Both Elijah Turner and Peter Kim are gifted golfers who not only are at very different points in their careers but had very different experiences in the third match-play round of the 2023 Utah State Amateur Championship at The Country Club in Sugarhouse on Thursday.

Turner just concluded his college golf career at BYU, while Kim is starting his time as a Cougar this fall.

Turner is married, has his degree and a job, while Kim just completed high school and has all those things in his future.

Turner played in a lopsided match on Thursday afternoon, while Kim battled his way through five extra playoff holes before his match was decided.

And, most importantly, Turner won while Kim ended coming up just short.

“It means a lot to make it through,” Turner said after reaching the quarterfinals. “This is pretty much the tournament that I want to win in my career. If I could be a state amateur champ, that’d be a pretty good stamp on my career. I love this tournament and love this environment.”

After needing 18 holes to defeat Jack Kuemmel of Salt Lake City in the first round on Wednesday, Turner found himself in a similar position in the second round against Oklahoma State golfer Parker Bunn on Thursday.

“I feel like we both hit the ball OK but our putting was average,” Turner said. “We both had a lot of three-putts, which was how we were trading holes. But it was a great match.”

Turner said he had a short putt to win the match on No. 17 miss and then found himself with a flop shot to get onto the green on No. 18.

“I hit a really good chip shot and that was when I was like, OK, it’s sealed,” Turner said. “It wasn’t until the very end that I was sure it was done.”

Turner defeated Bunn, 2-up, setting up an afternoon match with St. George’s Zach Felts. Turner said he went in feeling confident because he had hung tough in the morning’s competition.

“Getting a match like that under your belt is always good,” Turner said. “I knew that if I could get that one, it could carry over. There’s a lot more pressure in the first match than the second because you can get your jitters out. I felt a lot better heading into the second match, that’s for sure.”

It showed in how Turner played against Felts.

After they each won one of the first two holes and tied the third, Turner caught fire. He won four of the next five holes on the front to build a big lead, then put the match away with a couple of more wins on the back to secure the 6-and-5 victory.

“I hit the ball better and putted it way better,” Turner said. “I just wanted to two-putt on the green because I knew there were a lot of bogeys out there. If I was making par, I could pick up some holes.”

He also said that Felts got some tough breaks that put in him in bad positions to stay close.

“On No. 4, he was just out of a bunker so he had an awkward stance,” Turner said. “Then he plugged the ball in a lot of the bunkers he was in. I’ve been on that side and it’s tough. As a competitor, you want to win but you also kind of want it to be fair. He hung in there but he really just ran out of holes.”

While Turner only had to play 13 holes in his second round, Kim ended up in a battle against David Liechty of Layton that lasted 23 holes.

Kim trailed by two holes after No. 12, but won both No. 13 and 16 to even the score.

The BYU commit appeared to be in a tough spot with the match on the line on No. 18 was Liechty was on the green and Kim was in the rough down the hill.

Kim’s chip shot, however, was phenomenal. It actually hit the pin but had a little too much speed to drop in.

Kim ended up making a short putt for par while Liechty missed his birdie putt and had to make a tough 10-footer coming back to stay alive.

The pattern repeated on the first playoff hole as Kim had a great chance to win with a birdie putt, only to see the ball lip the cup.

Both golfers got pars on the first four playoff holes, making the shots they needed to in order to stay alive.

It wasn’t until the fifth playoff hole where Liechty finally seized control.

After Kim’s second shot bounced long, Liechty hit a gorgeous shot to just a couple of feet from the hole. Kim went for it on his birdie chip in and par putt, but couldn’t get them to drop, giving the match to Liechty.

Turner and Liechty will now meet in the quarterfinals on Friday morning, with a spot in the semifinals on the line.

Three other golfers with Utah Valley ties lost on Thursday morning in the second match-play round as Kim defeated BYU’s Keanu Akina (4-and-2), BYU’s Zac Jones lost to Kenny Palmer of Scottsdale, Arizona (3-and-1) and American Fork’s Ryker Dunkley was knocked out by former Utah Ute golfer Peyton Hastings (3-and-2).

The quarterfinal and semifinals rounds will take place on Friday, with two golfers emerging to meet in the 36-hole final on Saturday.

All of the action will take place at The Country Club in Sugarhouse. For complete details, go to http://UGA.org.

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