Weber State’s Braylyn Bayer earns medalist honors to set up match play at 120th Utah women’s state amateur

FARMINGTON — For Braylyn Bayer, there may have been nothing better than having her dad Curt as caddy for her opening round of stroke-play qualifying at the 120th Utah women’s state amateur.

Except, maybe, for one thing.

The rising junior at Weber State shot 1-under-par 71 to take medalist honors Monday at Oakridge Country Club, carding three birdies and an eagle to clinch the No. 1 seed for match play beginning Tuesday.

“He drove 12 hours here to caddy for me,” said Bayer, who arrived two years ago at Weber State from her hometown of Bonners Ferry, Idaho (about a half-hour drive from the Canadian border) but was playing in her first Utah state amateur. “I’m just glad he doesn’t have to turn around and drive 12 hours to go to work tomorrow. I’ll let him keep caddying.

“We’ve got it pretty well down,” she added. “He know show to calm me down, too.”

It’s not the first time Curt Bayer has caddied for his daughter, while Braylyn’s twin sister also walked the round with her as she opened draining a 35-foot birdie putt on the par-4, 470-yard first hole and finished with an eagle on the par-5, 459-yard No. 16 before wrapping up bogey-par for 71.

“He played with us while we were younger,” Braylyn Bayer said.

With a round of (-1) 71, @WSUWildcatWGolf Braylyn Bayer earned medalist honors today in stroke play qualifying at the 120th Utah Women's State Amateur at Oakridge CC in Farmington. Tuesday's match play Round of 32 will tee off at 7:30. Scoring brackets:https://t.co/dtki1TC7Ny pic.twitter.com/Q9fqOeGDIs

— Randy Dodson (@RandyatFairways) July 20, 2026

Bayer fend off former BYU golfer Sunbin Seo and Cougar rising sophomore Nya Palmer, who both shot even-par 72 to finish second. Samantha Phelan, Whitney Banz and Rylee Salome all finished two shots back in a tie for fourth, one stroke up on a group that included six-time Utah women’s amateur champion Kelsey Chugg.

Former BYU golfer Steph Belnap, who won consecutive women’s state amateurs in the 1990s before turning pro and currently works as a financial planner while coaching the Farmington High girls’ team, shot 6-over 78 to earn low senior honors and tied for 25th overall.

Who else advanced to match play at the 120th Utah women’s state amateur?

Bayer will face 32nd-seeded Ava Schroeder, the rising junior at BYU from Idaho, in Tuesday’s Round of 32.  Amanda Henneman drained a 12-foot birdie putt on the first hole of a seven-player playoff to clinch the first of the final three spots in match play, and BYU rising sophomore Aadyn Long also advanced in the seven-golfers-for-three-spots playoff.

Of course, ask any competitor Monday about the stroke-play qualification, and they’ll all point forward to match play — which begins with the Round of 32 and continues until Thursday’s 36-hole championship at Oakridge.

That group will include defending champion Arden Louchheim, the former Rowland Hall star who just finished her college career at Nebraska.

These days, Lochheim is the play-by-play voice for baseball’s Ogden Raptors and mostly plays golf “for fun” while she finishes her master’s degree with the Huskers. The daughter of Utah Jazz broadcaster David Locke whose mother Akemi was also a sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks has found a new passion as she begins her broadcasting career.

But she still keeps golf at an arm’s length — now a release instead of something closer to an occupation, though capable of getting out during a recent six-game homestand — and found that release as she rallied from 6-over 42 on the front nine with three birdies and a bogey on the back to make the cut by three strokes.

The Long Road to the Title Begins Monday at Oakridge! The 120th Utah Women’s State Amateur tees off tomorrow with 80 players chasing one of Utah’s oldest & most prestigious amateur titles. Arden Louchheim is back looking to defend her title.
Read more: https://t.co/qi0w8AaviA pic.twitter.com/EsaHsxI7pL

— Randy Dodson (@RandyatFairways) July 19, 2026

“I’ve been looking forward to playing this tournament, but definitely nervous as I’ve put in a lot less hours this year as my priorities changed,” Louchheim said. “But I still put in a decent amount of time — as much as I could this past week during a six-game homestead — and I had a really slow start. The swing felt a little bit off … But mom was on the bag today, and she was really helpful to just remind me that I’m now doing this for fun.

“This really is no expectations; just go out and enjoy myself,” she added. “Once I got that birdie in and remembered that I can play golf, then everything kind of came together.”

Louchheim knows that getting into match play is the priority from the first 18 holes. She finished seventh in stroke play a year ago before advancing to the final with wins over close friend Berlin Long of BYU and Chugg en route to a 7 and 6 victory over St. George’s Kate Walker in the final.

Similarly, former Corner Canyon standout Bowen Mauss finished tied for 45th at the men’s tournament before becoming just the 20th back-to-back champion in 128 years of the Utah state men’s amateur championship.

“That’s been my mindset,” Louchheim said. “I just knew that if I could get myself to (match play), I felt good about my ability to be competitive and make things work in match play.

“I think my competitive nature can drive through, because I’ve seen what I can do in these tournaments. This was the honestly the day I was most worried about.”

Match play: Round of 32

• Braylyn Bayer vs. Ava Schroeder, 7:30 a.m.
• Grace Summerhays vs. Hunter Gledhill, 7:39 a.m.
• Brooklynn Maes vs. Steph Belnap, 7:48 a.m.
• Kelsey Chugg vs. Ellie Jo Olsen, 7:57 a.m.
• Rylee Salome vs. Faith Vui, 8:06 a.m.
• Adley Nelson vs. Arden Louchheim, 8:15 a.m.
• Whitney Banz vs. Berlin Long, 8:14 a.m.
• Gabrielle Roznicki vs. Susan Tiffner, 8:33 a.m.
• Sunbin Seo vs. Aadyn Long, 8:42 a.m.
• Taylor Weingarten vs. Rosie Oettli, 8:51 a.m.
• Brynlee Welch vs. Natalie Mclane, 9:00 a.m.
• Jane Olson vs. Ashley Lam, 9:09 a.m.
• Nya Palmer vs. Amanda Henneman, 9:18 a.m.
• Brynnley Bischoff vs. Rachel Lillywhite, 9:27 a.m.
• Samantha Phelan vs. Taylyn Wilson, 9:36 a.m.
• Sydney Richards vs. Remi Rawlings, 9:45 a.m.