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Bank of Utah Championship: Zac Blair and Connor Howe are the low Utahns after Round 1
After his 500th career PGA Tour start came at Black Desert Resort last October, St. George native Jay Don Blake delivered the best line of the week when he said, “I don’t think I need to get to 501.”
Blake and Ogden’s Connor Howe now have made a combined 501 appearances, and there’s a common thread. Bruce Heppler was Blake’s Dixie High School teammate and Howe’s Georgia Tech coach. And after receiving an encouraging text message from Heppler, Howe performed well Thursday as the Bank of Utah Championship began.
Native Utahn Connor Howe meets with the press after his opening round 3-under par at the Bank of Utah Championship.
The Weber High School graduate posted a 3-under-par 68, birdieing four of the last six holes. Howe tied PGA Tour veteran Zac Blair of Orem as the low Utahn in the first round.
They were followed by tour member Patrick Fishburn of BYU (70), Lone Peak High School/BYU alumnus Carson Lundell (70), Utah Section PGA member Tommy Sharp (75), Utah Tech freshman David Liechty (77), two-time State Amateur champion Preston Summerhays (77) and BYU freshman Kihei Akina (77).
The leaders at 65 were Thorbjorn Olesen, Jesper Svensson and David Lipsky.
Five of the eight Utahns completed their first round Friday morning, following Thursday’s suspension due to darkness. With the same pattern in play for the second round, the 36-hole cut will come Saturday morning. The cut is likely to come at 2 under par, in contrast to the 5-under requirement last year.
Former Utah State Amateur and Utah Open champion Zac Blair (with caddy Nikolas Korisi) finished 3-under in the opening round at Black Desert.
Blair slept on a 6-foot par putt that he missed on No. 7 (his 16th hole). But he birdied the par-3 No. 8 from 21 feet and finished with a par. He eagled the par-4 No. 14 after hitting his tee shot to within 4 feet Thursday afternoon.
Blair faces long odds to keep his PGA Tour card for 2026, standing No. 172 in FedEx Cup Fall. That’s “kind of an interesting position,” he said before the first round, “but I’ve always found a way to get it done. We’ll see if I can have a nice few weeks and start it off here.”
Having divided his pro career between PGA Tour Americas and the Korn Ferry Tour, Howe is playing via a sponsor exemption this week. The opening round in Ivins was a major moment for Howe and his twin brother, Hunter, who played for Weber State and Utah.
Connor Howe, who has full time PGA TOUR Americas status for 2026, also competed in this year’s Korn Ferry Tour Utah Championship at Ogden Golf & Country Club.
“It’s awesome,” Connor Howe said. “We’re each other’s best friend, we love playing the game and learning the game together. It’s been great having him on the bag the last year and a half, two years. Our first PGA Tour event’s really special.”
Fishburn, who missed the cut at Black Desert Resort in 2024 during an otherwise successful rookie season, resumed his first round Friday by two-putting for a birdie on the par-4 No. 14. He added a bogey and a birdie.
Patrick Fishburn is also a former Utah State Amateur and Utah Open champion.
Fishburn is No. 98 in FedEx Cup Fall; the top 100 as of mid-November will be exempt next season. “It’s going to be a stressful four weeks,” he said. “That’s why golfers keep those sports psychologists in business.”
Lundell produced the best finish among the Utahns, with a 53-foot chip-in for an eagle on the par-5 No. 18. He was disappointed about missing the green with an 8-iron second shot, following a 386-yard drive, but he made up for it. Describing the chip from the greenside rough, Lundell said, “Seeing if I could just get on top and let the ball ride the slope, and did it about as good as you could, I guess.”
Sharp played solidly, other than making a triple bogey after an errant drive on the par-4 No. 4, his 13th hole.
Summerhays’ 77 included no score higher than a bogey, but he made seven of them, offset by a 5-foot birdie putt on No. 14.
2025 Utah State Amateur semifinalist David Liechty (with caddy Cooper Canyon), a Utah Tech freshman, received a sponsors exemption to compete in the Bank of Utah Championship.
Liechty played a stretch of 10 holes in 1 under par, but then double-bogeyed the par-5 No. 9 after a wild second shot Friday morning..
Akina shot 69-69 and came within a 10-foot birdie attempt of making the cut last year at Black Desert Resort as a Lone Peak senior, and the Larry H. Miller Utah Open champion has played well for BYU this fall. So his struggles Thursday were surprising. Yet after being 8 over par through 11 holes, he finished with two birdies and five pars.
“It’s hard when you’re kind of spiraling downward,” he said, “but you’ve got to kind of break free from the negativity and play some golf like you’re used to.”
Click here for the PGA TOUR Bank of Utah Championship live leaderboard.
2025 Bank of Utah Championship daily recaps written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson.