125th Utah State Amateur: Zac Jones survives early upset scare

After hitting his tee shot into the penalty area left of the fairway on the 18th hole at The Country Club of Salt Lake City on Wednesday in a tied match, defending champion Zac Jones figured he needed a “miracle shot” to avoid a major upset and an early departure in the 125th Utah State Amateur.

Instead, the rising junior at BYU got what he acknowledged was a “lucky break,” as Round of 64 opponent Tate McVay was dealt an unfortunate blow that led to a double-bogey and what the Vernal resident (by way of South Dakota) called “just a brutal finish.”

So Jones, 22, who pretty much breezed to the title last year at Soldier Hollow with relatively easy wins in all six matches, moves on to Thursday’s Round of 32 matches, but not without adding a few gray hairs to his father and caddie Clark’s head.

“It definitely is a wake-up call,” Zac Jones said. “It can also be a momentum boost to feel some nerves and win a tight match early on, so now when I face that later this week it will be something I have done this week already.”

McVay, 27, a medical sales rep who played collegiately at West Texas A&M, seemingly had the advantage when both golfers hit their approaches about 40 feet right and below the 18th green, with Jones sitting at 3 and McVay sitting at 2.

However, Jones got up and down for bogey, while McVay’s chip rolled into some rough above the hole and stuck there, rather than roll back closer to the hole, as he had planned.

He had no chance of stopping his fourth shot anywhere near the hole, then missed the 20-footer coming back and Jones had the win.

“It hung up there,” McVay said. “Sometimes you have luck, sometimes you don’t. … Seeing him hit into the hazard on 18, I was licking my chops. But that’s golf. What do you do?”

McVay led 1 up after a birdie on 13, but Jones answered with birdies on 14 and 15 to go 1 up. Then McVay eagled the par-5 17th hole (Jones made birdie) to even the match, and looked to be in command when his tee shot on 18 was a bit short but in the middle of the fairway.

“I had 7-iron in my hand. There is no need to miss it 40 yards right,” McVay said. “I just thought it would turn over, but for some reason it flared to the right.”

Jones wasn’t ready to call the up-and-down one of the best sequences of his golfing life, but he didn’t downplay the feat, either.

“As far as difficulty and nerves, I mean, that is as much nerves as you are going to feel and as much pressure as you are going to feel, so definitely one of my better shots.

“It was a difficult up-and-down from the rough…