OGDEN \u2014 Less than a year and only three starts following back surgery, Daniel Summerhays is playing some of the best golf of his career.<\/p>\n
A little home cooking has done the former BYU golfer from Farmington some good.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>, just four shots from the top of the leaderboard at 12-under in a tie for eighth.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n From where he’s been in the last year, it was hardly typical, though.<\/p>\n The Utah native who initially planned to retire following the 2020 Utah Championship<\/a>, took a job teaching and coaching at his alma mater Davis High, and came out of retirement<\/a> only a year later has spent the past four years on the Korn Ferry Tour, as rejuvenated as a 41-year-old<\/p>\n But the most recent comeback is perhaps the most grueling.<\/p>\n Summerhays had back surgery in January, when doctors fused his L3 and L4 vertebrae. His rehab \u2014 and even “prehab” before the surgery \u2014 was grueling at times, with Summerhays saying he’d initially stop 20 yards into his Sunday walks with his wife Emily to recover.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n Summerhays’ nephew Preston<\/a>, with his sister Grace<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Former BYU golfer Cole Ponich, who was making his first start on the Korn Ferry Tour<\/a> following open events in Provo and Colorado, shot 2-under 68 to move to 9-under and a tie for 24th.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “I feel like my first two times (playing in the Utah Championship<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n “It is really nice to walk with her and spend some good time with her.”<\/p>\n Preston Summerhays has his sister, Grace, on the bag in their home state \u2764\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/E0JqxWIXhi<\/a><\/p>\n