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.
HIGHLAND Early Thursday morning, Brock Goyen looked to have very little chance of playing in the Utah state amateur quarterfinals Friday.
The BYU sophomore was down five with five holes to play after Utah State golfer Cameron Tucker dropped a birdie on the par-4 13th hole.
But match play golf does weird things.
Goyen rallied in short order, dropping five-straight birdies capped by his short putt on No. 18, then secured the Round of 32 win with a birdie on the 19th green Thursday at Alpine Country Club. It s one thing coming back from 1 or 2 up. But 5 down with five holes to play was pretty tough, Goyen said. But I m glad I got it done. It was a hard match, and huge respect to Cameron; he was a great competitor all day long. I m glad I could pull through in the end.
Past champ Nick Nelson holds on for medalist honors as match play set at 123rd Utah state amateur ksl.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ksl.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.