OGDEN — Less than a year and only three starts following back surgery, Daniel Summerhays is playing some of the best golf of his career.
A little home cooking has done the former BYU golfer from Farmington some good.
Summerhays fired six birdies with two bogeys to card 4-under-par 66 in Saturday’s third round of the Utah Championship at Ogden Golf and Country Club, just four shots from the top of the leaderboard at 12-under in a tie for eighth.
It’s the first time in his last five starts that Summerhays, who returned to the Korn Ferry Tour barely a month ago, has carded three-straight rounds in the 60s. He’ll tee off in one of the final groups Sunday at 2:20 p.m. MDT.
“I hit a lot of nice shots today,” Summerhays said. “A couple of putts that went in, a couple that didn’t. I felt like today was just a typical round of golf.”
From where he’s been in the last year, it was hardly typical, though.
The Utah native who initially planned to retire following the 2020 Utah Championship, took a job teaching and coaching at his alma mater Davis High, and came out of retirement only a year later has spent the past four years on the Korn Ferry Tour, as rejuvenated as a 41-year-old
But the most recent comeback is perhaps the most grueling.
Summerhays had back surgery in January, when doctors fused his L3 and L4 vertebrae. His rehab — and even “prehab” before the surgery — was grueling at times, with Summerhays saying he’d initially stop 20 yards into his Sunday walks with his wife Emily to recover.
But the two-time Utah state amateur champion returned to a pair of events in July, making one cut and falling in the other, before taking a shot at the Utah Championship’s recent move to Ogden Golf and Country Club after a half-dozen years at Oakridge Country Club where he and his family are members.
“I love how I felt out there,” he said. “Part of the battle is just, how did you feel? And I just felt excited to play.”
Summerhays’ nephew Preston, with his sister Grace on the bag and his dad Boyd walking the grounds with him, also carded his third straight round in the 60s with a 3-under 67. That moved the recent pro from Farmington by way of Arizona State into a tie for 16th at 10-under.
Former BYU golfer Cole Ponich, who was making his first start on the Korn Ferry Tour following open events in Provo and Colorado, shot 2-under 68 to move to 9-under and a tie for 24th.
Ponich, who doesn’t have any status on the Korn Ferry Tour, can earn a spot at next week’s Pinnacle Bank Championship in Nebraska, with a top-25 finish Sunday on the same course where he won the Utah state amateur a year ago.
“I feel like my first two times (playing in the Utah Championship as an amateur) were more of a learning experience,” said Ponich, who missed the cut last year at Oakridge. “My game wasn’t quite as good as it is now. This time around, I feel like I belong in this field and feel like I can compete with anybody out here.
“That’s given me confidence to feel, even when I just walk on the putting green, like I’m more meant to be out here. In previous years, I didn’t have that same confidence.”
“It is really nice to walk with her and spend some good time with her.”
Preston Summerhays has his sister, Grace, on the bag in their home state ❤️ pic.twitter.com/E0JqxWIXhi
— Korn Ferry Tour (@KornFerryTour) August 2, 2025
Former University of Utah golfer Mitchell Schow went from Monday qualifying to making money in his home state.
Schow matched yesterday’s 66 — a score that got him above the cutline at 3-under — with three birdies on the back nine to move to 7-under on the tournament.
The Ogden-born golfer out of Park City by way of the University of Utah opened his third round just 1-under through nine.
But the 202 Utah state amateur champion pulled back off a pair of par-4s at the 437-yard 12th and 364-yard 14th holes, then added a birdie on the par-3, 167-yard No. 16 to move as high as a tie for 24th immediately following his morning round before finishing in a tie for 41st.
He’s tied for 41st with former Weber High standout Connor Howe, the two-year pro and Ogden Golf and Country Club member who shot 1-over 71 to drop to 7-under.
Also teeing off among the morning flight, former BYU golfer Peter Kuest laid down 3-under 67 to move to 6-under, briefly flirting with the top-50 on moving day before finishing in a tie for 52nd.
American Robby Shelton shot 4-under 31 on the front nine en route to 5-under 65, vaulting into a tie for first atop the leaderboard with Taylor Montgomery. The former two-time Sand Hollow Open champion from Las Vegas shot 68 in Saturday’s moving day for a two-shot lead on South Korea’s Bio Kim.
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