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OGDEN — There was one person BYU golfer Cole Ponich wanted to see after solidifying himself as Utah state amateur champion Saturday afternoon, and with apologies to the Utah Golf Association, it wasn't any executive.
It was his mother, Becky, with whom he celebrated a long-awaited title and the end of a lengthy journey with a warm embrace.
After leading by as many as five and never trailing, Ponich held off BYU teammate Cooper Jones for a 2 and 1 win at Ogden Golf and Country Club, adding his name to the long list of winners of the longest continuous running state amateur tournament in the world.
For the 23-year-old Ponich, it also capped a remarkable comeback and earns an exemption for the U.S. Amateur that will be played Aug. 12-18 at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Minnesota.
"She knows what I've gone through the last year or two. I was out of the competitive golf scene for a while," said Ponich, who redshirted the spring season at BYU with a back injury. "It's tough to go from being one of the better juniors in the country growing up to having a couple of years struggling, going through some hard times, some injuries. We both know how far I've come in the last couple of months, and I think she's proud of me."
Ponich is the first champion from BYU's golf program to win the event at Ogden Golf and Country Club since Kelton Hirsch won the state am in 2018, which capped a run of three consecutive champions from the Provo university.
Saturday's title was also a third straight for a BYU golfer, though Simon Kwon was technically in the transfer portal from Cal before committing to the Cougars when he won last year at the Salt Lake Country Club. Zac Jones, Cooper's older brother who follower his sibling through the final, won the event at Soldier Hollow in 2022.
Cooper Jones, for his part, shot 67 in the first 18 holes of the 36-hole final. He just got bested by a better score.
"The whole week, my game felt good," he said. "My swing could've felt better, but my putter felt awesome. Today, I felt like I hit it good; and if I would have putted the same, I think it could have been a different story.
"But at the same time, Cole was lights out in that first match and I just tried to hold on that second 18."
Ponich birdied the first four holes to go 3 up early, shooting 32 on his first nine holes and never trailed in the championship final, taking a 4-up lead at the lunch break after shooting 7-under-par 63 midway through the 36-hole final.
But the younger Jones didn't go away.
Ponich went 5 up on the par-4 fifth hole. But a rare albatross on the par-5, 584-yard sixth pulled one back for Jones, and spurred a momentous charge.
Ponich immediately conceded the hole. But before heading to the seventh tee, the rising sixth-year senior at BYU ran to his freshman teammate and embraced him with a moment neither of them had ever experienced before.
"I've never witnessed a double eagle. I've never had a double eagle," Ponich said. "I was pumped for him. It was sweet."
But there was also a match to play.
"I turned to my caddie, and I said, 'Now we're going to have to play some golf,'" Ponich recalled. "In match play, it's little things like that that flip momentum, and that's how match play goes: You get a little bit of momentum, then make a few putts or good shots and momentum can change in a hurry."
Jones' second-place finish follows a remarkable summer of golf — and followed a pair of Korn Ferry Tour appearances that included a top-25 mark against professionals in Oklahoma.
But that moment with the albatross, or double eagle, will be tough to top even as the 20-year-old takes opts for a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Peru in September.
"It was cool. I saw Cole was in a bit of trouble, and I hit a good drive," said Jones, who will play in next week's Southern Amateur in Lexington, Kentucky. "I was just trying to get it in the middle of the green, swung at it, and flushed a four iron from 221 or so that went in the hole. It's pretty cool, and my first double eagle."
Jones pulled another back on the par-4 10th hole to cut within two, but Ponich kept grinding. The former Davis High standout went 3 up with a birdie on the par-4 14th hole, but Jones pulled another one back with birdie on the par-5 16th before Ponich held on at the 17th green to add his name to the state amateur champions a few months after being one of the last qualifiers at an event in Hurricane.
"It was hard not to think about that last night, how cool that is that I'll always be on a poster when the state am comes around and my name will be on the trophy for the rest of history," Ponich said. "You don't want to look ahead too much, but I knew how cool it would be to get it done."
