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32nd Utah Senior State Amateur: Darrin Overson can join an exclusive club

In the 30-plus years since the Utah Golf Association created Senior State Amateur and Mid-Amateur competition, only one former State Am champion has also won the two modern titles: Utah Golf Hall of Fame member Todd Barker.

Darrin Overson is bidding to join Barker.

Overson, the 1998 State Am winner and 2018 Mid-Am champion, has advanced to the quarterfinals of the 32nd Utah Senior State Amateur Championship in convincing fashion. The 50-year-old Provo resident played a total of only 27 holes in winning two matches Tuesday at Bonneville Golf Course, while the Senior defending champion was ousted and the other two divisions produced a 26-hole match and an epic comeback.

The quarterfinals and semifinals of the Senior and Super-Senior (60-over) brackets are scheduled Wednesday, along with the Legends (70-over) semifinals. The 18-hole final matches in each category are booked for Thursday.

In the quarterfinals, Overson will meet three-time winner Brigham Gibbs, who chose to stay in the Senior division after turning 60 last August.

The big news in the round of 16 was the elimination of Jon Wright, another two-time champion. Playing his boyhood course, Wright fell 3 and 1 to Stuart Wallin. Wright had survived the morning round vs. David Booth in a rematch of the 2024 final, winning Nos. 18 and 19. That was one of four extra-holes matches in the round of 32.

Matthew Lyons staged big comebacks in each round. He was 3 down through six holes vs. Deuce Brown and won 2 up. Then, he was 2 down at the turn vs. Jeff Jolley before winning 3 and 1. Lyons will face No. 1 seed John Owen in the quarterfinals.

Clark Jones, the father of 2022 State Amateur champion Zac Jones, won two tough matches. He went 19 holes vs. Brett Hess, the 2025 Senior Stroke Play winner, then parred No. 18 to beat Dirk Watson after being 2 down through 11 holes.

SUPER-SENIOR

Super-Senior match play began with the round of 16. Only one match went to extra holes, and it became a marathon as Mark Gardiner outlasted Keith McLaughlin in 26 holes.

That’s likely the second-longest individual match ever played in any UGA event; Tod Budge beat Matt Johnson in 27 holes in the 1988 State Amateur.

Gardiner, a two-time champion of this division in the Senior Stroke Play tournament, birdied the par-4 No. 8 to win.

Among the other quarterfinalists are defending champion Rick Lloyd, 2023 winner Craig Wilson and Randy Hicken, the two-time UGA Super-Senior Player of the Year.

Last year, Hicken was involved in the longest team match in UGA history, joining Mike Jorgensen in beating Dan Hatch-Steven Borget in 28 holes in the Super-Senior semifinals of the Utah Four-Ball Championship. Hicken will meet Hatch in the quarterfinals.

LEGENDS

Has anything like this ever happened, in any UGA match-play event? Doug Marriott was 4 down vs. Bill Probst with four holes to play. He proceeded to win the next five holes.

The 80-year-old Marriott, the inaugural Legends champion in 2023, made two birdies and three pars in his late surge to the semifinals as the No. 5 seed. Top-three seeds Rob Bachman, Kurt Bernhisel and Michael Hacker also advanced.

Hacker, the defending champion and winner of this division of the Senior Stroke Play in May, birdied the par-5 No. 1 to defeat Chesley Erickson in 19 holes.

Click here for Match Play scoring of the 32nd Utah Senior State Amateur

 

32nd Utah Senior State Amateur day two recap written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson and the USGA (Mark Gardiner).