‘Still in love with the game’: Daniel Summerhays not regretting his return to competitive golf

FARMINGTON — Four years after retiring from competitive golf to become a teacher for one year at his alma mater, Davis High, and 2 1/2 years since he rejoined the Korn Ferry Tour, former BYU golfer Daniel Summerhays has absolutely zero regrets regarding the many twists and turns his life has taken since his stunning announcement in the summer of 2020 that he was leaving pro golf.

“Coming back has been great. I have loved it. I am still in love with the game of golf,” Summerhays said Monday from the parking lot of Oakridge Country Club, where he will compete this week in the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship.

Summerhays, 40, is one of nine golfers with strong Utah ties who will tee it up at the par-72 layout just north of Lagoon, beginning Thursday morning. Currently No. 41 on the Korn Ferry Tour points list, Summerhays will tee off at 7:05 a.m. MDT Thursday with Sam Saunders and Sudarshan Yellamaraju.

Another KFT regular with Utah ties, former BYU All-American Peter Kuest , will tee off at 7:15 a.m. MDT with Sung Kang and Will Bateman. Kuest, 26, who has also played in three PGA Tour events this year, is 125th on the KFT points list.

Summerhays said his game is “definitely” in a place where he can win this week on the course he grew up playing. In 14 events this year, he’s made the cut nine times and tied for fourth three times.

“Since I unretired I have been steadily progressing for the last couple of years,” he said. “I am still in love with practice, still in love with figuring things out and learning and growing. … Every tournament I have kind of been in the thick of it. Even if I have missed the cut, I have been right there.

“So I am driving the ball much better, have picked up some speed, which is very beneficial, especially with all these young guys who smash it,” he continued. “I am driving the ball farther, and straighter. I feel like my short game has improved. It will honestly come down to if we can make some putts.”

Three other Utahns, or former Utahns, received tournament exemptions: Lone Peak High’s Kihei Akina (who has committed to BYU), former Weber High and Georgia Tech star Connor Howe and two-time Utah State Amateur champion and current Arizona State star Preston Summerhays (Daniel’s nephew).

Four Utahns got in via Monday’s qualifying round at Bonneville Golf Course in Salt Lake City: State Am champ Cole Ponich (a BYU golfer), State Am runner-up Cooper Jones (a BYU golfer), two-year pro Carson Lundell (former BYU golfer) and Max Brenchley (a BYU golfer).

It will be the third KFT appearance for Jones, who tied for 16th at the Compliance Solutions Championship in Norman, Oklahoma, and missed the cut by one shot the following week at the Memorial Health Championship in Springfield, Illinois.

“It was a good experience. I came out in my first KFT event and shot back-to-back 66s, so that was good,” Jones said before the State Am in mid-July. “Just overall, for my future, it was good to get that experience and see what pro golf is like.”

Jones, 20, recently competed his first season at BYU and will leave next month on a two-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to Trujillo, Peru.

Daniel Summerhays, who spent some of his “retirement” time as a BYU volunteer assistant golf coach, earned full membership to the KFT before the 2023 season by tying for 17th place in the final Q School stage in Savannah, Georgia.

He played in 23 KFT events in 2023, and had two top-10 finishes . He’s playing considerably better this season.

“I have earned enough points now to where I have got full status, even for next year, already guaranteed,” he said. “So I will be in the Tour Championship, the top 75, on the points list by the end of the season.”

He said part of his improvement has been on the mental side of the game, which is why he has had no regrets coming out of retirement.

“I still had a lot of things I wanted to experiment with and wanted to try and do, and I feel like I am winning that battle as far as how I go about my preparation, how I go about my mental approach — I call it kindness — to myself,” he said. “I feel like I am more grateful. So I just feel like this time around I am doing it how I wanted to do it.”

Would he like to get back to the PGA Tour, a tour he played from 2011 to 2018 and earned $8.9 million on during his career?

“You know, I am still trying to figure that out, what I want,” he said. “Because sometimes what we want isn’t what is best for us. So I am currently just trying to do what I can to be a better golfer, a better mentor to some of these guys out here.

“I am still trying to be the best dad and husband I can be at home. So I am balancing a lot. Would it be nice to continue to test your skills at the highest level? Yes,” he continued. “And if and when that happens, I will live with it.”

Thursday’s tee times of golfers with Utah ties in Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship

• Daniel Summerhays, former BYU, Farmington — 7:05 a.m., No. 1 tee
• Peter Kuest, former BYU, American Fork — 7:05 a.m., No. 1 tee
• a-Cole Ponich, BYU, Kaysville — 8:45 a.m., No. 10 tee
• a-Cooper Jones, BYU, Alpine — 8:45 a.m., No. 10 tee
• Connor Howe, former Georgia Tech, Ogden — 1:40 p.m., No. 10 tee
• a-Max Brenchley, BYU, Alpine — 2 p.m., No. 1 tee
• Carson Lundell, former BYU, Alpine — 2 p.m., No. 10 tee
• a-Kihei Akina, Lone Peak High, Highland — 2 p.m., No. 10 tee
• a-Preston Summerhays, Arizona State, former Farmington resident — 2 p.m., No. 10 tee

a-denotes amateur