Dick Harmon: Bronco, Kyle absent at annual Kidney Foundation golf event

BYU offensive coordinator Brandon Doman tried to save the day at the 24th annual Liberty Mutual Invitational golf tournament Monday at The Country Club. It's an event that benefits the National Kidney Foundation and for a quarter of a century has always featured the head football coaches from the University of Utah and Brigham Young University at the podium.

His boss, BYU head coach Bronco Mendenhall was in New Zealand with his father Paul, a former LDS mission president. Utah's Kyle Whittingham was knee-deep in a football camp, a critical aspect of Ute recruiting and couldn't make it.

So, for the first time ever, through the Jim Fassel-Ron McBride-Urban Meyer-Whittingham Ute side of things and the LaVell Edwards-Gary Crowton-Mendenhall BYU side, Doman was the only full-time coach to show. And he was a sub.

The event is built on the Utah-BYU football rivalry and raises more than $100,000 as a charity event. But as rivalries go — who knows?

"Bronco and Kyle will be back next year," said executive director Deen Vetterli.

Nobody can say with certainty if the rivalry game will be, however.

And this leads us to Doman, whose makeshift BYU team lost by a single stroke in a scramble format competition to a Utah squad led by Jeff Rudy, Ute director of football operations.

Doman doesn't golf. But, he did pay the price for his squad losing, having to sing his rival's fight song. Doman sort of joined Ute cheerleaders in the traditional refrain.

McBride and Edwards were present. "Ron took the (Utah) Blaze job so his wife could get him out of the house," teased Edwards.

The Ute victors of the actual event were a foursome comprised of Chance Allred, Ryan Adams, Tyler Adams and Shawn Brenchley. Their score of 18-under 54 will send them to Pinehurst, N.C., for the national tournament next spring.

Dick Harmon, Deseret News sports columnist, can be found on Twitter as Harmonwrites and can be contacted at dharmon@desnews.com