MIDWAY — The Soldier Hollow Golf Course played tough in Monday’s first round of the Utah Men’s State Amateur as only 19 of the 288 golfers in the field were able to break par.
Leading the way was Nathan Ouimette, a freshman on the Southern Virginia golf team who was a baseball player at Lone Peak High School before serving a church mission. He shot a 7-under-par 65 on the Silver Course in the morning wave and sits two shots ahead of defending champion Preston Summerhays and Park City’s Colton Tanner.
Summerhays, who set the course record on the Silver Course with a 12-under-par 60 last year in a U.S. Amateur qualifying round, didn’t get that low Monday, but he finished with a solid 67 with six birdies and just one bogey.
Brigham Gibbs, who won the 2018 State Senior Amateur title, came in with a 68 on the tougher Gold Course, along with University of Utah golfer Peyton Hastings, who played the Silver Course. Salt Lake City Am champion Kurt Owen is alone at 69, while Layton’s Reed Nielsen and South Weber’s Kyler Dearden came in at 70.
Eleven golfers finished at 71, including 2017 champion Kelton Hirsch, 2013 champion Cole Ogden and Lone Peak golfer Zach Jones, who has won several amateur events this year.
Grace Summerhays, the 14-year-old sister of Preston Summerhays, fired a 2-over-par 74 on the Silver Course and will likely need to shoot a better score Tuesday to make the cut for match play. She’s in a tie for 50th place with 20 other golfers. The cut number is expected to be 147 or 148.
The low 64 golfers will be put into brackets and begin match play on Wednesday morning. Two rounds will be played Thursday and two more rounds on Friday until two golfers are left for a 36-hole final beginning at 7:30 a.m.
UTAH STATE AMATEUR
Soldier Hollow Golf Course
First-round scores
65 -- Nathan Ouimette
67 -- Preston Summerhays, Colton Tanner
68 -- Brigham Gibbs, Peyton Hastings
69 -- Kurt Owen
70 -- Kyler Dearden, Reed Nielsen
71 -- Joshua Lansky, Masen Ward, Clark Jones, Lane Deason, Christopher Cheney, Joshua Savage, Cole Ogden, Zach Jones, Kelton Hirsch, Alec Williams, Tommy Johnson
72 -- Spencer Dunaway, Colton Dallimore, Derek Penman, Cameron Tucker, Blake Murray, Andy Hess, Carl Jensen, Dan Horner, Denny Job
73 -- Bryan Dalton, Brennan Coburn, Christopher Romney, Tanner Telford, Thomas Young, Andrew Cottle, Ryan Seamons, Lucas Schone, Paul Cannon, Brett Garner, Cole Wecker, Cole Ponich, Mitchell Schow, Alex Smith, Aaron Smith, Patrick Horstmann, Triston Gardner, Nick Becker, Elijah Turner, Tanner Alder, Tyler Labrum
74 -- Bob Mitchell, Hunter Howe, Creed Sermersheim, Greg Baumgartner, Matthew Lupinacci, Shane McMillan, Tyler Holmes, Kyle Tueller, John Reid, Bridger Holmes, Mark Beese, John Johnson, Greg Slack, Grace Summerhays, Brady Bigler, Jake Vincent, Joshua Peterson, Zack Neff, Dylan Chugg, Jason Hargett, John Owen