Nobody under the age of 17 had ever won the Salt Lake City Amateur golf tournament, at least in the last half century, but Sunday afternoon at Bonneville Golf Course, three 16-year-olds battled it out before Sean Lampropoulos emerged with a one-stroke victory.
The East High junior-to-be shot a 6-under-par 66 for a two-day total of 138 to edge out Jackson Shelley and Bowen Mauss, who will be juniors at Skyline and Corner Canyon high schools, respectively, next fall.
“I had the home-course knowledge and I just tried to play my best,” said young Lampropoulos, whose home is adjacent to the No. 5 fairway at Bonneville.
His uncle is Jon Wright, a former City Am winner and two-time State Amateur champion and Lampropoulos said he used to watch Wright play as a youngster.
“This is one I’ve always wanted to win,” he said. “Bonneville is just a classic Utah course and it doesn’t get better as far as public courses go. I love it out here.”
Randy Dodson photo
At the start of the day his goal was to shoot 65 and he nearly hit that number, but his 50-foot birdie try at 18 ended up on the lip.
Mauss had a chance to win after he chipped in for birdie at No. 15, but he couldn’t make birdie at the par-5 16th and three-putted from 60 feet at No.17. Shelley made six birdies on the day with a lone bogey at No. 9.