Like father, like son: Zac Blair follows in dad's footsteps with State Am win

LAYTON — Ever since he can remember, Zac Blair has had a golf club in his hands. That's was happens when your father is one of the best golfers ever to come out of Utah and owns the golf course across the street from where you live.

Even when Zac was 3 years old, his father, Jimmy, used to take him to big tournaments he was playing in and let him ride on the back of the cart as long as he kept quiet.

"It was awesome to grow up around the golf course and get those vibes," Zac said.

Sunday afternoon at Valley View Golf Course at 1:58 p.m., in perhaps the earliest State Am finish ever, those vibes paid off for Zac, who joined his father as a winner of the oldest continuous golf tournament in the world, the Utah State Amateur Championship.

The 18-year-old Blair knocked off another 18-year-old, Alex Sutton, in a match featuring the youngest finalists in history. The 5 and 3 victory put Blair's name on the same trophy that bears the name of his dad, who had won the State Am 36 years earlier, also at the age of 18.

"It's great, it feels awesome," said Blair, who turns 19 next month but could pass for a couple of years younger because of his boyish face and diminutive 5-foot-6, 120-pound frame. The Ogden native will attend BYU starting next month.

When he met the press, Blair hadn't called his father yet but had talked to him between 18-hole rounds when his dad urged him to "keep it going."

While Zac's mom, Cindy, and his sister, Becky, watched his victory Sunday, Jimmy was 500 miles away playing in the Wyoming Open in Cheyenne. It's not that Zac wouldn't have loved to have had his dad there to see his victory, but he acknowledges he usually plays better when his dad isn't close by.

"I'm a little looser when he's not here" Blair said. "It's not his fault, but sometimes I try a little harder and sometimes it gets me in trouble."

Blair was rarely in trouble Sunday and when he was, he quickly recovered and never let Sutton take control of the match as he had throughout his run to the finals.

All week, Blair hit his drives straight and long and his irons close and only occasionally had to rely on a putter that was a bit off most of the tournament.

In the morning, Sutton took his only lead of the day by making birdie at the first hole. Back-to-back birdies by Blair and a bogey by Sutton gave Blair a 2 up lead and he extended it to 3 up before Sutton birdied 17 to cut the margin to two.