Black Desert Championship Tees Off Amid Utah’s Pro Sports Surge

Utah’s professional sport clout used to be confined to the hardcourt and the soccer pitch, but joining the Jazz and Real Salt Lake this week is a freshly minted NHL team that won their debut game in style 5-2 against the Blackhawks, plus a PGA Tour stop that tees off today.

The inaugural Black Desert Championship, the third chapter of the eight FedExCup Fall, is the first time the PGA Tour has rolled into Utah since 1963 when Tommy Jacobs beat out Don January by a stroke to take the state open, which at the time was part of the circuit.

Golf fans will get to take a gander at the par 71, 7,371-yard Black Desert Resort Course, the centerpiece of a brand new $2 billion project in Southern Utah spanning 630 acres. Tom Weiskopf’s final design, with emerald green fairways set against black lava rock fields and red-hued cliffs, promises plenty of drama for tour players outside the top 50 as they jockey for status on golf’s top circuit.

Fall events carry the same weight as in-season contests. Winners earn 500 FedExCup points, a two-year exemption, and in addition, secure spots in the majors that invite PGA Tour winners, as well as entry into the Sentry Tournament of Champions and The Players Championship.

There are quite a few native Utahns in the field including Zac Blair, Patrick Fishburn and Jay Don Blake. When you include those with strong ties to the Beehive State, the contingent swells to nine. Other notables include Presidents Cup Internationals captain Mike Weir who lives in Park City and attended Brigham Young University where he won WAC Player of the Year in his senior season. Then there’s 18-year-old phenom Kihei Akina, who received scholarship offers from a flood of top tier golf schools, including Oklahoma State, North Carolina and Arizona State before deciding to commit to BYU’s program.

“The scenery out here is pretty insane. I think it’ll look amazing on TV and everything like that. Pretty interested to kind of see what the scores are like and what it plays like in tournament conditions,” Blair said.

Ogden, Utah’s Patrick Fishburn, 85^th in the standings, is hoping to improve his position in priority rankings to increase playing ops in the 2025 FedExCup Season. The 32-year-old rookie has had four top 10 finishes this year including a third place showing at the Procore Championship last month.

“It’s been a lot better than where I started. Started off really rough. I was not playing good. Of course, there is no net to flight out here on the PGA Tour,” Fishburn said, adding that his play improved with equipment changes to his driver and putter paying off in tandem with him becoming more comfortable tackling courses with more challenging set ups and firmer and faster greens.

“Lately I’ve been playing pretty consistent and I like playing in the state of Utah. Got a lot of experience playing at altitude. The dry desert air, a lot of factors I just feel comfortable with, bent greens and things like that,” he added.

Jay Don Blake, born, raised and still residing in St. George, marks his 500th PGA Tour start today at the tournament. The 65-year-old veteran’s career high point came in 1991 when Blake earned six top-10 finishes, including a leaderboard topping performance at the Shearson Lehman Brothers Open. A consistently rock solid player, Blake ranked in the top 125 for an impressive 15-year stretch.

Blake learned he’d received a sponsor exemption to play in this week’s tournament during the filming of documentary short about his life. As he and his wife stepped out of a golf cart following a morning of shooting, they were suddenly swarmed by ten of his grandchildren. Patrick Manning, managing director of Reef Private Equity and Black Desert, then appeared from behind his family and presented him with a framed certificate, officially inviting him to compete in the championship.

“It was a very emotional, very proud moment to be part of what’s going to take place this week, to have my family be part of that and all the support they’ve given me throughout the years,” Blake said, calling the gesture a “big surprise” and likening it to a dream come true.

“Being at 499 tournaments, it’s been, I don’t know, 12, 13, 14 years since I’ve played a PGA Tour event. I never thought I’d make that 500th. I’ve tried to get sponsor exemptions, I’ve tried to qualify a few times and it just hasn’t worked out.”