BYU's Banz tops stroke-play leaderboard at 119th Utah women's state amateur


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MIDWAY — One year ago, members of the BYU women's golf team missed the annual Utah women's state amateur due to a summer trip to Ireland.

A year later, the Cougars took the top two spots from from stroke-play qualifying.

BYU's Whitney Banz earned medalist honors with a 4-under-par 68, and college teammate Berlin Long finished second at 3-under 69 Monday at Wasatch Mountain Golf Course in Midway.

The collegiate duo held off Utah golf stalwart Kelsey Chugg in the initial 18-hole qualifier that seeds the match-play bracket for the rest of the week. The six-time women's amateur champion was the only other golfer to shoot under par, finishing at 1-under 71.

Herriman's Natalie Mclane, who won 2A state medalist honors as a freshman at APA Draper in 2023, was fourth (72) and former champion Grace Summerhays finished fifth (73).

The only other past champion to make the cut for match play was Steph Belnap, after the two-time champ carded 77 to finish tied for 17th among the field of 67.

Banz carded three birdies en route to 33 on the front nine of her afternoon round, and only had one bogey on the day before the West High graduate who played golf and basketball at Westminster before serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Bangkok, Thailand and transferring to BYU birdied the par-4, 350-yard 18th hole to card 68.

Nebraska's Arden Louchheim, the former three-time 2A state champion at Rowland Hall, and incoming BYU freshman Aadyn Long from Lone Peak also posted top-10 finishes to comfortably earn a spot in the bracket, which will include the top-30 stroke-play finishers and ties for the match-play portion of the tournament beginning with Tuesday's first and second rounds.

The first round of match play begins Tuesday at 7:30 a.m. MDT. Winners will advance to the second round in the afternoon, followed by the quarterfinals and semifinals Wednesday.

The 36-hole championship final is scheduled for Thursday morning at Wasatch Mountain.

Match play first-round pairings

  • Whitney Banz vs. Mikayla Jensen
  • Sydney Richards vs. Ashley Lam
  • Faith Vui vs. Raina Rimi
  • Kennedee Pearson vs. Rachel Lilywhite
  • Natalie Mclane vs. Kate Walker
  • Sirporn Luangnam vs. Paige Anae
  • Grace Summerhays vs. Ellie Jo Olsen
  • Morgan Thomas vs. Adley Nelson
  • Berlin Long vs. Hunter Gledhill
  • Jane Olson vs. Reimi Bleyl
  • Arden Louchheim vs. Remi Rawlings
  • Lily Shin vs. Steph Belnap
  • Kelsey Chugg vs. Rosie Oettili
  • Avery Kraatz vs. Mikaila Lieu
  • Jenna Anderson vs. Brynnley Bischoff
  • Aadyn Long vs. Kindra Hirasuna

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