Justin Shluker competes on the Salt Lake Metropolis Open at Bonneville Golf Course on August 14, 2022. Randy Dodson, Fairways Media
After changing into the primary golfer since 1966 to win each the Salt Lake Metropolis Beginner and the Salt Lake Metropolis Open in the identical 12 months on Sunday, Park Metropolis native and present Murray resident Justin Shluker stated it earlier than reporters needed to coax it out of him.
“I suppose I actually like Bonneville,” Shluker stated.
That will be Bonneville Golf Course, the historic and venerable format on Salt Lake Metropolis’s east bench that opened in 1929 and has been the positioning the place 1000's and 1000's of Utahns have discovered to play golf.
“I believe I'm puzzled in relation to one thing like that. There have clearly been some superb gamers to come back via Utah. And to simply be talked about (with them) is superb. … I'm kinda speechless on that one.” — Metropolis Open champion Justin Shluker.
Having received the Richard C. Kramer Metropolis Am at Bonneville in early June, Shluker shot a 7-under 65 on Sunday to go along with the 67 he shot on Saturday and received the Metropolis Open by two pictures over professionals Mark Owen and Casey Fowles.
A 27-year-old novice with no speedy plans to show professional, Shluker will get the massive trophy and a $1,000 certificates for merchandise within the Bonneville professional store; Owen and Fowles, who got here in at 10-under, break up the mixed first- and second-place cash, every pocketing $4,250 for his or her 36-hole efforts.
Since Owen, 53, had elected to play from the again tees and go for the massive purse, Henry White received the highest cash within the senior division, incomes $3,000 after firing a 9-under 135.
Shluker (pronounced: SHLUH-ker) turns into the eighth participant to have received each main Salt Lake Metropolis golf tournaments, becoming a member of 2021 Metropolis Open winner Zach Johnson, Blake Tomlinson, Henry White, three-time Metropolis am champ Lou North, Lynn Landgren, Jimmy Blair and Bruce Summerhays.
Summerhays, who had a prolonged profession on the PGA Tour and the PGA Senior Tour, received the Metropolis Am at Bonneville and the Metropolis Open in 1966 at Mountain Dell, defeating fellow novice Arlen Peacock in 39 holes when it was a match-play occasion referred to as the Metropolis Parks Open, in keeping with Utah golf historian Kurt Kragthorpe of Fairways Journal.
With a hug from his father Steve, Justin Shluker celebrates profitable the @SLCGOLF Open at (-12) 67-65 - 132 right this moment at Bonneville GC. With the win Shluker sweeps the Metropolis majors, profitable the Dick Kramer Metropolis Am earlier this season. Low professionals are Mark Owen & Casey Fowles. #utahgolfpic.twitter.com/7YaqemRGvM
— Randy Dodson (@RandyatFairways) August 15, 2022
“I believe I'm puzzled in relation to one thing like that,” Shluker stated. “There have clearly been some superb gamers to come back via Utah, and to simply be talked about (with them) is superb. … I'm kinda speechless on that one.”
Shluker, who prepped at Park Metropolis Excessive and performed collegiately at Sonoma State in California, shot twin rounds of 67 for a 10-under 134 on June 4-5 to win the Metropolis Am.
He figured it might take one thing just a little decrease to beat the professionals, and he was proper.
“I assumed the group behind was going to make a run,” he stated. “I assumed 12 (underneath), which I obtained to, was going to be the quantity. As soon as once more, I stated if I obtained to 12 and any individual beat me, then so be it. They deserve it. However yeah, I assumed that was the quantity.”
Shluker stated he didn’t make something longer than 6 ft. As a substitute, he mastered the par-5s and made pars on the difficult par-3s, similar to he did just a little greater than two months in the past.
“I appear to putt OK right here, however the par-5s are actually getable, and you must preserve your drives within the fairway,” he stated, explaining his success at Bonneville, a course he didn’t play fairly often whereas rising up in Park Metropolis.
“I really feel like I can hit my driver straight most days, and the par-5s are tremendous getable, (so) you simply have to attain that manner.”
Shluker does finance and accounting work for a California-based biotech firm in his day job.
He began Sunday a shot behind first-round leaders Cooper Jones and Brandon Kida, who ended up tied for eighth after carding even-par 72s within the second spherical.
Fowles, 38, the top skilled at Sundown View Golf Course in Delta and a former College of Utah golfer, went into No. 18 Sunday pondering he wanted a par to maintain tempo with Shluker, however truly wanted a birdie to catch him.
He ended up making a bogey, which dropped him right into a tie with Owen for low professional and price him a bit of money.
“I'm good both manner,” Fowles stated when requested if he would have most well-liked a playoff for low professional honors. “Mark is an effective buddy. He is among the finest guys out right here, so we're good both manner.”