This Utah Women’s State Amateur contestant has Summerhays bloodlines, but she doesn’t make a big deal out of it

FARMINGTON — Six-time champion Kelsey Chugg, defending champion Arden Louchheim, 2020 champion Grace Summerhays and BYU golfers Whitney Banz and Berlin and Aadyn Long will be the headliners when the 120th Utah Women’s State Amateur golf tournament kicks off Monday at Oakridge Country Club.

There will be another member of the Summerhays family — arguably the first family of Utah golf — in the field of 81 competing in the event, but new Utah Valley University golfer Sydney Richards is content to “go unnoticed” until she makes a name for herself on her own merits on the links.

She’s well on her way to doing that.

Richards, a Farmington native, is transferring to UVU with a year of eligibility remaining after winning four individual tournaments at Southern Virginia University the past three seasons and being named the USA South Conference’s Women’s Golfer of the Year in 2026.

Richards is the granddaughter of Lynn and Ann Summerhays and daughter of Rebekah and Stephen Richards. Former PGA Tour regulars Daniel and Boyd Summerhays are her uncles (Rebekah’s brothers).

Interestingly, UVU’s news release heralding the senior’s signing with the Wolverines’ women’s golf program does not mention that she has Summerhays bloodlines.

“I am honored to be a Summerhays and be a part of that legacy, but I am kind of grateful that no one really knows I am a Summerhays,” Sydney Richards told the Deseret News last Monday after playing a practice round at Oakridge as part of a media event setting up the tournament.

“… I will always be honored to be a Summerhays, but is kind of nice to try to make a name for myself without that on my shoulders. It is an awesome legacy and I’m just proud that I’ve done it justice in my own little way.”

Other top players in the field include BYU’s Nya Palmer, Utah Tech’s Jane Olson and Gabrielle Roznicki, Samoa’s Faith Vui, teenager Natalie McLane, Westminster’s Ashley Lam and Lily Shin and New Mexico State’s Rylee Salome.

Former champions in the field, the largest field in Utah Women’s Am history, include Chugg, Louchheim, Grace Summerhays and Stephanie Brockbank Belnap, the tournament’s winner in 1994 and 1995 before leaving competitive golf until a few years ago.

Wrist injury sidelined Summerhays

Grace Summerhays — Sydney Richards’ cousin — was a late addition to the field, as Boyd Summerhays’ daughter signed up the day that registration closed.

“I am so excited to play Oakridge,” Grace Summerhays said. “It is a special place to my family and I can’t wait to hopefully make some more great memories there.”

Summerhays said she has been struggling with wrist injuries so she ended up taking nine months off to focus on getting healthy.

“This will be my second event back and I have missed competing a lot so I can’t wait to get the week started,” she said.

Women’s Am features stroke and match play

The tournament begins Monday with 18 holes of stroke-play qualifying for match play. Thirty-two golfers will advance to match play, which begins Tuesday morning. The Round of 16 will be played Tuesday afternoon, with the quarterfinals and semifinals set for Wednesday.

The championship match is on Thursday and will be 36 holes, just like the men, and just like last year when Louchheim defeated St. George’s Kate Walker 7 and 6 at Wasatch Mountain State Park.

Walker, who recently joined BYU’s women’s golf team after originally signing with Utah Tech out of St. George’s Crimson Cliffs High, is vacationing/golfing in Scotland and not entered in the tournament.

Oakridge is a familiar haunt for Summerhayses

Richards figures she’s played Oakridge about 25 times, while her brothers and uncles have played it hundreds of times. Her mother gave up the game when she was 11 but still enjoys watching Sydney and others play.

Her father started playing when he joined the family. How could he not?

The par-72 layout just north of Lagoon Amusement Park is hosting the Women’s Am for the sixth time, according to Utah Golf Association executive director Easton Folster. He said the tournament will go to SLC’s Bonneville Golf Course in 2027, to Logan Country Club in 2028, to Alpine Country Club in 2029 and will be played at Entrada Country Club in St. George in 2030.

BYU’s Banz shot a 4-under 68 to win medalist honors last year at Wasatch Mountain, and the cut for match play came at 7-over 79, a bit lower than most people expected.

Banz qualified to play in the Men’s State Amateur two weeks ago, but did not make the cut for match play.

Having shot a 79 at Oakridge last Monday, Richards predicted the cutline this week will come at 82, perhaps higher if the wind kicks up.

“This is kind of a brutal (course), one of the harder courses I feel like we’ve played in the State Am,” she said. “So I feel like the cut is going to be a little higher than it’s been in past years. … My goal is just anything in the 70s and get to match play and see what happens.”

Last year, Richards lost in the Round of 32; In 2024 at TalonsCove, she was eliminated in the Round of 16.

“I am definitely planning on making it to match play,” she said. “Hopefully I’ll do a little bit better than last year. I wasn’t playing great last year, wasn’t quite ready.

“I think I’m a little more prepared this year, but I’m taking nothing (for granted). Just making it to match play is a dream.”

Priorities have changed for Park City’s Louchheim

Louchheim, 21, has finished her college golf career at Nebraska but will get her bachelor’s degree from that university next month. She said her victory last year “was validating” because it made her feel more of a part of Utah women’s golf history.

“That was really cool because I had felt a little bit like I was in other people’s shadows,” she said. “Not in a bad way, but I was just surrounded by great golfers growing up, and had never had a moment in golf that was mine.

“My foursome in almost every tournament growing up was Grace Summerhays, (former BYU golfer) Lila Galea’i and Berlin Long,” she continued. “That’s a really cool group to be surrounded by, but I think it was really cool to have my own moment and just validate that all my hard work was worth it.”

Louchheim is the daughter of Utah Jazz broadcaster David Locke, and now is not only following in her dad’s footsteps, but her mother’s as well. Her mom, Akemi, was a sideline reporter for the Seattle Seahawks and one of the first female sportscasters in the Seattle market.

After having broadcast dozens of Nebraska sporting events the past year, including Utah’s win over the Cornhuskers in the Las Vegas Bowl last December, Arden Louchheim is now a part of the Ogden Raptors home broadcast team.

“I’m just going to go be a student (working on her Master’s degree) this fall and focus on my broadcasting and keep playing this awesome game for fun,” she said.

That means her expectations of defending her title aren’t sky-high.

“My priorities have changed a little bit from 12 months ago,” she said. “Broadcasting is my top priority. I’m employed. … Golf has become something that I’m doing to kind of just relax and unwind and it’s become really, really fun again, which I’m very thankful for.

“In college it was a great experience, but it could be a bit of a job, and so getting to have it just be fun again, I’m really enjoying it.”

Louchheim said she would be lying if she said she didn’t want to defend, but is taking a more realistic approach this year.

“I would love to be like (State Am champ) Bowen Mauss and do it back-to-back,” she said, “but I also know that I have a lot of things pulling on my time right now, pulling me away from golf.”

Arden Aline Louchheim watches her shot during the Women’s Utah State at Wasatch Mountain State Park Golf Course in Midway, Utah, on Thursday, July 24, 2025. Louchheim defeated Kate Walker 7 and 6 in the championship match. | Randy Dodson, Fairways Media

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