SALT LAKE CITY — University of Utah golf coach Garrett Clegg is having a rough time this fall with no golf for his team to play or even look forward to. While he has loved the opportunity to spend more time with his wife and children, he doesn’t hold back when asked about the lack of a fall golf season because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s brutal,” he said. “We just don’t have the intensity we normally have and it’s hard to fake it. It’s kind of a weird state and I’m not sure how to fully navigate it. I’m pulling my hair out.”
Clegg lamented he hasn’t been allowed to recruit since February and said it’s hard to keep his golfers motivated with no tournaments to play in even though they’re still able to practice for 20 hours a week.
Despite the lack of college tournaments, his golfers have been able to play in local events and several of his players have had success on the course recently.
Clegg was thrilled how well they did in the Utah State Amateur in early September. Of the 144 golfers who started the tourney, two Utes ended up in the match-play finals where Mitchell Schow won the title, defeating teammate Blake Tomlinson 3 and 2. Both players will be back in the spring, Schow as a senior, Tomlinson as a junior.
Clegg wasn’t able to watch his golfers during the first four days of the State Am because of NCAA regulations with high school golfers still competing, but he did make it to the first 18 holes of the finals before coaching his son’s football game.
“It was an awesome showing, tons of fun, really cool,” he said. “Blake and Mitchell were incredible. They’re both great players.”
He was also happy to see 10 Ute golfers cheering their teammates on.
“One of the coolest things to me was seeing everybody up there supporting them,” he said. “Everyone on the team was out there, even the new guys that didn’t know them that well. That was big for me because we preach ‘team’ and to see that group so united and so together was really awesome.”
Two future Utes played well as Brandon Robison, made it to the quarterfinals where he lost to Schow, and Braxton Watts, who lost to Schow in the round of 16. Robison, who played for Viewmont High, and Watts, who played for Farmington High, are leaving on church missions this fall. Tristan Mandur, a junior from Canada, also made it to match play.
A couple of weeks later, Tomlinson teamed with another teammate, Colton Tanner and made it to the finals of the Utah Four-Ball Championship.
Usually college golf seasons are played in two stages, in the fall from September to November and in the spring, from February to May.
With fall sports being canceled in the Pac-12, the Utes will have to wait until early next year to play, assuming the coronavirus is under control by then. Even though football will start up in November, golf and other minor sports like women’s soccer and volleyball, won’t be played until spring.
The Utes have made great strides over the last four seasons under Clegg, finishing fifth in the Pac-12 in 2019 and being on track to make the NCAA regionals last spring before COVID-19 shut down the season.
Besides Schow, Tomlinson, Mandur and Tanner, the Utes have returning players Axel Einarsson, Jesper Von Reedtz Javier Barcos and Oscar Maxfield, Oklahoma transfer Sam Tidd and incoming freshman Martin Leon.
“We’ll practice until the first part of November then have a break and get back to it in January,” Clegg said. “We don’t know yet (about next year), but hopefully we can play and the boys will keep doing great things.”