{"id":84870,"date":"2025-08-15T13:49:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/84870\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T13:49:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T13:49:10","slug":"newly-branded-larry-h-miller-utah-open-tees-off-friday-in-provo-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/84870\/","title":{"rendered":"Newly branded Larry H. Miller Utah Open tees off Friday in Provo \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five or six years ago, two titans of the Utah sports community, Steve Starks<\/a> and Devin Dehlin<\/a>, chatted briefly on the No. 16 fairway at Provo\u2019s Riverside Country Club during one of the Utah Open\u2019s eight pro-am rounds. <\/p>\n

Starks, the CEO of the Larry H. Miller Company, mentioned to Dehlin, executive director of the Utah Section PGA, that if longtime sponsor Siegfried & Jensen ever decided to move on from sponsoring the tournament, LHM Company would be interested in taking over.<\/p>\n

After all, the company has long been a fixture in the Utah sports scene, formerly owning the Utah Jazz and currently owning the Salt Lake Bees in baseball, soccer\u2019s Utah Royals and Real Salt Lake<\/a>, The Ballpark at America First Square in South Jordan and sponsoring the Larry H. Miller Utah Summer Games in Cedar City.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n

That casual conversation is now a reality.<\/p>\n

The agreement was reached a few months ago, and the 54-hole Larry H. Miller Utah Open begins Friday and runs through Sunday, with pros chasing the $25,000 first-place check and some of the state\u2019s top amateurs testing their games against some of the best players in the Intermountain West.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk about a perfect fit,\u201d said Dehlin, who has been in charge of the section since 2015. \u201cLarry H. Miller is all about community. They\u2019re all about sport. They love golf, and this adds to everything else they\u2019re involved with \u2014 soccer, baseball, basketball and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dehlin said he is excited about the future of the event, which was first contested in 1926 and is the second-longest running state open in the country. Next year, the tournament will celebrate its 100th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalk about a perfect fit. Larry H. Miller is all about community. They\u2019re all about sport. They love golf, and this adds to everything else they\u2019re involved with \u2014 soccer, baseball, basketball and all that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Devin Dehlin, executive director of the Utah Section PGA<\/p>\n

\u201cNot too many title sponsors last 24 years, so having that amazing partnership and relationship with Siegfried & Jensen is something that we were very grateful for,\u201d Dehlin said. \u201cBut they were ready to move on. That chapter was amazing. With their help, we\u2019ve been able to build it into one of the best state opens in the country. Now it\u2019s time for the next chapter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starks said becoming a sponsor of both the Utah Open and the Utah Women\u2019s Open, which was contested last week<\/a> at The Country Club in Salt Lake City, fits perfectly into what the LHM Company has tried to do for decades.<\/p>\n

New Salt Lake City resident Emilee Hoffman won the event and the $4,000 first-place check<\/a>, while Bountiful\u2019s Haley Sturgeon was three shots back and earned $3,000 for her second-place finish.<\/p>\n

Starks said having the Women\u2019s Open sponsorship part of the package was important to the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always loved sports and its impact in Utah, so when Devin approached us with this opportunity, it fit that history, and it fit what we believe in. It obviously engages the community at all levels,\u201d Starks said. \u201cAlso, our foundation has had a longstanding relationship with the Special Olympics, and so it was a natural.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the highlights of Utah Open week is the annual Special Olympics Utah Short Game Challenge, which pairs a Special Olympics athlete with a local celebrity, politician or media member for a fun competition on the practice green at Riverside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have the second and third generations of Miller family members that have really fallen in love with the game of golf,\u201d Starks said. \u201cThey are playing increasingly more and more. And so for those reasons, it made a lot of sense for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dehlin said his friendship with Starks began years ago, when he gave the CEO some golf lessons at Golf in the Round and found him to be a quick study.<\/p>\n

After the Short Game Challenge on Monday, Starks said they have already started to talk to the section about amplifying the Utah Open and Utah Women\u2019s Open even further.<\/p>\n

\"\"Steve Starks, president of Larry H. Miller Sports and Entertainment and Utah Jazz, talks to the media during the end of season press conference at the Zions Bank Basketball Center in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, May 9, 2017. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re one of the best section PGA groups in the country, and they do a great job,\u201d Starks said. \u201cSo anything we do, we want it to be additive. How do we have a bigger impact? How do we raise more money for Special Olympics? How do we raise money for kids that want to golf but may not have the financial resources? And so those are ideas we\u2019ll explore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dehlin said it is important to mention how much Riverside Country Club has played into the success of the event since it replaced Farmington\u2019s Oakridge Country Club as the host in 2014. A new two-year extension was signed this year, with an option for two more years, so the event will remain at Riverside through 2027, quite likely longer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe love it here,\u201d Dehlin said. \u201cThis is a great home for the Larry H. Miller Utah Open. \u2026 We would like to be here for the next 25 years, but I am sure that probably won\u2019t be the case. They might want to move on, do different things. But we\u2019re here for another two years after this year, for sure, and hopefully more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fribbs back to defend his title<\/p>\n

Colorado pro Derek Fribbs shot a course-record 61 in Sunday\u2019s final round last year to win the 98th Utah Open with a 54-hole total of 19-under 197<\/a>. Former BYU golfer and then-PGA Tour rookie Patrick Fishburn took second place, two shots back of Fribbs, who also won the tournament in 2021.<\/p>\n

Fishburn didn\u2019t make the PGA Tour\u2019s FedEx Cup Playoffs this week, but is not entered at Riverside. However, former BYU standout and PGA Tour regular Zac Blair \u2014 the 2023 champion \u2014 is entered, and will tee off at 8 a.m. Friday from the No. 10 tee with Jay Don Blake and former BYU golfer Justin Keiley.<\/p>\n

Former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and current TV football analyst Tony Romo, an amateur, is entered again<\/a> and will play with good friend BJ Staten and Tracy Zobell.<\/p>\n

Two-time defending Salt Lake City Open champion Martin Leon<\/a>, the former University of Utah standout, is a player to keep an eye on, although Leon says he tends to struggle at Riverside, for whatever reason.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, it is my favorite event here in Utah,\u201d he said. \u201cI would probably put it over the State Am (which he won in 2021).\u201d<\/p>\n

Provo Open champion Cole Ponich, coming off two straight strong performances in Korn Ferry Tour events, should also be considered a favorite, along with amateurs such as incoming BYU freshman Kihei Akina<\/a>, State Am champ Bowen Mauss<\/a> and Utah Mid-Amateur champion Steele Dewald (a former pro).<\/p>\n

Of course, the out-of-state traveling pros who always make it a priority to play in the Utah Open, guys such as Fribbs and fellow Coloradoan Zahkai Brown (also a past champion)<\/a> can never be counted out.<\/p>\n

Three other prominent pros with Utah ties \u2014 Daniel Summerhays, Preston Summerhays and Peter Kuest \u2014 are playing in the Korn Ferry Tour\u2019s Albertsons Boise Open in Idaho this week.<\/p>\n

\"\"Cole Howard and Kihei Akina watch Akina\u2019s shot during the Korn Ferry Tour Utah Championship at the Ogden Golf and Country Club in Ogden on Thursday, July 31, 2025. Akina, who will play his college golf at BYU, is among the field at this week’s Utah Open. | Kristin Murphy, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five or six years ago, two titans of the Utah sports community, Steve Starks and Devin Dehlin, chatted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,3125,99],"class_list":["post-84870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-news-feed-local","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}