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Bank of Utah Championship: Connor Howe is in the top 10 and Zac Blair makes the cut

Connor Howe is maximizing his sponsor exemption into the Bank of Utah Championship.

The Weber High School graduate (68-66) is 8 under par through two rounds at Black Desert Resort, after completing his bogey-free second round Saturday morning. He’s two strokes off the lead, preparing to tee off in the third round in the afternoon.

“It’s awesome just to be playing the weekend,” he said, “and to get to do it for two more days is going to be a treat.”

Howe will join PGA Tour veteran Zac Blair (68-69), another Ogden native, in the weekend field. Blair is tied for 25th place.

The 36-hole cut was made in the morning following Friday’s suspension of the second round due to darkness.

Players with Utah ties who missed the cut included Patrick Fishburn (70-72), Carson Lundell (70-75), Preston Summerhays (77-69), Kihei Akina (77-72), David Liechty (77-74) and Tommy Sharp (75-82).

The most unfortunate development from a Utah perspective was Fishburn’s bogeying his last hole (the par-5 No. 9) Friday afternoon, after having trouble chipping from the greenside rough. He ended up missing the cut by two strokes, after giving himself a chance with birdies on Nos. 7 and 8.

Fishburn entered the week at No. 98 in the FedExCup Fall standings. He’s projected to fall to No. 106 with three tournaments remaining. The top 100 players will have full status in 2026.

Michael Brennan (67-65), playing via sponsor exemption in his third PGA Tour start, is the co-leader with David Ford at 10 under par. Defending champion Matt McCarty (69-65) is in the group with Howe at 8 under.

Brennan won three times in a four-tournament span on PGA Tour Americas in August and September, earning Korn Ferry Tour status for 2026. His run started with a victory in Windsor, Ontario, where Howe shot 20 under par and finished second, five strokes behind.

Howe resumed the second round by getting up and down for a par on No. 4, his 13th hole. He birdied the par-5 No. 7 with a 29-foot putt from the fringe, illustrating what he has done well through two rounds. Howe is in the top four of the field in the “strokes gained around the green” and “strokes gained putting” statistics.

Blair is not known as a long hitter, by PGA Tour standards. He just needs to play more 300-yard par-4s.

Tom Weiskopf’s design of the Black Desert Resort course features the driveable No. 14, and Blair has thrived there this week with an eagle and a birdie after hitting the green each time. The setup is “a perfect driver (distance) for me,” he said, “if the wind’s not blowing.”

Those two swings have helped Blair rank No. 12 of the tournament’s “strokes gained off the tee” category. He has found 25 of 28 fairways, while landing in a bunker twice on the par-5 No. 9.

“I’ve hit a lot of fairways,” he said, explaining his driving ranking. “I’m sure you’re going to have people that hit it in the lava or whatever; that kind of kills your ‘strokes gained,’ I’m sure.”

Blair has made 10 birdies and an eagle through two rounds. He needs to do something spectacular to move up significantly in the FedFexCup Fall standings, and is hoping to put four good rounds together and overcome his trend of the past couple of seasons. Blair’s tendency, he acknowledged, is to “find a way to fall asleep for an hour or two, and have a bad round.”

Lundell started Saturday’s play with a 9-foot par attempt on No. 3 (his 12th hole). He nearly made a dramatic run toward the cut line, as his bid for a double eagle skirted the hole on the par-5 No. 7. He missed a 5-foot putt, settling for a birdie. Needing something miraculous, he took a risky swing and double-bogeyed the par-5 No. 9 to finish.

Summerhays, a two-time State Amateur champion and rookie professional, played his last 14 holes in 5 under par after a triple bogey on the par-4 No. 13, his fourth hole of the round.

“Just found something in the middle of my round and started hitting it better,” he said.

Thanks to his PGA Tour University status, the Arizona State graduate is exempt into the second stage of PGA Tour/Korn Ferry Tour qualifying.

Akina bogeyed the par-5 No. 9 to end his second appearance at Black Desert Resort. Even so, the BYU freshman played his last 25 holes in 1 under par.

Liechty, a Utah Tech freshman from Layton, made six birdies in two rounds. “We don’t need to talk about the rest,” he said, laughing.

Liechty added, “I need to get better. I know I’m a good player, but the margins get smaller at every level. You just need to hit quality shot after quality shot, and your misses need to be a lot tighter.”

Sharp, representing the Utah Section PGA, followed 2024 contestant Dustin Volk’s pattern of producing nine really good holes. The difference was that Sharp’s nice stretch came at the start, as he played Black Desert Resort’s back nine in even par and then struggled in the second round.

“I’m pretty salty right now. That’s about as bad of a round as I’ve played in my entire life, but overall the experience was awesome,” the 45-year-old Sharp said, with tears developing as he talked about his family’s support. “It was just fun having them out there. … I’ll remember it forever.”

 

2025 PGA TOUR Bank of Utah Championship recaps written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson.