amateur of his title match against Braydon Swapp on Saturday but once he got rolling there was no slowing him down. Hirsch, a redshirt freshman, would eventually storm past Swapp at Ogden Golf & Country Club and win the championship match 7&5.
With the victory Hirsch became the third straight BYU player and fourth in the last five years to win the Utah State Amateur. Hirsch joined a list that includes Patrick Fishburn (2016), Jordan Rodgers (2015) and Cole Ogden (2013).
"I don't even know how to describe it," Hirsch told the The Salt Lake Tribune. "It was so much fun out there — a great week of golf, with a lot of great players out there. For me to come out on top was unlikely. Honestly, I thought I had a chance, but I knew it would take a lot of good golf, and luckily I was able to do that this week."
Hirsch pulled even with Swapp, a junior at Utah State, with a birdie on the 6th hole and then took a lead that he would never relinquish with another birdie on the 9th. A win on the ensuing hole pushed the lead for Hirsch to 2 up and by the time the opening 18-holes was complete the advantage was 4 up.
On the second 18 Swapp clawed to within 3 down on a two occasions but he was never able to draw any closer as Hirsch closed out the match with a birdie on the 31st hole.
Hirsch reached the semifinals by defeating 2016 winner and BYU teammate Patrick Fishburn 1 up while Swapp bested Kyler Dearden 2&1.
"As soon as I beat Fishburn on hole 18 [in Friday's semifinals]," Hirsch said. "That was probably the moment where I was like, 'all right, this could be my year.' Before that, I wasn't thinking ahead."
Editors Note: The Salt Lake Tribune contributed to this story
View results for Utah State Amateur
ABOUT THE Utah State Amateur
Those who qualify, along with the exempt players,
will advance to a
36-hole qualifying. The low 64 qualifiers will advance
into match play.
There will be one round of match play on
Wednesday, two rounds of
match play on Thursday and Friday, and a 36-hole
championship
match on Saturday.
View Complete Tournament Information