Gorgeous course, fun set-up, meh field. A great “get to know ‘em” week with some names you might not be used to seeing likely to shoot up the leaderboard. It’s a resort course at altitude where you can bomb away for the most part. Accuracy doesn’t really matter, unless you miss big, as some lava fields can have players hitting a second tee shot. We should see some very low scores this week, with a hot putter possibly having us on 59 watch.

• Designer: Tom Weiskopf (with Phil Smith)

• Layout: Par 71, 7,421 yards (plays shorter due to 3,100-foot elevation).

• 3 par 5s, 4 par 3s, 11 par 4s.

• Two drivable par 4s (5th: 320 yards, 14th: 326 yards).

• Three par 4s over 500 yards on the back nine.

• Fairways: Bentgrass, extremely wide (average 49 yards), leading to an 84% driving accuracy rate in 2024 (highest on Tour).

• Greens: Bentgrass, large (7,000 sq ft average), undulating, with a stimpmeter of 12.

• Rough: Kentucky bluegrass, short (2 inches), minimal impact.

• Hazards: Black lava rock surrounds most holes, often unplayable. Water in play on only three holes.

Black Desert

Black Desert’s golf course is part of a 650-acre resort located in Ivins, just about 40 miles away from Zion National Park. The course is a par-71 layout that measures at 7,421 yards and features three par 5s, four par 3s, and 11 par 4s. The front nine opened in November 2022, while the back nine opened in May 2023. The course was shaped from the black lava rock that is pervasive in this corner of southwest Utah. From the green fairways and the blue lakes to the red rock mountains and the black lava, the course offers a visually stunning combination of landscapes.

Nick Taylor played in last year’s inaugural event and remarked, “When I think desert, I think I default to TPC Scottsdale or Summerlin in Vegas. But with the lava rock around, it’s not really a playable desert. There’s so many things about this course that are unique. It’s a lot of fun to come here.”

The entrance to Snow Canyon is visible from nearly every hole, and as you make your way back to the clubhouse on the back nine, it’s as if you’re hitting right into the mouth of the canyon. Though appearing very tight on some tee boxes, the course is much more open and forgiving than you would expect for a course sitting on top of a lava field. As for dealing with the lava when building the course, Weiskopf saw it as a feature instead of a hindrance.

Said Ken Yates, Black Desert Resort’s superintendent, “The way they put the golf course all around the natural lava, it’s like it was meant to be there.” Creating the fairways by clearing the lava was one of the most difficult challenges the design team encountered. They had to dynamite every square inch of the routing, blasting away more than 100 acres of what would become turf. Then the routing was capped with three feet of sand, half a million cubic yards in total. It’s the depth of that sand capping that allows for such smooth fairways amid the lava, Smith said. The edges of each hole might be jagged, but the course itself is perfectly contoured. The sand also provides excellent drainage and the firm, bouncy conditions that are a hallmark of great courses.

Even though mountainous terrain surrounds the course, Black Desert plays relatively flat. With an elevation of 3,100 feet above sea level, golfers will get added distance off the tee. Some blind tee shots will also force players to take note of the proper sight lines during their pre-tournament practice rounds.

Last year, Black Desert averaged -1.94 per round and ranked as the sixth easiest course on Tour. “We certainly designed it to challenge the best players in the world,” Smith said, noting that yardage has been added to a few holes at the Tour’s request. “That’s something Tom and I did throughout our careers together. We always designed golf courses with that possibility in mind. Think about TPC Scottsdale (also designed by the pair), where one week of the year it’s got to challenge the best players in the world, but 99 percent of the time, it’s a resort course.”

It’s frequently risk versus reward throughout Black Desert. Challenge the lava at the edges to gain a strategic advantage, or tack safely around it. Said PGA veteran Zac Blair, “You might go to Arizona and hit it in the desert, and you can still find it and chip it out. Here, you’re not going to find it most of the time. Especially in the rocks. So I think it’s very unique, very different.”

The main risk/reward holes are a couple of par 5s, along with two driveable par 4s. The 320-yard 5th hole finishes at an elevated green protected by a bunker and numerous rock formations. The green of the 326-yard 14th hole sits in a bowl hidden behind a wall of lava rock on three sides. Layups on either hole can lead to chances at birdie, while the more aggressive players have the option of going for the green off the tee.

Weiskopf and fellow architect Phil Smith challenge golfers in creative ways—placing a bunker in the middle of the third green, a 196-yard par 3, and introducing water hazards on two of the longest par 4s, the 11th and 13th holes, to heighten shot-making demands. The par-5 7th winds through a compelling maze of black-rock formations. From the back tees, the par 3s range from 151 yards to 202. The 151-yard 17th is Weiskopf’s “spin-off” of the famous Postage Stamp par 3 (no. 8) at Royal Troon, where he won The Open Championship in 1973.

The course features short Kentucky bluegrass rough (2″) along with bentgrass fairways and greens. The greens are undulating and quite large at an average of 7,000 square feet with speeds around 12 on the stimpmeter. 

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Betting

A bit of a light week for me, but I would hate myself if I didn’t have some money on Rico Hoey when he wins. Also grabbed my favorite bomber/resort course destroyer, Mr. Potgieter. Noonan talked me into Michael Brennan on the podcast today. Once I found out he had won the Minnesota event on the PGA Americas tour, I was very sold.

Rico Hoey +2500
Aldrich Potgieter +5000
Michael Brennan +7500

Weather

Not looking too shabby. A little chilly to start the day, as it is in the desert, but mostly decent conditions if the winds stay calm. Sunday looks to be the worst of it, but that’s a ways away. Not a big sample of golf here, but we did see about a half-stroke difference for the AM groups last year on average. Not huge, but worth mentioning.

News and Notes

TGL is two months away! They’ve changed the green complex a bit, and we start the season out with an absolute BLOODFEUD. Two teams that hate each other’s guts, and a championship rematch to boot.

New York. Atlanta. December 28th.

And finally, the biggest news from the week. Good Good will host a new fall event next season. I’m not super familiar with their work, but it appears that the old guard hates them, but at the same time, begrudingly agrees that the logo (below) for the event is hot fire. More golf is good, I suppose.

As always, bet responsibly, have fun, and enjoy the Beehive State

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