PROVO, Utah (ABC4 Sports) – Happy birthday to Zac Blair.

The former BYU star celebrated his 33rd birthday in style, by doing something he had never done before. He won the Utah Open. But Blair had to put in a little overtime to do it.

It was a beautiful day for golf at the Riverside Country Club in Provo. Blair had a nice gallery following him, including his former coach at BYU, Bruce Brockbank, and Utah Jazz GM Danny Ainge.

Blair played well all day long. He rolled in a lengthy birdie putt on #10 to get to 13 under par and take the lead. But he couldn’t shake the other challengers. Guys like former Cougars Carson Lundell and Rhett Rassmussen were in the mix. They ended up tied for 3rd along with Matt Snyder from Las Vegas and Gavin Cohen from Phoenix.

Simon Kwon, who is transferring to BYU, was trying to win the Utah Open and the Utah State Amateur in the same year. He finished 2 strokes out of the playoff, alone in 7th place.

Javier Barcos, who hails from Spain, was tied for the lead at the end of the first round, at the end of the 2nd round, and he matched Blair’s score of 15 under par to force a playoff.

Blair got there by birding the 18th hole after a great approach shot. Then he had to wait for about 20 minutes to see if anyone would catch him. And Barcos did.

The sudden death playoff went 4 holes. They played the 18th hole 3 times, with both golfers going par, birdie, par. They moved to the par 3 9th hole, and Blair made an 18-inch putt for par. Barcos had to make a 20-footer to keep the playoff going. His putt hit the hole and spun out, and Blair won the title he had long coveted to become the 2023 Utah Open champion.

“It was awesome. It’s my home course, my whole family was out here, it was my birthday, my dad giving me crap all week about when are you going to win it. And that’s why I came, to try and win and play really well, and I felt like I did that, and that’s always a nice feeling.”

Blair joins his father Jimmy Blair as one of 9 golfers that have won the Utah Open and the Utah State Amateur titles in their careers. Jimmy wasn’t at the course to see his son win, but he was definitely on the mind of Zac all weekend long.

 It’s just really cool, my dad is my hero. I wish he was here, but I’m just glad to win. It was so cool. It makes me so happy.”