HIGHLAND — Thousands of miles away from home, Martin Leon's run in the 123rd Utah State Amateur championship nearly ended when it had scarcely began.
The University of Utah redshirt freshman from Santiago, Chile, was one of the last golfers to advance to the 64-man match-play bracket of the tournament, and he even had to battle a 16-man playoff for the final 11 spots just to earn a spot opposite second-seeded Elijah Turner.
But a funny thing happened to Martin since that moment. First, he beat Turner, the BYU sophomore who prepped at Lone Peak, 5 and 3 in his first match.
Then he kept winning — through playoffs and comeback bids, all the way up to the final, where he'll face Utah teammate Blake Tomlinson in a 36-hole, winner-take-all championship Saturday at 8 a.m. MT at Alpine Country Club.