Blair kicks off 2012 golf like he did last year

HURRICANE — Can Zac Blair three-peat as Utah's golfer of the year in 2012?

The BYU star is on his way after his weekend win in the 36-hole Coral Canyon Amateur, the first major Utah Golf Association (UGA) event of the year.

Blair fired a 3-under par 141 (70-71) to win the title by three strokes over Christian Jensen (and four shots better than Jared Overton) over the weekend.

"I didn't do anything special, just played consistent and hit the ball well," Blair told me on Sunday night as he drove back to Provo to resume classes.

Blair's win kicks off a continuation of a most remarkable year in 2011.

To highlight just how special it was last year, let me take you back to the kind of play that made his game so consistent.

It was the No. 9 hole in the finals of match play at the Pacific Northwest Amateur at Tetherow Golf Club in Bend, Ore., last summer. It was Blair against Tyler Raber of El Mercero, Calif., and Blair had just hit his tee shot on the tricky par 5 into the weeds that line the fairway.

Many a player would press and melt down at that point in a match with that kind of mistake. Not this kid from Ogden.

Blair chipped out of the weeds, but his ball ended up in a bunker, and he had to chip out once more to get it on the fairway. He then holed his approach shot from 165 yards for a birdie to tie Raber.

Blair went on to win the prestigious tournament with a 5 and 4 score. That shot may have been the best stroke of the year for Blair, who carded an ace on No. 4 at Wolf Creek in his victory in the UGA's Tournament of Champions this past fall.

The UGA named Blair, a junior at BYU this year, its "Player of the Year" for the second-straight season for his dominance as Utah's top amateur player in 2011.

Nationally in 2011, Blair finished second in the Sahalee Amateur in July in Sammamish, Wash., after failing to get up and down on the final hole. He finished behind Chris Williams of Moscow, Idaho. In June, Blair tied for first at the prestigious Sunnehanna Amateur at Johnstown, Pa., and lost in a four-hole playoff to Nathan Smith of Pittsburgh.