March 29, 2024

Colorado pro rides a double eagle to a Utah Open victory, as BYU’s Kerstin Fotu would make her individual history

Derek Fribbs finishes at 23 beneath par for a three-shot victory at Riverside Nation Club.

Randy Dodson | Fairways Media
2021 Utah Open up winner Derek Fribbs, on Aug. 22, 2021

Provo • Just one swing with a 7-iron Sunday afternoon radically altered Derek Fribbs’ story of the 2021 golf time.

Internet research engines may perhaps without end distinguish himself as the witness of a battle in his threesome in the middle of a golfing program in Kansas in June, but Fribbs designed his personal lasting effect of the yr with a double eagle on Riverside Nation Club’s 15th hole. The shot from 215 yards accomplished his 4-3-2 sequence (par is 5-4-5) in the northwest corner of the residence and run the Colorado pro to a victory in the Siegfried & Jensen Utah Open up.

“Just strike a fantastic shot,” Fribbs mentioned.

Fribbs posted 66-63-64 for a whole of 23 less than par, 3 shots greater than Idaho pro T.K. Kim, earning a $20,000 check out and a awesome 31st birthday (Monday) existing for himself a year that normally was unforgettable for the erroneous factors.

“At minimum, I’m the good dude in the tale,” he mentioned very good-naturedly, when the fight all through a Korn Ferry Tour qualifying occasion came up through the winner’s news conference. “I was not beat up or arrested.”

The double eagle will have its very own area in Utah professional golfing lore as a emphasize of a weekend when BYU golfer Kerstin Fotu of Alpine became the very first woman to enjoy the remaining round of the Utah Open, an event 1st staged in 1926.

“Honestly, I’m fairly happy of myself,” mentioned Fotu, who acquired an exemption into the match as the Utah Women’s Open up winner and shot 1 beneath par for two rounds prior to including a 76. “I desired to make the reduce, and that’s what I did. It’s tremendous motivating to see some matters shell out off that I have been working on and also to see what I will need to get the job done and sharpen up going into the slide season.”

Following all he has achieved in Utah newbie golfing and as a PGA Tour participant, Daniel Summerhays of Fruit Heights also manufactured a robust demonstrating with a closing 65. In his 1st Utah Open look, Summerhays tied for third at 17 below with Matt Marshall, who settled for an even-par 72 after a 62-65 commence.

“The 2nd round killed me.” explained Summerhays, who shot 63-71-65. “I knew I was likely to have to be in the 20s [under par] to have a prospect. … I was certainly annoyed [Saturday]. I mean, it would be pretty neat to have my title on the Utah Open up trophy.”

BYU’s Cole Ponich of Farmington rode a 65-67 weekend to minimal-novice honors at 13 underneath, tying for ninth put total. Host professional Chris Moody tied with Tommy Sharp as the top rated-undertaking Utah Part PGA member at 10 under, earning $1,400 bonuses as they tied for 14th.

CBS Athletics soccer analyst Tony Romo, the previous Dallas Cowboys quarterback, tied for 42nd spot at 4 under, ending 11th among the amateurs with a 73 on Sunday. Romo earned a $180 products credit score in the Riverside golfing shop to health supplement his $17 million broadcasting wage.

Fribbs was thrilled to pack his oversized, cardboard check out into the back again of Zahkai Brown’s vehicle for the journey home to the Denver region. Brown, the Utah Open’s winner in 2016 and the lower professional in ‘17, has turned this celebration into constant money. He tied for fifth Sunday, earning $5,500.

Picking places to participate in for golfers with no any PGA Tour-brand name position is a issue of “convenience,” Fribbs claimed, along with economics: “You don’t want to shell out a whole lot of income to earn a very little bit of money.”

Fribbs’ money shot was timely, thinking about how Kim experienced just holed a 42-garden pitch shot for an eagle on the par-4 No. 14 to get in just 1 stroke.

“I considered it was ‘Game on,’ ” Kim reported. “I felt self-assured, until finally he designed that albatross.”

Yeah, that “2” modified everybody’s outlook. “I was just telling myself to keep undertaking what I’m executing,” Fribbs claimed. “It worked for 50 holes, so I may as properly keep doing it.”

And that 51st gap will be the 1 he remembers for a long, extensive time.