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Spearheaded by the real-estate investment company Reef Capital Partners, Black Desert Resort will soon be a city unto itself, featuring a convention center, hotels and condominiums, several restaurants, and potentially a sports arena. For the time being, however, much of the activity at this southwestern Utah destination centers on a golf course. Designed by 1973 Open champion and prolific architect Tom Weiskopf, this 18-hole, 7,417-yard course unfurls across a field of jet-black lava. In late 2020, as the design process got underway, Weiskopf was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He was able to finish plans for the course before his illness worsened, but his longtime design partner Phil Smith shouldered most of the on-site duties. Weiskopf passed away in August 2022, four months before construction in Utah wrapped up, making Black Desert his final design.

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Take Note…

Eager host. Black Desert’s owners moved quickly to get the course TV exposure, striking multi-year deals in 2023 with both the PGA Tour and the LPGA Tour. This week’s Black Desert Championship is the first PGA Tour event that the resort has hosted, and an LPGA tournament, yet to be named, is on the schedule for next spring.

The robot apocalypse commences. In the four weeks leading up to the Black Desert Championship, the resort used a fleet of four autonomous mowers to maintain the course’s 60 acres of fairway. This, according to Golfdom, marks the first time autonomous mowing has been used in preparation for a professional golf tournament. Humans beware.

Cartball. As far as I know, Black Desert doesn’t have a rule against walking, but it might as well. The design of the course presumes that every single player will ride in a cart. My Fried Egg Golf colleague Matt Rouches recently measured some of the green-to-tee transitions on Google Earth: 235 yards from the third green to the fourth tee, 270 yards from the seventh green to the eighth tee, 250 yards from the 13th green to the 14th tee, 270 yards from the 14th green to the 15th tee, 218 yards from the 15th green to the 16th tee. Yeesh.

Long, awkward transitions like the one to and from the 14th hole (left) make Black Desert all but unwalkable

Coda. At the top of this piece, I called Black Desert an “18-hole” course. That’s not quite accurate. The course does have an official 19th hole, an 85-yard par 3 near the ninth green. It wasn’t open when Matt and I played the course earlier this year, but it appeared nearly finished.

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