MIDWAY, Utah – John Cook is certainly making the most of his first-career appearance at the Utah State Amateur Championship.

Cook, who just completed his sophomore campaign at Utah State, advanced to the Round of 32 after opening the match-play portion of the tournament by defeating Porter Brackett 3 and 1 on Soldier Hollow Golf Course's Gold Course on Wednesday.

"Today was my first time playing match play in a tournament and I played some solid golf," said Cook, the No. 12 seed for match play. "I made some great putts and hit a lot of greens."

Cook's Aggie teammate, Cameron Tucker, also found himself playing in the Round of 64 on Wednesday. And while the recent political science graduate gave 14th-seeded Zach Felts all he could handle, the 51st-seeded Tucker lost on the 21st hole.

Cook found himself 1 down after the second hole, but squared the match against the 53rd-seeded Brackett on the fourth hole. He proceeded to win the next two holes, as well, and was 2 up through 8.

"I put my head down and got to work and within three holes, I got it back to 1 up and started to take over," Cook said. "I let the guy I was playing against win a couple of holes with some mistakes on my part, but bounced back and won a couple of more holes."

Cook made three birdies on the day, his final coming on the 597-yard, par-5 17th hole to close out Brackett.

"We were dormie going into 17 and I wanted to close my player out," Cook said, "so I hit a 5-iron from 270 yards down wind and stuffed it to about five feet. I'm glad I'm moving on to the next round and hoping I'll play solid again tomorrow."

Cook will take on 21st-seeded Cameron Howe, a 1-up victor over 44th-seeded Dylan Chugg, on Thursday at 8:40 a.m.

Tucker was playing in his seventh Utah State Am. Following his final stroke-play qualifying round on Tuesday, the native of Ogden, Utah, said he wanted to get out to an early lead in his match against Felts.

That's exactly what Tucker did, as he was 3 up following the first four holes. Felts battled back to square the match heading to the 10th hole. Tucker was 1 up through 16, but Felts won No. 17 with an eagle on the long par-5 hole to pull even again.

The golfers were still tied after 18 holes, and the match was extended three more holes before Felts closed Tucker out.

For more information on the Utah State golf program, follow the Aggies on Twitter at @USUMensGolf, on Facebook at USUMensGolf and on Instagram at USUGolf.

-USU-