The Punter

Black Desert Championship: 59/1 Patton the only pick in Utah

Golfer Patton Kizzire
Patton Kizzire in action at the Procore Championship

The PGA Tour stops off in Utah this week for the first time in 61 years with a brand-new event and our man has the lowdown ahead of Thursday's start here...

  • Birdie-fest expected at brand-new venue

  • Look to Texas and California for clues

  • Read my Open de France preview here


Tournament History

The PGA Tour's Fall Series stops off in Utah this week for the inaugural edition of the Black Desert Championship.

The 1963 Utah Open Invitational, won by Tommy Jacobs, was the last time the PGA Tour played a full-field event in Utah, but it's here to stay in the short term at least after an agreement was reached for the Black Desert Championship to run for at least four years.

The Black Desert Championship will be staged at the brand-new Tom Weiskopf-designed Black Desert Golf Course.


Venue

Black Desert Golf Course, Ivins, Utah


Course Details

Par 71, 7,371 yards

Having opened as recently as 2023, the Black Desert Golf Course was the last track designed by the late Tom Weiskopf, who was assisted by Phil Smith.

Black Desert is a long desert track with generous bentgrass fairways and large bentgrass greens but as it sits at altitude, the ball will fly further, and the course won't play quite as long as it's yardage suggests.

With the striking red rock cliffs of Greater Zion as a backdrop, the course is characterized by the presence of ancient basalt rock formations integrated into the landscape, creating a visually stunning contrast against the lush fairways.

As it's a resort course, Weiskopf and Smith, designed the track with playability in mind, so with most fairways between 70 and 100 yards wide the pros won't be under any sort of stress off the tee.

It's a traditional par 72 layout with four par fives and four par threes but as is often the case with a Weiskopf design, the course also features two drivable par 4s - the 5th and 14th holes.

Water is in play on just two holes and the pros really should being going low all week long.


Weather Forecast


TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 17:30 in the UK on Thursday.


A Barrage of Birdies Expected at the Black Desert Golf Course

Unless we get some significantly windy weather, it's hard to envisage anything but a birdie-fest at the Black Desert Golf Course.

With its extremely generous fairways, only the very wayward drives will be punished and the separation is highly likely to occur on the putting services.

Look to the stronger putters in the field and prioritise those that putt especially well on bentgrass.


Is There an Angle In?

There are a number of events staged in the desert on the PGA Tour, but the American Express tournament is the tournament most likely to correlate best.

Nick Dunlap won that event as an amateur back in January having amassed a score of 29-under-par and you generally need to get to at least 25-under to win there.

We're obviously in the dark this year but looking at the layout, I suspect 20-under-par and below will be needed here to figure.


Texas Track to Provide Clues

Weiskopf designed another desert layout, TPC Scottsdale, the home of the Phoenix Open, so that's another course to consider but I suspect this track with prove to be far easier than Scottsdale and another Weiskopf track, TPC Craig Ranch, which has hosted the last four editions of the Byron Nelson on the PGA Tour, may correlate better.

With generous fairways and bentgrass greens, the Texan track certainly has similarities to this course and low scores have been the norm there ever since the tournament moved there after the pandemic.

KH Lees won the first two editions there in 25 and 26 under-par, Jason Day was victorious two years ago in 23-under-par and Canada's Taylor Pendrith also reached 23-under back in May.


In-Play Tactics

Provided there's no significant draw bias, I suspect making up ground here will be tough if the course plays as easily as I suspect it will.

The four winners of the Byron Nelson at the aforementioned Craig Ranch were inside the top-seven places after round one and four of the last five winners of the American Express have been inside the top-six after the opening round, demonstrating perfectly just how hard it is to make up ground when the scoring is low.


Market Leaders

Having traded at as short as 1.330/100 to win last week's Sanderson Farms Championship, Keith Mitchell, heads the market here and he looks one to avoid.

He three-putted the 72nd hole on Sunday to miss out on the playoff and that was far from the first time that he'd struggled in-contention.

Seamus Power is another playing to give a wide berth two whenever he contends and, like Mitchell, the Irishman has just one previous title to his name.

Kurt Kitayama should like the venue but he's been out of action since missing the cut at the Wyndham Championship in August and the promising local, Patrick Fishburn, looks far too short at 30.029/1.


Patton the only pick in Utah

Patton Kizzire has plenty in his favour this week and he looked too big to me at 60.059/1.

In addition to finishing third at TPC Crag Ranch in 2021, Kizzire finished 11th in the American Express last year, 10th at TPC Scottsdale in 2022, and he also finished second in the Shriner's Children's Open back in 2015, at another desert layout - TPC Summerlin.

He looks highly likely to enjoy this week's venue and having finished a respectable 11th last week, three weeks after he won the Procore Championship by five strokes, he's difficult to ignore.

Kizzire won his second PGA Tour title, the Sony Open, shortly after he'd won his first. He did the same thing on the Korn Ferry Tour back in 2015, so it wouldn't be a shock to see him go in again.

Kizzire won the News Sentinel Open at the end of August nine years ago, having won the Utah Championship at the start of the month.

In-between his victories there he missed the cut and finished sixth and, in-between his first and second PGA Tour wins, he finished 45th and 15th.

He'll have some fond memories of Utah, having claimed his first victory as a pro here and he looks well worth chancing.


Now read my Open de France preview here


*You can follow me on Twitter @SteveThePunter


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