Teenage golfer Cooper Jones wins the SLC Amateur playoff with an eagle

Cooper Jones’ 10-foot, downhill putt for an eagle in the playoff was notable. So was his chip-in birdie on No. 15, during his Sunday duel with Zack Neff at Bonneville Golf Course. Even more remarkable was Jones’ phrasing during the winner’s interview, when he spoke of what he has learned about playing in golf tournaments “over the years.”

He’s 17.

Having recently observed a birthday and the end of his sophomore year at Lone Peak High School, Jones added to an already impressive season by winning the Richard C. Kramer Salt Lake City Amateur. His victory was a rare case of a first-round leader following through at Bonneville in the tournament’s recent history, his 12-under-par total (65-67) was one stroke off the tournament record and he’s the youngest winner of the historic event in at least a half-century.

And he needed that eagle on the first playoff hole, Bonneville’s par-5 No. 1, just to outlast Neff, a former Olympus High star who will join the University of Utah golf team in August.

Jones’ strategy on the winning putt was to “just let it die in the hole,” he said, and that’s how his run of significant victories in two-day tournaments in 2021 remained alive in sudden death. He won the Utah Golf Association’s Winterchamps event in St. George in May and took the Fox Hollow Amateur in American Fork in April with a closing 63.

Last June, he was in a four-way tie for the lead after the opening round of the SLC Amateur and shot a 73 to tie for fourth place in cold, rainy conditions. After thriving as an overnight co-leader in the heat Sunday, Jones said, “I’ve been learning over the years; just learned to play my own game until the back nine and then focus on where I’m at [on the leaderboard].”

Playing with Neff, who had opened with a 67, and checking Bonneville’s on-line scoring updates, Jones knew where he stood. Counting the playoff, he played 19 holes on the front nine in two days in 12 under par. He started the final round in a tie with Ute golfer Oscar Maxfield, who ended up tied for third with Utah teammate Martin Leon of Chile and BYU’s Max Brenchley, a Lone Peak almnus.

Jones birdied four of the first five holes Sunday and posted a front-nine 32. Even so, Neff caught him after 11 holes, thanks to four birdies and an eagle. Each player birdied No. 12 and bogeyed the par-4 No. 14, before Jones chipped in on No. 15 and Neff caught him again with a birdie on the par-5 No. 16.

Jones looked a bit shaky when he failed to birdie No. 16 and ran a birdie attempt 15 feet past the hole on No. 17. “I must have got a little excited – adrenaline, nerves,” he said. But he made the par putt to stay tied, and the SLC Amateur’s first playoff since 2008 became necessary when Jones and Neff each missed a birdie try from about 20 feet on No. 18.

In the playoff, Jones worried that his drive would stay along the tree line on the right side of No. 1, but his ball bounced enough to the left to give him a clear shot from 160 yards. His 8-iron approach out of the rough skipped to the upper tier of the green and he made the eagle putt, after Neff missed a slightly longer attempt.

Neff almost completed a good winner’s story of his own, as a 2019 high school graduate who recently returned to golf competition after a church mission. As it is, Jones advanced his status as a favorite in the State Amateur that starts July 12 on his home course, Alpine Country Club. He stands 5-foot-8 and says he weighs about 115 pounds, but he’s an imposing figure in Utah golf. Sunday’s win “gives me confidence,” he said, “just knowing I can come out on any day and be the best player out there.”