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A Championship Moment, Navy Hubbs Shines at Glenmoor

If anyone questioned why Utah Golf Association administrators altered the format of their newest championship after only one year, Navy Hubbs provided the answer Wednesday.

In the original format, she would have gone home with a runner-up medal after 18 holes. Thanks to a combination of the move to a 36-hole final match and her own brilliant play in the middle of the afternoon round, Hubbs took the trophy with a 2-and-1 win over Remi Rawlings in the 2nd UGA Utah Girls’ Junior State Amateur at Glenmoor Golf Club in South Jordan.

This event keeps offering history-making opportunities, and Hubbs followed through with another record that may last a while. The rising junior at Salem Hills High School won five consecutive holes, going from 3 down to 2 up. After taking her first lead on the 26th hole of the match, she led the rest of the way.

And here’s another first: Colin Clawson, the UGA’s Director, Championship & Golf Operations, proudly presented Hubbs with an exemption letter to the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship at the Atlanta Athletic Club in July.

In the awards presentation, Clawson spoke of “the talent level we have in this state” as a driver of the move to 36 holes, a format that would determine a worthy champion.

The afternoon round made it all possible for Hubbs. So did the talks she had with herself and family members during lunch. “I just got mentally in it again and tried my best to just fight through it,” Hubbs said. “I think the break really helped, honestly. … I think I was more confident in myself, like, ‘You can do this. You made it this far. So, just trust yourself.’ ”

Her mother, Sara, especially instilled some belief that took effect when Hubbs won Nos. 5 through 9, plus No. 11, to suddenly go 3 up. Rawlings kept applying pressure, but Hubbs ended the match with a winning par on No. 17.

“I got a little tired out,” said Rawlings, a Weber High School graduate who will play for Westminster University.

The format change contributed to her defeat in the summer heat, but Rawlings knows some 36-hole days await her in college golf. ”This really helped me prepare for that,” she said, “even though it was a long day.”

Hubbs became the first Utah-based Girls’ champion of this tournament, after Ashley Gettleman took the 2024 trophy. In the semifinals, Hubbs was a 4-and-3 winner of Lucinda Wu, Gettleman’s high school teammate in Monterey, California. Rawlings also won 4 and 3, against Hazel Peters, a Hawaii resident who regularly plays in Utah in the summers.

Either way, Wednesday’s winner would have become a redemption story after her experience in the inaugural event last June at Wasatch Mountain Golf Course. Hubbs lost in the first round of match play and Rawlings never made it that far, being disqualified for signing an incorrect scorecard after the stroke-play round.

Rawlings later qualified for the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, getting the national experience that Hubbs will enjoy next month. “It’s exciting,” Hubbs said. “I’m ready to go see all the competition.”

In the quarterfinals, Hubbs was a 1-up winner over qualifying medalist Adley Nelson, who was one of three Lone Peak HIgh School golfers to reach that stage of the 16-golfer bracket before each was eliminated. Rawlings also won 1 up in the quarterfinals, defeating Kate Walker, the recent winner of the Utah Junior Golf Association’s annual match-play tournament in the Girls 15-18 division.

 

Feature story written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photos by Fairways Media/Randy Dodson and Garrit Johnson.