No match play madness: Upsets rare as field whittled to 8 at 118th Utah Women’s State Amateur

Upsets were few and far between on Thursday as the match play portion of the 118th Utah Women’s State Amateur began at TalonsCove Golf Club in Saratoga Springs, Utah.

Higher-seeded golfers mostly prevailed in the Round of 32 and Round of 16 matches, meaning that eight solid players remain in the chase for the most prestigious women’s golf title in the state.

The field is a bit weaker this year because BYU golfers are on a team trip to Ireland this month and 2023 champ Tess Blair of South Jordan did not enter.

Quarterfinal matches will begin at 8 a.m. Friday morning; Semifinals will be played Friday afternoon, while the 18-hole championship match is scheduled for Saturday morning.

In Thursday morning’s Round of 32 matches, the only upset — if it can be called that — came when No. 21 seed Kareen Larson upended No. 12 seed Kyra Sponenburgh 2 and 1 in come-from-behind fashion. Larson surely had some course knowledge — she is general manager of TalonsCove — while Sponenburgh is a Westminster College golfer from Evanston, Wyoming.

Alas, Larson wasn’t able to knock off another collegian in the next round. She fell to Arizona State’s Grace Summerhays, the 2020 champion, 7 and 5 in a Round of 16 match.

Summerhays, who took the title when she was 16 to become the youngest winner in tournament history, will meet one of the state’s rising stars in a quarterfinal match Friday morning. Kate Walker will be a junior at St. George’s Crimson Cliffs High School this fall and has already won two 4A individual high school titles, while also being an accomplished swimmer.

Walker easily won both her matches Thursday, downing Isabel Wade 5 and 4 and Pati Uluave 5 and 4.

Friday’s first match will feature No. 1 seed Ali Mulhall and former Utah Valley golfer Leighton Shosted, now at Grand Canyon. Mulhall, 19, rolled past Susan Tiffner and Utah Tech golfer Jane Olson of Riverton to get to the quarterfinals in her first-ever appearance in the Utah Women’s State Amateur.

Shosted needed 19 holes to oust Herriman teenager Natalie McLane.

Five-time champion Kelsey Chugg had a fairly easy day Thursday, downing Sage Parry 5 and 4 in the morning and Nebraska golfer Arden Louchheim 5 and 4 in the afternoon. Chugg meets Jenna Anderson in Friday’s third match. Anderson, an Utah Tech golfer who transferred in from Wisconsin-Green Bay, downed fellow Trailblazer Samantha Phelan in 19 holes to reach the Elite Eight.

Friday’s fourth match features Farmington’s Sydney Richards — who plays collegiately for Southern Virginia University — against Faith Vui, who is from Apia, Samoa, and won the New Zealand Women’s Amateur last November.

Vui edged Utah Tech’s Mia Cesarek 2 and 1 in the Round of 16, while Richards Saydie Wagner, 1 up.