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Home > Archive > Jul 19, 2007

St. George ‘Tee’-Birds Compete at State Amateur
By Stephen Vincent
At the Utah State Amateur July 11-15, three Southern Utah University golfers with St. George roots competed. And one had a memorable exit from the tournament.
Eric Nilsson shot a four under par on his first five holes. Then he received a call that his wife, Angela, was going into labor with the couple's first child. Nilsson left the tournament at Thanksgiving Point and drove home to be with his wife at the hospital.
While Nilsson was excited for the arrival of his child, he wished he could have finished the tournament.
“It was kind of a bummer that way because I was playing well, but family comes first,” Nilsson said.
The state amateur is the biggest amateur golf event in the state and pits the best golfers against each other. During the first two days, the participants play a round a day. On the third day, the 32 players with the lowest scores move on to a single-elimination match-play tournament.
Nilsson and teammates Matt McArthur and Jared Brader have played in state amateurs before, but only McArthur has played in the match play portion of the tournament, losing in the first round last year.
Both he and Brader went into the tournament hoping to make it to match play.
“To win is the goal for every tournament,” Brader said. “The first goal is to make match play – to be one of the Top 32, and then get one match at a time.”
This year, the Thunderbirds have five golfers competing in the tournament, which is the most the school has had in a while. In addition to the three T-birds from St. George, SUU's Tom Hawkins and Nate Page also participated.
The players say the number of T-birds in the tournament shows how good their team is.
“It just reaffirms our confidence that we have a good team,” McArthur said. “We can compete with the best in the state.”
Brader agreed that the T-birds are showing what kind of program they have become.
“It shows how deep our team is, and it shows the type of program that coach (Richard) Church is building,” Brader said.
McArthur said he hopes the success carries over into the Thunderbirds' season.
“If we click at the same time, we'll do well collegiately,” he said.
All three players are approaching the end of their collegiate careers. Nilsson, a business major, will be a senior next year.
Once his eligibility is exhausted, Nilsson said he might try to turn pro and play on the mini-tours.
McArthur and Brader are juniors. Brader will graduate next year with a finance degree and is undecided whether he will return the following year for his final season of eligibility.
McArthur is a pre-dental major at SUU and plans to continue his education after he graduates from SUU to become an orthodontist. All three players became interested in golf through different means.
McArthur has been playing since he was a little boy.
“My grandma and my dad had me swinging a club since I was about 4 years old,” he said.
McArthur played for Pine View in high school and was the region medalist his senior year.
“I like the whole lifestyle surrounding golf,” he said. “The traits – honesty, hard work, never giving up – and being out there with pals and enjoying yourself.”
For Nilsson, it started in the summer before ninth grade when his friend Michael Orton took him to a golf course. Nilsson said he became hooked right away. He joined the Dixie High School golf team that year and played all four years for the Flyers.
Nilsson said he loves the challenge golf presents.
“The only person you're trying to beat is yourself,” Nilsson said. “Most of the time, you don't have to worry about teammates.”
Brader has been playing golf for eight years.
“It was something to do in the summers,” he said. “I just got into to go out and have fun with friends.”
Nilsson said it was great to go to the tournament and see so many of his teammates there.
“It's fun because we're all going to school together,” Nilsson said. “In a sense, you're still representing SUU – and this represents the school and the program well. We all compete against each other, but root for each other to do well.”

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