Photos courtesy of Randy Dodson, Fairways Media

The 2025 Masters had plenty of excitement especially with the very popular win by Rory McIlroy as he completed the career grand slam and won his fifth major title.

But the Sunday before the tournament was also very big for some young golfers. A total of 80 golfers, 40 boys and 40 girls, from across the United States, Canada and even India competed at the Drive, Chip and Putt Championships in Augusta, Ga.

Utah County had three participants in this contest, which is mind boggling considering the population of Utah Valley. All three had to go through local and two regional qualifiers to make the finals held at the famed Augusta National Course. All three won their Northwest regional qualifier which included golfers from Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington along with northern California and British Columbia, Canada.

At the finals, Blake Brown of Alpine (age group 14-15), Nicklaus Miller of Provo (age group 12-13) and Logan Wilde of Lehi (age group 10-11) all placed second in their respective age divisions.

At the national finals, golfers are allowed two drives and the farthest of the drives is counted as long as it finishes in the grid. Then each golfer has two chips with the overall distance of each chip to the pin being measured. Then lastly, each golfer makes two puts from two different locations and distances. Much like the chip, the total distance from the hole is measured and the least distant is declared the winner. There are 10 competitors in each division and winning first place in each category gives the participant 10 points. Second place gets nine points all the way down to where the tenth place golfer receives just one point.

Photos courtesy of Randy Dodson, Fairways Media

Brown, who competes for Lone Peak High School and tied for sixth at the 6A meet as a freshman this past fall, got off to a great start winning the drive competition with a 280.3 yard drive responding to the pressure as his first drive was off the grid and did not count. Brown then tied for second in the chip portion giving him the overall lead going into the putt portion. But unfortunately Brown placed tied for fifth in the putting competition finishing with an overall total of 24 points and Anthony Wu from Mission Viejo, California won the putt contest and surged past Brown with 25 overall points.

For Nicklaus Miller, who is the grandson of the great Johnny Miller, he showed great consistency placing third in each of the three categories to total 24 points. Like Brown he had the overall lead going into the putting portion of the contest. But he was overtaken by Hudston Justus of Gainesville, Georgia who sank both of his putts to earn 10 points. And like Brown, Miller had to settle for second place overall.

For Wilde, he was second in the drive competition sending one out just over 218 yards and then he finished fourth in both the chip and putt portions to finish with 23 points. Dawson Dial of Cedar Park, Texas dominated the field winning the drive and then finishing second in both the chip and putt to win the age division with 28 points.

Nicklaus Miller of Provo participated in the Drive, Chip and Putt Championships in Augusta, Ga., in April of 2025.

Nicklaus Miller of Provo participated in the Drive, Chip and Putt Championships in Augusta, Ga., in April of 2025.

Blake Brown of Alpine participated in the Drive, Chip and Putt Championships in Augusta, Ga., in April of 2025.

Blake Brown of Alpine participated in the Drive, Chip and Putt Championships in Augusta, Ga., in April of 2025.

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