To win “one for the thumb” on the 116th Utah Girls’s State Beginner, Salt Lake Metropolis affiliate golf director Kelsey Chugg must get by way of one of many standouts on the BYU girls’s golf workforce.
Thursday’s 18-hole championship match at Ogden Golf & Nation Membership will characteristic Chugg, an Ogden native and a four-time winner of the occasion, in opposition to BYU rising sophomore Adeline Anderson.
Chugg, who performed collegiately at Weber State in 2012-13 and has toured Ogden G&CC greater than 50 instances, by her personal estimation, final received the title in 2017, the identical 12 months she received the U.S. Girls’s Mid-Beginner in Houston.
Anderson prepped at Buena Excessive College in Ventura, California, and was a contributor for coach Carrie Roberts’ BYU workforce the previous season as a freshman, showing in 11 occasions and posting three top-25 finishes because the Cougars’ No. 5 participant most often.
The match begins at 8 a.m.
Chugg upended incoming BYU freshman Berlin Lengthy, who’s from Lehi and prepped at Lone Peak Excessive in Highland, 3 and 1 in a semifinal match Wednesday.
Anderson eradicated former Bingham Excessive star Tess Blair, a Sacramento State golfer who was the stroke-play medalist on Monday, by a rating of two and 1 within the different semifinal. Blair was the champion in 2018.
Blair defeated former New Mexico golfer Sarah Salvo 1 up in a quarterfinal match Wednesday morning. Salvo is returning to aggressive golf after a 10-year hiatus and represented herself properly on the State Am, successful two shut matches Tuesday.
Salvo received holes 13 and 15 to chop the deficit to 1, however the girls halved the following three holes and Blair moved on.
Anderson downed Yale golfer Sophie Simon 2 and 1 within the morning, ending a outstanding run from the school freshman from Maryland whose dad and mom lately moved to Park Metropolis. The match was tight all through, with neither golfer main by greater than two holes.
In a matchup of previous champions, Chugg routed BYU’s Kerstin Fotu 5 and 4 in a morning match. Fotu was the 2019 champion at Logan Golf and Nation Membership. Chugg led by two on the flip, then birdied holes 10 and 11 and cruised to the win.
Chugg coined the phrase “one for the thumb,” which means she was on the lookout for a fifth State Am title ring, after she received titles in 2012 at Logan Golf and Nation Membership, 2013 at Wasatch Mountain, 2015 at Hidden Valley Nation and 2017 at Davis Park.
She skilled some again points in 2020 and 2021, however has clearly returned to her earlier type.
In a rematch of final 12 months’s championship match, Lengthy defeated defending champion Lila Galea’i 1 up in a quarterfinal match. Galea’i led by two holes after 13, however Lengthy received holes 14, 15 and 17 to maneuver on, reversing what occurred final 12 months when she misplaced a two-hole lead late.
Lengthy, 18, shot even-par 144 to win medalist honors on the 6A state women golf match in Might, and helped lead the Knights to 4 state titles in her time there. She additionally received medalist honors in an unofficial state meet in 2020 when the UHSAA’s official state match was canceled as a consequence of COVID-19.
