For the third-straight year, a college golfer has won the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Women’s Open golf tournament but won’t be able to claim the $1,500 winner’s check because she is an amateur.
BYU golfer Kerstin Fotu, a rising junior from Highland who prepped at Lone Peak High School, shot a 36-hole total of 7-under 137 at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club in Lehi to win by a shot over former University of Wyoming golfer Gabrielle Gibson in the fifth edition of the tournament.
As a low professional, Gibson — from Temecula, California — gets the first-place prize money, while Fotu’s name will go on the silver trophy as champion, just as UNLV’s Veronica Joels’ did last year.
Fotu, the 2019 Utah Women’s State Amateur champion, shot a 4-under 68 on Tuesday to overtake Gibson, the first-round leader. Last year, Joels shot 5-under 139 to win, surging past first-round leader Fotu.
Former Bingham High and current Sacramento State golfer Tess Blair of Herriman was third at 5-under. Pros Haley Sturgeon of Bountiful and Juli Erekson of Mapleton — the current Utah Valley University women’s golf coach — tied for fourth at 4-under 140.
BYU golfer Lila Galea’i, who won the Utah Women’s State Amateur last month, finished alone in sixth place with a 1-over 145.
Fotu and Gibson staged a memorable duel most of the day; Fotu birdied the par-3 15th hole to take a two-shot lead, then watched Gibson make a birdie on the par-4 16th hole, a bogey on the par-3 17th hole and a birdie on the par-4 18th hole.
Former BYU golfer Lea Garner, the low pro last year for the third time in the tournament’s first four years, shot 72-74 to place seventh.
Annika Borrelli, at the time a sophomore at the University of San Francisco, won the 2019 tournament at Thanksgiving Point by shooting 9-under 135. The tournament was held at East Bay Golf Course in Provo its first two years.