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Samantha Phelan finishes with a flourish at Mary Lou Baker Open

In modifying the 2025 women’s schedule, Utah Golf Association administrators chose to enhance the Mary Lou Baker Open by expanding the tournament to three rounds.

The 54th hole of the week delivered enough drama to justify the move. Utah Tech University golfer Samantha Phelan stuck an approach shot to within 4 feet of the hole and made the winning birdie putt on No. 18 at TalonsCove Golf Club.

Phelan’s one-stroke victory over Ali Mulhall, the only pro in the field, produced a great story on multiple levels Wednesday. Starting at the end, she overrode the mutual decision of herself and her father/caddie, Paul Phelan to play for the middle of the green on that last wedge shot from 120 yards.

And as she prepares for the 2025-26 college season in St. George, Phelan won in her first competition since undergoing surgery to remove a tumor from her wrist in May. Asked if she exceeded her expectations, Phelan said, “Oh, yeah. Immensely.”

Phelan (69-70-67) earned the trophy with a 10-under-par total that featured an outstanding back nine of the final round. She held off Mulhall (72-68-67) and overtook Westminster University’s Ashley Lam (67-72-70), who led at the turn before making four bogeys and four birdies.

Lam tied for third with Southern Utah University’s Siriporn Luangnam (72-68-69) of Thailand, while TalonsCove summer golfer Faith Vui (68-74-69) of Samoa and Jiayi Wang (67-74-70) of China/NCAA reigning champion Northwestern tied for fifth.

So even with some recognizable names missing, Phelan topped a diverse, high-level field in the UGA’s last women’s tournament of the season, other than the Senior Women’s State Amateur. She’s from Liberty High School in Henderson, Nevada, so she was quite familiar with the Coronado program that produced Mulhall and other stars, including Cal State Northridge’s Ariya Soldwisch, who finished eighth at TalonsCove.

Mulhall, playing in the next-to-last group, birdied the par-4 No. 10. That’s where Phelan two-putted from 90 feet for a momentum-saving par, then kept matching Mulhall’s birdies on Nos. 12, 13 and 15.

Not that she knew all of that was necessary, exactly. “I didn’t want to look at the leaderboard,” Phelan said, “because I didn’t want to get the nerves too high.”

As she came to the par-4 No. 18, “I figured I was in the hunt, because it’s a tough course and I knew I was doing good,” said Phelan, who launched a big drive. With the hole cut on the right side of the green, the conversation with her father then led to this conclusion: “Play it safe and go a little left.”

But then, Phelan said, “I decided to go right at it, at the last minute.”

That’s exactly where her ball went and, after what became the winning putt, Utah Tech teammates Jane Olson and Jenna Anderson ran toward the green to confirm the victory.

After what she labeled “a rough summer of recovery,” Phelan said, “I looked at this tournament as just getting back in the swing of things.”

The visit to Saratoga Springs gave her a lot more, after she finished second in the UGA Winterchamps event in Southern Utah in March. Just prior to her surgery, Phelan also played well in the LPGA Epson Tour’s Copper Rock Championship in May, via a sponsor invitation given to Utah Tech.

Mulhall returned to TalonsCove, where she was the runner-up in the 2024 Women’s State Amateur. During a break in the ANNIKA Women’s All Pro Tour schedule, the 20-year-old rookie pro enjoyed a good two weeks in Northern Utah. She tied for third place in the Larry H. Miller Utah Women’s Open at The Country Club in Salt Lake City and then played bogey-free golf for the last 28 holes of the Mary Lou Baker Open, while making nine birdies in that span.

Click here for the 2025 Mary Lou Baker Open final leaderboard.

Mary Lou Baker Open final round recap written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson.