SALT LAKE CITY — Starting the day in a tie for 12th place, four shots off the lead, Blake Tomlinson wasn’t exactly thinking he was going to win the Richard C. Kramer Salt Lake City Amateur Sunday afternoon. He especially wasn’t thinking that as he stood on the No. 8 tee at Bonneville Golf Course after making back-to-back bogeys and was being pelted by rain that was coming down sideways at that point.
With some help from a north wind behind him, the University of Utah junior hit his driver at the 359-yard par-4 hole and watched it head towards the green.
“It was right on the flag and my playing competitors were saying it was really good and telling it to go in and I was like, ‘there’s no way it’s going in.’” he said.
But when he and his fellow golfers reached the green, Tomlinson’s ball was sitting in the cup for a rare hole-in-one on a par-4 hole.
Picking up three strokes to par with his double-eagle, Tomlinson had new life and at the next hole, he drained a 60-foot uphill birdie putt on the two-tiered green and suddenly he was 4-under-par on the day. He played the back nine in 2-under par for a 66 and when the dozen golfers playing in front of him couldn’t break 70, Tomlinson was the winner of the tournament, considered the second biggest amateur in the state behind the State Amateur.
“I’m very excited, unexpected, but very nice,” he said, an hour after his round, still wearing his red Utah winter beanie cap. “I tend to play well in bad weather — whenever it gets bad I guess I just turn it on. I didn’t think I’d end up winning, but I played as well as I could and left it all out there today.”
The 21-year-old Tomlinson, who won the Salt Lake City Open at Bonneville in 2016 with a final-round 64, finished at 139 and two shots better than Skyline High golfer Tyson Shelley and Westminster College golfer David Timmins.
Shelley and Timmins had begun the day in a tie with David Jennings and Zach Jones, but none of the four could break par allowing Tomlinson to come from behind.
Last year, Tomlinson was among the leaders on the final day of the City Am when he made a triple-bogey at the 13th hole and ended up finishing in a tie for fifth, four shots behind.
“I got a bit unlucky last year when I hit the ball in the tree, so I guess the course gave it back to me today,” Tomlinson said.
Former champion Mitchell Schow and Zach Jones tied for fourth at 142.
Josh Jensen won the A Flight with a 146 total, four strokes ahead of Brett Hess. Nalin Maxfield captured the B Flight with a 155 total, five strokes in front of Bradley Kooyman.
SALT LAKE CITY AMATEUR
Championship Flight
139 — Blake Tomlinson (73-66)
141 — Tyson Shelley (69-72), David Timmins (69-72)
142 — Mitchell Schow (72-70), Zach Jones (69-73)
144 — Connor Howe (73-71), Hunter Howe (73-71), Dan Horner (72-72), Ryan Brimley (71-73), David Jennings (69-73)
145 — Derek Penman (73-72), Denny Job (73-72), Cooper Jones (70-75)
146 — Tyler Hand (73-73), Cameron Howe (72-74)
A Flight
146 — Josh Jensen
150 — Brett Hess
152 — Jake Tingey
153 — Matthew Dean, Austin Green, Brady Watkins
155 — Richard Dibblee
B Flight
155 — Nalin Maxfield
160 — Bradley Kooyman
161 — Jackson Shelley, Dan Hansgen
165 — Kevin Stoddard
166 — Jeff Campbell