LEHI — Tyson Shelley has been playing golf for less than four years, but he’s already become the top golfer in his age group with a scholarship to BYU awaiting a year from now.
The 17-year-old Shelley completed a grueling week of golf by defeating Skyline High teammate Simon Kwon 5 and 4 to win the Utah State Junior Golf Amateur Friday at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club.
“I played solid golf throughout the whole week and didn’t make many mistakes,” said Shelley. “I struck the ball really well and putted well on the back nine and ended up getting the win.
Shelley and Kwon have played numerous times together and Shelley said “it was a lot of fun” playing his high school teammate, who will also be a senior at Skyline in the fall.
In the match Shelley took control early, winning three of the first four holes and then “got comfortable” and cruised to the victory.
Earlier Shelley had defeated Wyatt Peterson 6 and 5 in the semifinals, Boston Bracken 3 and 2, Emmitt Harris 4 and 3, Sean Lam 3 and 1 and Helaman Ofahengaue 5 and 3
In the girls 15-18 division, Grace Summerhays defeated Orem’s Lila Galeai 2 and 1 to win her first Utah State Junior Amateur in that division. Earlier she was a winner in the 13-14 age group.
The 15-year-old Summerhays is the daughter of Boyd Summerhays and lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, but comes to live in Farmington every summer. She said this was her first tournament since January because of the COVID-19 shutdown.
“It was a really tough match, Lila played really good,” Summerhays said. “I just made a couple of birdies that were really important on the back nine.”
Summerhays was 3-up with five holes left, but Galeai won No. 14 with a birdie as well as No. 16 to cut the lead to one. However, Summerhays hit her tee shot at the par-3 17th hole within 10 feet and sank the putt for the victory.
Other winners included Ogden’s Parker Bunn, who defeated Kihei Akina in the boys 13-14, Park City’s Rawson Hardy, who beat Austin Shelley 1-up in boys 11-12, Morgan’s Jace Benson, who won the boys 10-under, 6 and 5 over Mack Herzog.
Girls’ winners included Taylorsville’s Ashley Lam, who won the girls 13-14 2 -up over Aadyn Long, Uintah’s Whitni Johnson, who defeated Sadie Wagner 5 and 4, and Paige Anae of South Jordan who won girls 10-under, 9 and 7 over Saylor Wagner.