By Brian Shaw | [email protected]

For a number of South Jordan area golfers between the ages of 14 and 16, they saw their dreams of perhaps someday making it onto the PGA Tour continue on the weekend of Sept. 12 during Under-17 Regional Jr. PGA All-Star action.

Along the picturesque Magic Valley Country Club course in Twin Falls, Idaho, one that curves and juts into the cliffs overlooking the massive Snake River Gorge, stood 12 golfers all representing the Glenmoor Golf Club in South Jordan.

Coached by PGA Tour pro Darci Dehlin-Olsen, these 12 were split up into two separate teams for this Regional. On one team were Elliot Bond, Ian Miyazaki, Jaxon Ericsson and JJ Tomsick on the Glenmoor GOATS team, while the other team from Glenmoor were called BOMBS.COM and featured South Jordan golfers Parker Goodman, Tyson Baldwin and Will Anderson—as well as Herriman’s Brady Dehlin. [All compete for either Herriman or Riverton in high school play.] 

As luck would have it, the two South Jordan-based teams would actually meet in the championship, but would first have to defeat teams from Idaho, Washington and Oregon—which they did in resounding fashion to meet up in the finals.

In this all-Utah finals of the Under-17 bracket it would be the Glenmoor GOATS team outlasting the BOMBS.COM, by 7.5 strokes to 1.5 to take home the title.

Both South Jordan-based teams qualified for the Regional final after having been the third and fourth seeds, respectively, by simply winning their semifinal matches. The GOATS did so over Magic Valley Country Club [Idaho, the host golf club] by eight strokes and BOMBS.COM when it took a four-stroke victory over Chambers Bay [Washington].

It was simply just icing on the cake to have both Utah Under-17 teams competing in the championship match at the Regional — which concluded its Jr. PGA All-Star season in Idaho.

Under-13

For the South Jordan-based Glenmoor Gators featuring five golfers hailing from South Jordan, and one each from Herriman and Riverton, however, their journey to try and make it into the national championships as the Utah representative came to an end on Sept. 12 in Twin Falls.

The Gators were:

Cal Perkins, Riverton

Carter Orme, South Jordan

Chloe Suazo, South Jordan

Hudson Darmstandler, Kamas           

Krew Saunders, South Jordan

Randli Olsen, South Jordan

Stratton Durrant, South Jordan

Tyce Olson, Herriman

The 12-and-13 year old Gators, who were also coached by Dehlin-Olsen were unfortunately unable to make it out of stroke play qualifying, finishing four strokes over par along the scenic Magic Valley Country Club course ringed by majestic cliffs and sweeping vistas.

Defending national champions Thanksgiving Point of Lehi, featuring Jraice Finau, son of PGA pro Tony Finau, finished first and will advance as the Utah representative to Scottsdale, Arizona for the 2022 National Car Rental PGA Jr. League Championship to be televised on ESPN Oct. 6-9.