For all his accomplishments in amateur and professional golf, there is one tournament former BYU All-American Zac Blair has never won.
That would be the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open.
So that’s why Blair, 32, who is close to retaining his PGA Tour card after missing almost two years of competitive golf due to shoulder surgery, is playing in the tournament this weekend at Riverside Country Club in Provo.
“That is the only reason I came and played. My dad (Jimmy Blair) won it back in the day. I would love to win it. I think there are a handful of people that have won the State Am and this, including my dad and Fish. Maybe a few others.” — Zac Blair
Winning it is on his bucket list, so to speak.
“That is the only reason I came and played,” Blair said Saturday after shooting a 5-under 67 in the second round of the 54-hole event. “My dad (Jimmy Blair) won it back in the day. I would love to win it. I think there are a handful of people that have won the State Am and this, including my dad and Fish (former BYU golfer and current Korn Ferry Tour regular Patrick Fishburn). Maybe a few others.”
Also, Blair considers Riverside his home course, along with The Tree Farm, a private course he designed and developed in South Carolina.
“I mean, it would be really cool (to win),” he said. “It is in my backyard. So yeah, it has been fun. Hopefully I have a good (round) tomorrow.”
Heading into Sunday’s final round in the chase for the $22,000 first-place check, Blair stands at 8-under and in a four-way tie for fifth place.
In the lead are University of Utah golfer and first-round leader Javier Barcos; Phoenix pro Gavin Cohen, Las Vegas pro Zane Thomas and Las Vegas pro Matt Snyder.
At 8-under with Blair are State Amateur champion and BYU golfer Simon Kwon, former USU golfer Braydon Swapp, a professional from Ogden, and former BYU golfer and second-year pro David Timmins.
Eight golfers are at 7-under, most notably two-time champion Clay Ogden, which should make for an exciting, tight finish on Sunday.
Snyder had Saturday’s best round, firing a 7-under 65 to get back into contention. Eagles on holes 7 and 15 did the trick for the former Cal Lutheran star.
Blair was seemingly headed that route as well after an eagle on No. 7, but on the par-5 15th he hooked his approach into a hazard and made a bogey on the relatively easy hole.
After a search for his ball produced nothing, Blair went back to the point of entry and took a drop.
“Just as we dropped, a guy said, ‘hey, we found it,’” Blair said.
But it was too late, and the father of two had to count the penalty and play out from his drop. Ironically, if this tournament was a PGA Tour event, fans would have lined the fairways and his ball would have been found quickly and easily.
“Whatever,” Blair said. “It is what it is. It sucks not having people out watching. Like, if your family is here, they just say, ‘hey, it is right over here.’”
Blair said the course will be set up Sunday “to have a little bit of fireworks,” so he believes he will need to shoot 8- or 9-under to win.
“Didn’t have a great finish (Saturday),” he said. “I hit some good shots, but I just kinda gotta get the putter a little hotter, for sure.”
Shortly after Blair finished, the horn blew due to lightning in the area. Play was halted at 5:40 p.m. and resumed at 6:35 p.m.
As for the course conditions, Blair said the greens are fast, but “everything else is kinda slow, so that makes it challenging. The greens are inconsistent on the bounce. It is a bit of a guessing game. But any time you shoot 66 or better here, it is a good round.”
Blair is currently 93rd on the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List for the 2022-23 season.
“I have to finish top 125 at the end of this year” to secure his card for the 2023-24 season,” he said. “”I think there are seven (tournaments left after the playoffs). I will probably play five or six, I would assume. … You gotta be in top 125 by the end of the RSM (tournament in Georgia in mid-November).”
The cut came at 1-over 145, leaving nine golfers who fired 2-over 146 on the outside looking in. That group included Utah Women’s Open champion Apelila “Lila” Galea’i, who was trying to become the second woman in three years to make the Utah Open cut. Galeai’s former BYU teammate Kerstin Fotu was the first woman to ever do it two years ago.