ST GEORGE, Utah – BYU men’s golfer Cooper Jones continued adding to his amateur golf resume as he won the 2024 St. George Amateur with back-to-back rounds of 65 to finish 16-under-par. The freshman carded 18 birdies over the two-day tournament at St. George Golf Club.
"The field was full of some of the best juniors and quite a few college teams, so it feels good to come out on top," C. Jones said. "Always good to drive back north to the snow knowing what went well and what needs some work. I felt like I rarely made mistakes this week, which allowed me to make a lot of birdies without much stress of giving them back. Of course, it is always fun going head-to-head with my brother down the stretch."
This win came just two weeks after C. Jones won the Thunderbolt Invitational in Surprise, Arizona, where he also finished 16 under-par.
C. Jones’s big brother and fellow BYU golfer Zac Jones did not make the win easy as he birdied nine straight holes on the final day of the tournament to make a run for first. With rounds of 68 and 64, Z. Jones concluded the tournament in a tie for second at 14-under.
"I started the second round three shots behind Cooper and Bowen (Mauss) knowing they would play well and it would be hard to catch them," Z. Jones said. "I started slow and had to make a couple dicey par putts. Starting on hole five I started to heat up. Making nine birdies in a row is something I’ve never done before. I was really in the zone knowing that a lot of those holes give you a good shot at birdie. After the fifth one in a row, I started to think about it and wanted to keep the streak going. It's really fun to get hot, and it's too bad I couldn’t catch Cooper, but he shot eight-under, so congrats to him!"
Many other Cougars participated in the tournament, with Peter Kim and Brock Goyen each in the top 10 finishers. Kim took fourth at 12-under with back-to-back rounds of 67, while Goyen finished tied for seventh at nine-under-par.
Cole Ponich (70, 72–142; -4), Keanu Akina (73, 70–143; -3), Simon Kwon (74, 70–144; -2) and Angus Klintworth (78, 69–147; +1) also escaped the snow to play some golf in southern Utah in preparation for the spring season.