USU's McCoy Willey Wins Cache Valley Amateur in Record-Breaking Fashion

Utah State [University] junior golfer McCoy Willey shot a tournament-record 13-under-par 130 (67-63) to win the Cache Valley Amateur on Saturday [Aug. 2] at Logan River Golf Course.

Three other Aggie golfers fared well in the two-day tournament. Junior Tanner Jenson finished second with a 10-under 133 (66-67), senior Seokwon Jeon tied for third with a 4-under 139 (70-69) and junior Eli Rogers placed ninth with a 1-under 142 (66-76).

“It’s fun to see we do have a good group of guys,” Willey said of USU’s golf team for the upcoming 2015-16 season. “Even though Eli didn’t play great on Saturday, he still finished in the top-10. This next year, we’re really excited to see what we can do. We’re stepping up our games, everyone’s playing well at the right time and hopefully we can keep working hard going into the season.”

The Cache Valley Amateur was held over two days beginning at Birch Creek Golf Course in Smithfield, Utah, Friday, July 31. The tournament concluded the following day at Logan River.

After carding a 5-under 67 at Birch Creek, Willey tied the Logan River course record with a bogey-free 8-under 63. Willey shares the record with Devon Purser, a former teammate of his when the two of them were at BYU.

“Logan River is a really difficult golf course,” Willey said. “There’s enough water that you could probably swim the entire golf course. I had eight birdies and no bogeys. I drove the ball awesome and I hit greens. If I did miss a green, I got up and down every single time. I think my longest birdie putt was about 15 feet and all the rest were within five or six feet. My iron/wedge play was really solid Saturday. I was able to stick and commit to my lines and was hitting some pretty close ones, and was able to get some putts to fall. It was just kind of a combination of everything.”

Willey began the final day of the Cache Valley Amateur one shot back of the leaders, which included Rogers and Jenson.

“The biggest hole for me Saturday was on hole No. 3,” Willey said. “I pulled my tee shot a little and I thought it was going to be in the water. When I got up there, my ball was safe, but the way I hit the ball, my heels were actually hanging off into the water, so I hit it just up into the left green-side bunker and was able to get up and down for par. Being able to make a save like that early in the round, I was able to settle in, take a deep breath, regroup and refocus, and take it from there.”

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