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Utah Four-Ball: Cottle-Hastings become two-time champions

To conclude the Utah Golf Association’s 2025 championship season, Peyton Hastings picked up his ball marker to accept a conceded par putt.

If the ending lacked drama, Hastings, partner Andrew Cottle and opponents Luke Crapo and Bret Parker had already provided plenty of it throughout Wednesday’s final match of the Utah Four-Ball Championship at Talisker Club.   

No fewer than 14 of the 17 holes were won or lost as momentum kept shifting and each player took a turn doing something spectacular on a demanding, scenic course.

 

Cottle and Hastings, who became acquainted as North Salt Lake neighbors, added their names to the permanent trophy a second time, following their 2022 victory. If any one shot defined this 2-and-1 victory, it was Cottle’s nifty chip-in for a birdie from a tricky lie on the par-3 No. 14, giving them a 2-up lead.   

“If anything, it was harder this time,” said Hastings, who concluded his University of Utah golf career in 2020 and now works as an accountant. 

“This is a grown-man golf course,” he added. “It’s a gauntlet. And we’re out here for hours.”

The 16-team bracket in the At-Large division is a tough test, with four matches in two days determining the winner. The series of momentum swings made the final duel memorable. That’s unusual in a Four-Ball competition, simply because having two balls in play makes it more likely for a team to match an opponent’s birdie. 

Illustrating that point, Cottle-Hastings never lost a hole in a 3-and-2 semifinal defeat of Zachary Dallimore-Colton Dallimore, as the last nine holes were tied. In Crapo-Parker’s 1-up win over No. 2 seed Steele Dewald-Kenny Palmer, only two holes were won or lost on the back nine. 

Matches in this tournament have gone 28 and 23 holes in the past two years, with holes repeatedly being tied. So the 2025 At-Large final will remain memorable, as the 46-year-old Cottle and his younger partner keep distinguishing themselves. 

“I’m not a premier player,” Cottle said, “so to put my name on one of the major trophies is pretty cool.”

The circle of golf friends for Cottle and Hastings includes Henry Poulton and Brandon Pearson, who beat some big-name teams on the way to the 2024 Four-Ball title. The defending champions failed to advance through this month’s qualifying round, but they encouraged Cottle and Hastings to add their names to the trophy, once again.

SENIOR

Jon Wright and Brigham Gibbs are accustomed to winning UGA individual titles and Senior Men’s Player of the Year awards. They were determined not only to successfully defend their Four-Ball title, but finally add 2025 trophies to their history of UGA distinctions.

Wright-Gibbs won consecutive At-Large titles in 2017 and ‘18 and now have three Senior Four-Ball trophies, thanks to a 3-and-1 win over Matthew Isbell-Larry Waldron.

Isbell, the Golf Course Superintendent of Stonebridge GC, recently won the club championship as Waldron finished second. At Talisker Club, after their semifinal match vs. Darrin Overson-Shane Brady was suspended after 19 holes due to darkness Tuesday evening, they completed a 23-hole victory Wednesday morning. 

“You beat Darrin Overson and Shane Brady, you’re definitely good,” Wright said. “We didn’t take them lightly, and good thing we didn’t.”

Wright-Gibbs were 1 up through 15 holes, then Gibbs’ 7-iron and 6-iron shots set up short birdie putts on the next two holes to secure the win. “They were dead perfect, both of them,” Wright said. 

SUPER-SENIOR

Craig Wilson provided a logical answer, when asked how he and partner Dana Nelson produced a 3-and-1 win over Randy Hicken-Mike Jorgensen for the Super-Senior title.

 

“Usually, the better putting team wins these things,” Wilson said, “and we were the better putting team today.”

So Hicken-Jorgensen became runners-up for a third straight year, although they succeeded in extending Nelson-Wilson to 17 holes. The champions had to play only 13 holes in the semifinals, as four 60-over teams advanced to Talisker Club. 

There’s more to the winners’ story. “We have a lot of confidence in each other,” Wilson said. “We’ve played quite a bit together over the years and we’ve shot some good numbers together, and I know when I hit it in the hay, he’s going to come through. And I think he feels that way in reverse. That’s a huge help.”
Nelson agreed: “We covered each other up.”

2025 Utah Four-Ball Championship tournament recap written by Fairways Media senior writer Kurt Kragthorpe. Photography by Fairways Media/Garrit Johnson.