A year after no fewer than three past Utah State Amateur champions represented the Beehive State at the U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh, only one golfer with Utah ties will tee it up this year in the major golf tournament Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York.
That would be 35-year-old Zac Blair, the former All-American golfer at BYU who is making a habit of qualifying for the event viewed by many as the ultimate test of golf in the world. Blair, who now makes his home in Orem, tees off in the 126th U.S. Open on Thursday morning at 11:03 a.m. MT with fellow Americans Kevin Roy and Pierceson Coody.
“I’m obviously thrilled to be playing in it again,” Blair told the Deseret News last week. “And to have it at Shinnecock Hills, one of the hardest golf courses in the world, and one of the best golf courses in the world, makes it extra sweet.”
Last year, fellow Utah State Am champs Tony Finau and Preston Summerhays were in the field with Blair in Pennsylvania, but neither Finau nor Summerhays qualified this year. Another past State Am champ, former Fremont High and BYU star Patrick Fishburn, was eliminated in a playoff in his bid to qualify at a golf course in Canada a week ago Monday.
Finau will miss his third straight major, after playing in 33 straight before failing to qualify for the Masters last April.
So that leaves Blair to carry the Utah banner, after he qualified through Springfield Country Club in Ohio for the third straight year.
I am in a weird spot right now. ... I am kind of a little more putting my chips in the Korn Ferry (Tour) basket and hopefully try to get one of those 20 (PGA Tour) cards that way.
— Former BYU golfer Zac Blair, who has conditional status on PGA Tour
It will be Blair’s fifth U.S. Open. He tied for 40th in 2014 at Pinehurst, missed the cut in 2019 at Pebble Beach, tied for 26th at Pinehurst in 2024 and missed the cut last year at Oakmont, shooting 74-77 on that ultra-difficult course before J.J. Spaun claimed the title.
Blair arrived with his family of five in New York on Saturday, as wife Alicia, sons Charles and William, and daughter Izzy made the trip. He’s familiar with Shinneock, the only course to have hosted the U.S. Open in three different centuries.
“Yeah, I have been lucky enough to play it a couple of times, just casual rounds when some friends hosted us out there,” he said. “It is a pretty awesome place, full of history and all that. I have always enjoyed the whole experience out there.”
Brooks Koepka won the U.S. Open the last time it was contested on the Long Island course, in 2018, his second-straight U.S. Open victory. He edged Tommy Fleetwood by a shot after Fleetwood shot a 63 in the final round.
Blair said he’s been preparing for the typical U.S. Open setup, which is to say a hard, firm and fast layout with gnarly rough and difficult greens.
“It is probably going to be a little sporty, setup wise, for the tournament,” he said. “But it is always a really good golf course for me. It is kind of an interesting place. I don’t think it particularly sets up (better) for anybody in particular. I don’t think there’s a huge advantage for people that hit it really far, or super straight. It’s really fair.”
Because he’s 2 for 4 in cuts made at U.S. Opens, Blair would love to get above .500 in that category, and he believes he has the game to do it.
“The goal is always to go play four days,” he said. “I know if I play well, that is definitely something I can do. I usually start from there and then hopefully things click and you are having a good week and making good decisions and kind of executing on those and feeling it out as you go.”
Shinnecock Hills will play at about 7,440 yards and will be a par-70 course for the U.S. Open. Past champions at the venue include Raymond Floyd, Corey Pavin, Retief Goosen and Koepka.
“You have to do everything really well out there, and obviously hit a lot of fairways,” Blair said. “The fairways are a little more generous than you would typically see for a U.S. Open. But if you get off the fairways, there are nightmares out there.
“Also, the wind can blow pretty good out there. Hopefully the weather turns out pretty good. I am excited to see what is going on.”
What’s going on with Zac Blair’s career?
Having finished the 2024 PGA Tour season just outside the top 125 on the FedEx Cup points list — he was at 126 — Blair currently has only conditional PGA Tour status and has been splitting his time in 2026 between the PGA Tour and the Korn Ferry Tour.
In seven PGA Tour starts this year, he’s made four cuts. His best finish was a tie for 8th in the Puerto Rico Open on March 5.
Blair has made the cut in all seven of his Korn Ferry Tour starts in 2026, the best showing a second-place finish (-15) at the Colonial Life Charity Classic in South Carolina on May 17.
Blair is currently at No. 23 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list; The top 20 secure cards for the PGA Tour in 2027.
“I think I am in a weird spot. I am on the fringe of getting into a lot of these events. Like, I would have got into the Canada Open his past week,” Blair said. “But I didn’t enter. I decided to come home, and that was good. It would have been my seventh week in a row, playing.
“I was like, ‘do I want to play seven straight events and then the U.S. Open? Or do you want to come home and take a bit of a break and head in there somewhat fresh, hopefully.”
Blair hopes to get into the PGA Tour’s John Deere Classic in early July, “and then maybe a handful of other ones, and then we will see what happens during the fall.”
Between now and then, he will go back to the Korn Ferry Tour and hunt for PGA Tour status that way.
“Right now I am kind of a little more putting my chips in the Korn Ferry basket and hopefully try to get one of those 20 cards that way,” he said.