Stansbury Park’s Sadie Palmer is among the top female golfers in the state and last Wednesday she nearly won the top prize of the year at Utah’s biggest amateur golf event.

Palmer finished second at the Utah State Women’s Amateur when she lost in the final match of the tournament to Natalie Stone 3-and-2 at Davis Park Golf Course in Fruit Heights.

“It was definitely one of my better tournaments. I played pretty solidly, I just had a stretch of three bad holes in the final match where I lost focus,” Palmer said.

The final pair were even after the first five holes and Stone went 1-up after the sixth hole. After a 60-minute delay because of lightning, Stone went 2-up after seven holes when Palmer hit an errant tee shot and had to go back to the tee and hit again. “I kind of lost focus with the rain delays. I would have preferred to have just kept on playing,” Palmer said.

Stone gained another stroke and went 3-up after eight, but the two top golfers played evenly through the 15th hole.

“On the 16th I hit a 6-iron to the green and had a birdie putt that lipped out,” Palmer said.

Had she sunk the birdie, she still would have a shot at the title down two holes with two to play.

Palmer was feeling good by the time she reached the final match on Wednesday afternoon. In her semi-final match Wednesday morning she defeated BYU golfer Jenteal Jackson 4-and-3. “That was pretty special for me because I played with her a lot in junior golf and had never beaten her,” Palmer said.

The Stansbury Park golfer rolled through match-play last Tuesday defeating another one of her fellow junior golfing friends Amanda Snyder 3-and-1 in the morning and then won 5-and-4 over Julie McMullin on Tuesday afternoon to reach the semi-finals against Jackson.

Champ Natalie Stone’s father Brad Stone is the pro at Davis Park, but Palmer said she did not feel at a disadvantage because Natalie Stone was playing on her home course. “People like to point that out, but anything can happen in golf even on your home course. You still have to make the shots so it wasn’t a big factor,” Palmer said.

Palmer reached the match-play rounds by finishing in the top 16 out of 64 entries on July 19.

The Stansbury golfer was the first to win a women’s individual high school state championship back in 2008 when she won the 5A championship playing for the Tooele High School Buffaloes.

She is now the No. 1 golfer for the Southern Utah University lady’s golf team and will enter her junior season this fall. Last year she was selected First Team All-Conference in the Summit League. Last fall she won the Utah Shoot-out against players from colleges in Utah.

Palmer started golfing at about 8 years old while still playing softball, but quit softball when she was 12 to concentrate on golf.

“My dad heard that college scholarships for lady golfers were not utilized so we started working on my swing. Swinging a club seemed quite natural to me, but I have worked hard at golf over the years,” Palmer said. The golfer’s parents are Matt and Susan Palmer.

Oquirrh Hills pro Chris Scott gave Palmer her first golf lessons at Stansbury Park Golf Course and Palmer worked extensively with Melanie VanDeldon at Mulligan’s Golf Curse. Palmer said John Evans at Cedar Ridge Golf Course in Cedar City and her SUU coaches Richard Church and Casey McClelland have helped her improve. Her coaches in high school were Fred Killpack and Jeff Bryant.

“School at SUU has been really good — especially the golf part,” she said. “We go to St. George quite a bit in the winter and play and I work out in the gym three to four times a week. Being fit helps you become a a much better golfer.”

Palmer said she was not a good putter during her early high school years and spends most of her practice time working on her chipping and putting game. “The old cliché is true you drive for show and putt for dough,” she said.

“I’m majoring in broadcasting at school, but I will always be doing something with golf. My dream is to play professional golf,” Palmer said.

This summer she has helped coach junior golfers at Oquirrh Hills Golf Course when she is not out playing.

“I really don’t have a home course because I play so many different courses in the state,” she said.

One of her favorite courses in Entrada in St. George.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com