Utah State Amateur preview

The oldest continuous running tournament in the world begins Wednesday

BRADY BINGHAM
Standard-Examiner staff

LAYTON — “You ask anybody … what are the best three courses in the state? I bet Valley View is one of their three. This course deserves its respect. It is about time the Utah State Amateur came (to Valley View Golf Course).”

The quote came from West Point resident Corey Matthews. Yet, it’s a statement echoed by a number of Top of Utah golfers — including Fruit Heights resident Jon Rhodes — considered “consistent regulars” with the games to take home the 2009 championship.

The prestigious State Am — the oldest continuous running golf tournament in the world — begins Wednesday at Valley View with the first round of 36-hole stroke play qualifying. After Thursday’s second round, the 31 best scorers will compete alongside defending champion Dan Horner in match play, which begins Friday and continues until the ‘09 champion is crowned on Sunday.

Two competitors with plenty of local knowledge, and whose names are often mentioned as potential contenders, are Matthews and Rhodes.

Both are 37 years old, both are former employees of Valley View, both tell similar stories of how they learned to play the game on the Davis County course, and both bring the consistency, the patience and the course insight believed needed to be successful.

“I think this year at Valley View, course knowledge provides more of an advantage than on any other State Am course we have played,” said Matthews, a Weber State graduate who worked at Valley View on and off from 1990 to 1996.

“Honestly, I believe the most important thing I can bring to this tournament is comfort,” continued Matthews, who plays every Tuesday at Valley View with a group of regulars. “The course knowledge I have should help me get comfortable with all the different kinds of shots you are going to have on this course.

“Secondly, there are the greens. The greens out here are what is going to separate a lot of players,” added the Bonneville High graduate. “I know these greens. Having played them hundreds of times, I am pretty confident on these greens.

“Those things should give me a competitive advantage. That should bring me more even par with some of the young players.”

Rhodes, who attended Davis High, worked on the maintenance crew at Valley View until he was 18. He completed his undergraduate work at BYU in 1996 before working for the LPGA and PGA in Hawaii as a physical therapist for several years.

Like Matthews, Rhodes also believes his course knowledge and playing style provide him a distinct opportunity at this year’s State Am.

“One of my best friends is Chad Pettingill (the son of former Valley View head pro Ken Pettingill),” said Rhodes, who currently works as a physical therapist and instructs the Titleist Performance Institute golf fitness program at Golf Lab in Salt Lake City. “I grew up playing and practicing on that course.”

“I am just pumped that the Utah State Amateur is at Valley View. I think it is awesome,” he said. “One of my strengths is that I keep the ball in play. That will be one of the keys this week, so it should be a great opportunity.

“You have to know when to attack (at Valley View). You have to think your way around the course,” Rhodes believes. “You can score well on the par 5s, but the par 3s are tough. For me, it will be holes 8, 9, 10 and 11; those four will be money holes for me.”

Although he only became a zero handicap three years ago, Rhodes, who credits the Golf Lab’s Corey Badger for turning around his game, will also have a secret weapon on his bag this week — his mother Pat James. Rhodes says his mom, who will be his caddie, is a good player in her own right and knows Valley View “very well.”

“When we were growing up, Valley View was always ‘the’ course to play. If you could play well there … ” Rhodes said. “I still vividly remember as a kid, the first time I hit it over the pond on No. 15 and got on in two (strokes). It was truly a highlight for me.”

Matthews has similar memories of cutting his golfing teeth in the Top of Utah.

“As a kid and I rode my bike over to Golf City every day. My summers consisted of riding my bike, taking two or three clubs to Golf City and hitting balls all day,” Matthews remembered. “I didn’t have any money and I couldn’t afford the balls, so I would go around and pick up the range.

“That is how I got my passion for golf. That’s how much I loved the game. I would do that every day,” he said.

“I still have a golf card from Valley View, from when I was 12 years old, it was my best score ever at the time. It was a 41 and I birdied No. 3; I was so happy.

“I just grew up playing the courses out here,” Matthews said.

Valley View head pro Matt Lyons believes there are several local favorites coming into this year’s tourney. He said it was distinctly possible that the champion not come from a pool of young favorites, but instead be a player with a lot of course knowledge.

“I really like players like Corey and Jon, guys that are consistent,” Lyons said. “I’ve played a lot of golf with Corey and he’s the kind of player that has a chance out here. If he plays his game and doesn’t try to do anything fancy, he can really go far.

“Sometimes experience prevails,” Lyons added. “The guy that is consistent and doesn’t make mistakes will win. Any one of a lot of players can do that this year.”

Horner returns

After earning the State Am title a year ago at Soldier Hollow, Dan Horner returns as the No. 1 seed for match play.

Horner, who will be listed among the favorites this year, likes his chances to repeat.

“I like the course; it sets up to my eye,” said Horner, who shot a 69, despite having 33 putts, at the Valley View Amateur in May. “But you have to hit good golf shots. You have to hit good spots on the greens.

“There is a lot of slope in these greens,” Horner added. “I’d rather have a 20 footer uphill than an 8-foot slider out here. That can be the difference in only a couple of yards with your approach. So knowing where you have to hit it and executing … that will be the difference.

“I know what I need to do, it’s just going out and doing it.”

State Am notes

There are eight former champions playing this year at Valley View. They are: Horner, Tommy Sharp, Gregg Oliphant, Darrin Overson, Todd Barker, Doug Bybee, Jason Wight and Steve Borget.

South Weber resident Kyler Deardon is listed as the youngest player in the field. A student at Northridge High, Deardon is 15 years old. Jaden Jackson is also listed as a 15-year-old.

Kaysville’s Taylor Deamer and Clearfield’s Devon Purser, who won the Utah Junior Match Play Championship, are 16.

The oldest player in the field is Val Calhoon, a Layton resident and a regular of both Valley View and Davis Park. Calhoon is 59.

Woods Cross resident Scott Hailes is one of several reinstated pros in this year’s tournament. Hailes, a past champion of the USGA National Junior Championship, carries the lowest handicap index in the field at plus-4.3.

Favorites

Horner and Hailes are popular picks, along with former Fremont high star and BYU Cougar-to-be Zach Blair, BYU’s Robbie Fillmore, Park City’s Robert McRae, Tommy Sharp, Clay Bingham, Garrett Fotu, Andrew Barton and Darrin Overson.

But several players should be considered solid sleeper picks. They include: Stuart Gold, Rhodes and Matthews, Kirk Siddens, Nick Despain, Denny Job, Casey Smith, Tyson Lund, Steve Poulson and Ben Maddox.