PARK CITY — It could have been just another qualifying day for the University of Utah golf team or a friendly round between two good buddies Saturday at Jeremy Ranch Golf & Country Club. Mitchell Schow and Blake Tomlinson have played together on the Ute golf team for three years, and Saturday they laughed and talked and walked together as they have hundreds of times before.
Only this time it was a bigger deal. It was the finals of the 122nd edition of the Utah Men’s State Amateur, a tournament that has been played every year since 1899, more consecutive years than any golf tournament in the world. It also featured a gallery of friends and family, including 10 members of the Ute golf team with a lot of folks wearing red and white and one cart displaying a large Utah flag waving in back.
“It was fun, we were laughing the whole day, but when it came down to it, we were serious and it was a good competitive match. Mitchell beat me today, all credit to him, he’s a great guy and a great golfer.” — Blake Tomlinson
In the end, Schow was slightly better on this day as he took a 3 and 2 victory over Tomlinson to claim the coveted trophy.
“We ate lunch together, we were joking around the whole time, basically like a normal qualifying round we’d have for the U,” said Schow, who moved to Park City from Ogden in ninth grade. “There was that added pressure it was for the State Am, but it was pretty relaxed and we were trying to play some good golf.”
“It was fun, we were laughing the whole day, but when it came down to it, we were serious and it was a good competitive match,” Tomlinson said. “Mitchell beat me today, all credit to him, he’s a great guy and a great golfer.”
The day before, both golfers had to endure extra-hole matches as Schow went 21 holes to beat Hayden Christensen, while Tomlinson took 20 holes to edge Jake Vincent.
The final didn’t have the drama of those matches as Schow got hot in the morning 18 holes when he ran off a streak of five straight hole wins to take a 5 up advantage and then held off a Tomlinson rally in the afternoon.
While the two players are evenly matched (their averages on the Utah golf team this year were 71.6 for Schow and 72.3 for Tomlinson) they have different styles. Tomlinson hits the ball as far as anyone in Utah, this side of PGA Tour player Tony Finau, and a couple of his drives Saturday measured in the 375- to 385-yard range. Schow hits it plenty long, but relies more on his straight shots and consistent play.
“He doesn’t have that intimidation factor because I’ve seen it before where I’m the person who says, ‘He’s hitting it long,’ while everyone else is saying, ‘Wow, he’s hitting it really long,’” Schow said. “I’m used to it and that helped me a lot because it wasn’t the first time I’ve watched him nuke it past me 50 to 100 yards.”
Tomlinson took an early 2 up lead thanks to an eagle at No. 3 and a par at No. 4, but Schow came back to win the fifth hole with a par, and Tomlinson stayed 1 up through 11.
The momentum switched at No. 12 when Schow sank his 8-footer and Tomlinson missed from closer in to even the match.
That was the start of Schow winning five straight holes, including birdies at 14 and 15 and an eagle at 16. He expanded the margin to 5 up with a par at No. 18.
Later he didn’t even realize the streak he was on, saying, “Did I win five straight holes? If I did it’s crazy. I went on a little bit of a tear. Consistently it’s the best I’ve played in awhile.”
It’s not often in State Am play that one golfer has a 5 up advantage at the lunch break.
After the two ate ate lunch together, Tomlinson decided to come out a little less aggressive in his long-bomb mindset and said, “If I kept giving myself an opportunities, I’d find a way to score.”
While Schow said he wasn’t playing careful with his lead, it began to slip as he missed a 5-footer at No. 2 (hole 20) and then three-putted from the fringe at the next hole where Tomlinson birdied.
Schow increased his lead with an 18-footer at No. 5, but Tomlinson won No. 7 when he drove the green at the par 4 and made birdie and then won No. 8 when Schow 3-putted from 60 feet.
With all the momentum on his side, Tomlinson hit a stupendous drive at the par-5 dogleg-right 9th hole over the houses to just 75 yards away, while Schow still had 185 yards in. But Tomlinson missed his eagle try and both birdied, tying the hole.
Schow went 3 up with a birdie at 10 and hit the shot of the week when his 4-iron from 225 at the par-5 13th ended up 15 feet away. Tomlinson conceded the hole after hitting in the creek, but Schow rolled in his putt anyway.
Tomlinson won 14 thanks to another prodigious drive, but match ended at No. 16 when both players parred.
Because of the pandemic, which wiped out their spring seasons at the U., both players will be back to play together another year with the 23-year-old Schow repeating his senior year as a graduate student and Tomlinson as a junior, probably in the spring.
“I didn’t run out of steam and my positivity was good,” said Tomlinson. “It’s hard when Mitchell doesn’t miss a shot. He played awesome today and the entire week, so it’s hard to beat that, very hard.”
“It’s been a grind,” said Schow, who played 136 holes and walked the whole way even when he could have taken a cart in the early rounds. When asked what his immediate plans were he said, “I’m probably going to go fishing.”