Looking for a way to celebrate and memorialize the 100th anniversary of the longest running professional golf tournament in Utah, organizers decided the most impactful way to accomplish that goal would be to make it about charitable giving.
They determined that the best way to celebrate the 100th playing of the Larry H. Miller Utah Open golf tournament would be with a $100,000 gift to Special Olympics Utah from the Miller Family Foundation and the Utah Section PGA, executive director Devin Dehlin said Wednesday.
So the “100 for 100 idea” was hatched, and culminated Monday during the Short Game Challenge on the practice green at Riverside Country Club when the tournament’s longtime charitable beneficiary received that check. The tournament week officially kicked off with Special Olympics Utah athletes playing together with community leaders, media members and Utah celebrities.
“The charity was the main thing that we wanted to make sure gave this year’s tournament a different look and a different feel and was kind of the celebratory part of it,” Dehlin said. “That’s how we wanted to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this great event.”
Friday, the 54-hole tournament begins at the par-72 layout that has hosted the Utah Open since 2014. It will be the second Utah Open with the Larry H. Miller Company as the title sponsor, after longtime sponsor Siegfried & Jensen law firm decided to move on, Dehlin said.
“Last year was fantastic. They were excited to come on as title sponsor,” he said. “It’s a perfect fit for them with everything they want to do sports-wise now. They are all about community and sport. And so to have a little area of golf as part of what they (sponsor or own), they love that.
“They’re a perfect brand for us for what this event is. This event is about community,” Dehlin continued. “… All these companies come together to make it an event that everyone is happy to see every year. We host eight pro-ams, which to me is the most important part of the event.”
Those eight pro-ams were held Monday through Thursday, two each day, in the morning and afternoon. All that golf would seemingly take its toll on the course, but Dehlin said the Riverside staff and Utah Section PGA have got it down to a science.
He said general manager Eric Gifford, head professional Chris Moody and course superintendent Chad Severtson always have the course ready to withstand not only eight pro-ams, but three days of serious competition. He’s never heard a tournament competitor complain about course conditions in all his years running the event.
“The prep work they do is fantastic,” he said. “There are ups and downs and whatever, but it’s just always consistent. … Come Friday, the course will play a little bit differently because we’ll firm it up. … Golf courses in general right now are not in the best of shape across the country because of water and some of the issues. But this place is just perfect, like always. The (contestants) are always impressed with the conditions.”
As far as the three-year contract with LHM Company is concerned, Dehlin said he never takes anything for granted, but “could see us having a very long-term relationship with them, and them wanting it to grow.”
The purse is $150,000, the same as last year, with $25,000 going to the low professional.
“Our goal would be to grow the purse … So we’ll be looking at ways to raise money, raise the perception of the event and what we can do community wide,” Dehlin said.
Who is in the 2026 Utah Open field?
BYU golfer Kihei Akina became the second-youngest winner in tournament history last year, shooting a 66-65-68 for a 17-under par total to edge fellow amateur Cole Ogden and professionals Brady McKinlay and Spencer Wallace by two shots. Then 19, Akina was originally called the youngest winner ever by several media outlets until research by golf historian Kurt Kragthorpe revealed that amateur Ed Kingsley was 29 days younger than Akina at the time of their wins when Kingsley won in 1934.
Akina was not entered in this year’s tournament as of 3 p.m. Thursday because he was competing in the U.S. Amateur at Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania earlier this week. Akina, the No. 11-ranked amateur in the world, made the 64-player cut for match play, but was eliminated 1-up in the first round Wednesday by a golfer from Germany, Finn Koelle.
Akina’s brother, Keanu, is in the field.
So is CBS Sports NFL game analyst Tony Romo, despite the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback having been placed on leave by CBS following a July arrest on suspicion of DUI after Romo finished playing in a golf tournament in Wisconsin. Romo has played in several Utah Opens recently as the friend of 2014 champion B.J. Staten.
“Tony Romo is back in it, which we’re happy to see,” Dehlin said. “We weren’t sure if that was going to happen.”
Four women, plenty of locals in the field
The field also features four women, most notably recent Utah Women’s Open champion Ali Mulhall, who is also a section associate. Emilee Hoffman, the 2025 Women’s Open champion, is also in the section now and entered, along with Layton’s Haley Sturgeon and former BYU golfer Maddie White, a Riverside assistant pro who is from Lompoc, California.
Although Monday’s qualifier at Soldier Hollow’s Gold and Silver courses was “down about 20 players from what we average,” Dehlin said 12 amateurs and eight pros made it though, including BYU golfer Parker Bunn and Lone Peak High golfer Blake Brown.
Past champions in the field include former PGA Tour standout Jay Don Blake (1988), Staten (2014), former University of Utah golfer Blake Tomlinson (2022), Lehi’s Dusty Fielding (2018), Salt Lake City’s Zach Johnson (2013), Farmington’s Clay Ogden (2011) and Derek Fribbs (2021, 2024) of Aurora, Colorado.
Former BYU golfer Peter Kuest, the 2020 champion, is working through an injury that has kept him from competing on the Korn Ferry Tour the past few months.
“The people that I’m the most excited about, to me, are the people that grew up wanting to win this,” Dehlin said. “A guy like Blake Tomlinson, or Peter Kuest. … A guy that’s young, or new, that have turned pro and been through our program, like a Simon Kwon, a Carson Lundell, a Cole Ponich, a Mitchell Schow. Those are the guys that this tournament is all about.”
Lundell, a BYU graduate, won the Colorado Open last month to earn the $50,000 first-place check.
