This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Farmington • Christian Brand stepped out of the scoring tent just before noon Friday, happy with everything about his second round of the Utah Championship.
And then Kyle Wilshire teed off shortly afterward and birdied the first seven holes. Brand's lead? Gone. He can keep his course record, though.
Brand's 10-under-par 61 and Wilshire's 62 headlined another day of birdie-making frenzy at Oakridge Country Club in the $700,000 Web.com Tour event, presented by Zions Bank. For weekend golfers thinking about changing putters, these guys' results should be convincing. They're making seemingly everything and positioning themselves for a big breakthrough this weekend, although their low scores barely distinguish them from the field.
Wilshire is 16 under par, two strokes ahead of Brand. Four players are 13 under. Not even changing one of Oakridge's par-5 holes (No. 10) to a par-4 is deterring the low numbers. The cut came at 6 under. Of the two Utahns competing, Joe Parkinson (72-69) came the closest, missing by five shots. Gipper Finau (75-74) tied for last among the 153 golfers who completed 36 holes.
Parkinson was one of 129 players shooting under par for two rounds, with 77 of them returning for the weekend. Oakridge is short, especially for golfers adjusting to higher altitude, but not as easy as touring pros are making it look.
Wilshire's opening run of seven birdies came on the back nine, as the members play the course. At that stage, he had played 25 holes and stood 14 under. He wobbled with a bogey on the par-3 No. 11, but birdied three of his last four holes.
Brand shot an 11-under-par 61 on the SwingThought Tour in Nebraska almost exactly a year ago. He posted a 27-under total to win the mini-tour event by seven strokes, earning $4,500. Sunday's winner will collect $126,000 and likely advance to the PGA Tour in October.
Chesson Hadley is there this weekend, using his partial PGA Tour access to play in the John Deere Classic after winning the Web.com Tour's recent New York stop. He's tied for fifth in Illinois, validating the strength of the Web.com Tour — as Wilshire, Brand and others are doing at Oakridge.
"You shoot low scores when you're not even really trying. … You're not even thinking, you're just playing," Wilshire said. "It's not something I'm uncomfortable with. This is why you play, man — go out and shoot the low score. You're trying to win."
Wilshire, a former Central Florida golfer, and Brand, a West Virginian from Marshall University, each could use a victory, Wilshire's best finish this season is a tie for 38th place, while he has played a full schedule. Brand started the season with conditional status and took advantage of a sponsor exemption to post two top-25 finishes, giving himself more playing opportunities.
Brand's 61 came after he bogeyed his first hole, No. 10. He immediately launched a five-birdie run and made 11 of them in all, topped by a 40-foot putt on No. 9 after a bad break. Having his ball land in a big divot in the fairway is not ordinarily what happens during a round of 61, but Brand responded well. Sizing up the last putt, he told his local caddie, Jarrick Tilby, "Let's pick a line and be aggressive."
That method worked again. "We just stayed positive, chatted, joked around and envisioned good shots all day," Tilby said.
Much more good stuff will be required this weekend, with a lot more birdies to be made. As Wilshire said, "It's important just to keep the pedal down."
Twitter: @tribkurt —
Utah Championship scores
At Oakridge Country Club
Farmington, Utah
Purse: $700,000
Yardage: 7,045 ; Par 71 (36-35)
Second round
Kyle Wilshire 64-62 — 126
Christian Brand 67-61 — 128
Rob Oppenheim 66-63 — 129
Tyler Duncan 63-66 — 129
Taylor Moore 66-63 — 129
Brice Garnett 64-65 — 129
Abraham Ancer 67-63 — 130
James Driscoll 62-68 — 130
Lanto Griffin 66-65 — 131
Jim Knous 67-65 — 132
Billy Kennerly 66-66 — 132
Luke Guthrie 67-65 — 132
Greg Eason 69-63 — 132
Denny McCarthy 69-63 — 132
Adam Long 67-65 — 132
Sam Ryder 67-65 — 132
Samuel Del Val 67-65 — 132
Blake Adams 68-64 — 132
Adam Schenk 65-67 — 132
Ben Silverman 66-67 — 133
Michael Gellerman 65-68 — 133
Andrew Landry 68-65 — 133
Mark Anguiano 68-65 — 133
John Chin 68-65 — 133
Tom Lovelady 65-68 — 133
D.H. Lee 66-67 — 133
Zecheng Dou 66-67 — 133
Byron Smith 66-68 — 134
Charlie Saxon 70-64 — 134
Matt Harmon 66-68 — 134
Wes Roach 64-70 — 134
Kurt Kitayama 69-65 — 134
Dan Woltman 68-66 — 134
Jimmy Gunn 69-65 — 134
Erik Barnes 70-64 — 134
Roberto Diaz 66-68 — 134
Jacques Blaauw 66-68 — 134
Jason Gore 67-67 — 134
Alexandre Rocha 69-66 — 135
Matt Atkins 62-73 — 135
Michael Johnson 69-66 — 135
Sepp Straka 67-68 — 135
Vince Covello 66-69 — 135
Bo Hoag 67-68 — 135
Andrew Yun 67-68 — 135
Andrew Putnam 69-66 — 135
Brian Davis 66-69 — 135
Jeff Gove 68-67 — 135
Tommy Gainey 67-68 — 135
Blake D. Trimble 69-66 — 135
Anders Albertson 67-68 — 135
Peter Lonard 70-65 — 135
David Skinns 65-70 — 135
Max Marsico 66-69 — 135
Carlos Ortiz 68-67 — 135
Nate Lashley 67-68 — 135
Mark Hensby 67-68 — 135
Michael Arnaud 67-68 — 135
Zack Fischer 67-69 — 136
Jeremy Paul 68-68 — 136
Austin Cook 67-69 — 136
Chris Naegel 70-66 — 136
Michael Letzig 69-67 — 136
Jon Curran 68-68 — 136
Max Rottluff 68-68 — 136
Scott Gutschewski 67-69 — 136
Dawie van der Walt 68-68 — 136
Greg Yates 72-64 — 136
Ben J. Campbell 70-66 — 136
Ben Taylor 67-69 — 136
Scott Harrington 66-70 — 136
Roger Sloan 67-69 — 136
Brandon Harkins 66-70 — 136
Nicholas Thompson 65-71 — 136
Corey Conners 66-70 — 136
Beau Hossler 68-68 — 136
Aaron Wise 70-66 — 136 Failed to make the cut
Alex Prugh 69-68 — 137
Henrik Norlander 66-71 — 137
Sebastian Cappelen 72-65 — 137
Talor Gooch 69-68 — 137
Justin Lower 70-67 — 137
Ted Potter, Jr. 69-68 — 137
Dan McCarthy 69-68 — 137
Michael Hebert 69-68 — 137
Drew Weaver 68-69 — 137
John Mallinger 68-69 — 137
Jamie Arnold 69-68 — 137
Stephan Jaeger 71-66 — 137
Kyoung-Hoon Lee 69-68 — 137
Len Mattiace 69-69 — 138
Chris Baker 70-68 — 138
Adam Svensson 70-68 — 138
Andrew Svoboda 69-69 — 138
Derek Ernst 69-69 — 138
Albin Choi 69-69 — 138
Ryan Yip 67-71 — 138
Conrad Shindler 71-67 — 138
Nick Rousey 71-68 — 139
Paul Barjon 71-68 — 139
Alex Kang 72-67 — 139
Travis Gonda 70-69 — 139
Sebastian Vazquez 67-72 — 139
Justin Shin 68-71 — 139
Vince India 65-74 — 139
Ethan Tracy 66-73 — 139
Taewoo Kim 69-70 — 139
Justin Hueber 67-72 — 139
Seth Reeves 70-69 — 139
Jake Sarnoff 68-71 — 139
Armando Favela 70-70 — 140
Ken Looper 70-70 — 140
Jarin Todd 71-69 — 140
Eric Steger 73-67 — 140
Daniel Chopra 71-69 — 140
Kyle Thompson 70-70 — 140
Scott Smith 73-67 — 140
Steve Allan 72-68 — 140
Marc Turnesa 71-69 — 140
Erik Compton 67-73 — 140
Ben Kohles 69-71 — 140
Bryan Bigley 68-72 — 140
Jin Park 68-72 — 140
Chase Parker 70-70 — 140
James Erkenbeck 69-71 — 140
Timothy Madigan 73-68 — 141
Joe Parkinson 72-69 — 141
Xinjun Zhang 71-70 — 141
A.J. McInerney 70-71 — 141
Also
Gipper Finau 75-74 — 149