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Even though much remains uncertain, details about the PGA Tour's 2024 schedule continue to trickle out.
The latest announcement: a brand-new event, to take place in the fall, at a golf course that opened less than a month ago.
Black Desert Resort, home to the final design in the long and rich life and career of major champion, broadcaster and architect Tom Weiskopf, will be the venue for the first Tour event played in the Beehive state in 61 years. The last time top-flight professional golf came to Utah was the Utah Open Invitational, played in 1958, 1960 and 1963. While the Korn Ferry Tour has played at Thanksgiving Point, near Salt Lake City, for several years, Black Desert brings the sport of golf to the extreme southwest corner of the state near the city of St. George, with Mesquite, Nev., just an hour away and Las Vegas less than two hours southwest of the resort.
The golf course and resort derive their name from the expansive lava fields in which both have been built. Weiskopf, along with associate Phil Smith, carved 18 holes, plus a 19th "bye"-hole, through breathtaking scenery less than an hour from Zion National Park. At 7,200 yards from the back tees, the course will be relatively short by modern standards, especially at St. George's elevation of 2,700 feet. With sharp, jagged lava rocks lining several holes, one wonders what the on-site fan capacity for the event will be. Either way, the full-field event figures to be eye-catching to watch on TV.
The environment is reminiscent of that found at the nearby Inn at Entrada and Entrada at Snow Canyon Country Club, which plays through lava fields along its back nine. Like Entrada, Black Desert will be a private club that makes tee times available to guests of the on-site, 148-room luxury resort, which is scheduled to open around the same time as the inaugural Black Desert Championship. For now, visitors can make tee times; green fees to play the brand-new course are $250.
Black Desert touts an upscale golf experience. GPS golf carts zoom across the turf at up to 15 miles per hour, with course tips from Tom Weiskopf himself available through the in-cart speaker system. Tee times are spaced a gaudy 15 minutes apart. There is also an expansive practice facility that includes a 36-hole, two-acre putting course.
"This track is now undoubtedly the premiere course in the St George area and arguably tops in the St George, Mesquite region," reads a GolfPass review from a golfer who played Black Desert the day after it opened. "Tom Weiskopf did a wonderful job working with the natural terrain to produce a course that flows beautifully through the area lava fields with the beautiful Kayenta sandstone as a backdrop."
In addition to the PGA Tour event, which is contracted for four years, the course will also host an LPGA event in 2025.
More golf course news and notes
NICKLAUS DESIGN IN THE METAVERSE - Want to play golf without going anywhere? That's the idea behind a new private club in virtual space. "No more than 300 membership tokens will be minted for this high-end golf club experience—a level of exclusivity on par with some of the most prestigious golf communities in the world," reads the release. [LINK: The Golf Wire]
10 COURSES VANDALIZED - A group of climate activists called Extinction Rebellion dug up parts of 10 golf courses in drought-stricken Spain, planting vegetable seedlings on putting greens in order to protest the amount of water the game uses. [LINK: The Guardian]
NEW NAME FOR OVERHAULED MUNI - Bill Bergin's total rebuild of the former Indian Pines Golf Course shared by the Alabama cities of Auburn and Opelika will reopen as Pines Crossing this fall.
COLLEGE COURSE CLOSING - The University of South Florida, whose past golfers include Joaquin Niemann, is closing its golf course, called The Claw, come September. University president Rhea Law cited annual losses of some $200,000 as a reason for the closure. [LINK: WUSF Public Media]
GOLF-ADJACENT - Got a spare $26.2 million lying around? You could buy this Vermont mansion with its own 9-holer beside Lake Champlain. [LINK: The Wall Street Journal]
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