Bank of Utah Championship: The Punter's Preview

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Bank of Utah Championship tournament history

The PGA Tour's Fall Series stops off in Utah this week for the third edition of the Bank of Utah Championship which was initially called the Black Desert Championship.

For the third year in-a-row, the Bank of Utah Championship is staged at the spectacular Tom Weiskopf-designed Black Desert Golf Course.

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Venue

Black Desert Golf Course, Ivins, Utah.

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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 flies further, and the course doesn't play quite as long as its 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 and it was at the 14^th that Matt McCarty put the inaugural edition to bed with an eagle two.

297 yards to 3 feet @MattMcCarty21 sticks it on the drivable par-4 14th @BDChampionship. pic.twitter.com/ZggL7fBHmn

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) October 13, 2024

Water is in play on just two holes and it's not a tough test.

Rounds of 62 were posted on Friday and Saturday last year and Adam Svensson shot an 11-under-par 60 on day one in 2024.

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Weather forecast 

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TV coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, starting at 16:00 in the UK on Thursday.

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First two event winners with pre-event Betfair Exchange prices

2024 - Matt McCarty -23 55.054/1
2025 - Michael Brennan -22 90.089/1

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A statistical look at the Bank of Utah Championship

Here's the stats for the top three and ties at the first two editions.

(Key: DD - Driving Distance; DA - Driving Accuracy; GIR - Greens in Regulation; SC - Scrambling; PA - Putting Average)

2024
Matt McCarty -23 - DD: 41, DA: 65, GIR: 26, SC: 21, PA: 2
Stepan Jaeger-20 - DD: 21, DA: 17, GIR: 4, SC: 7, PA: 30
Lucas Glover -19 - DD: 19, DA: 52, GIR: 1, SC: 21, PA: 38
Kevin Streelman -19 - DD: 25, DA: 1, GIR: 30, SC: 16, PA: 4

2025
Michael Brennan - 22 - DD: 2, DA: 9, GIR: 14, SC: 5, PA: 17
Rico Hoey -18 - DD: 18, DA: 22, GIR: 9, SC: 50, PA: 9
Pierceson Coody - 16 - DD: 11, DA: 3, GIR: 1, SC: 18, PA: 37
David Ford -16 - DD: 26, DA: 36, GIR: 19, SC: 23, PA: 4
Justin Lower -16 - DD: 56, DA: 16, GIR: 5, SC: 61, PA: 15
Matt McCarty -16 - DD: 33, DA: 49, GIR: 42, SC: 26, PA: 2
Thorbjorn Olesen -16 - DD: 35, DA: 42, GIR: 14, SC: 12, PA: 20
Ben Silverman -16 - DD: 41, DA: 36, GIR: 25, SC: 39, PA: 14

(Key: SG-T - Strokes Gained: Off the Tee; SG-A - Strokes Gained: Approach; SG-ATG - Strokes Gained: Around the Tee; SG-T2G - Strokes Gained: Tee to Green; SG-P - Strokes Gained: Putting)

2024
Matt McCarty -23 -  SG:T: 8, SG:A: 24, SG:ATG: 6, SG:T2G: 7, SG:P: 7
Stephan Jaeger - 20 -  SG:T: 28, SG:A: 17, SG:ATG: 3, SG:T2G: 6, SG:P: 18
Lucas Glover -19 - SG:T: 50, SG:A: 1, SG:ATG: 9-29, SG:T2G: 1, SG:P: 60
Kevin Streelman -19 - SG:T: 19, SG:A: 42, SG:ATG: 53, SG:T2G: 40, SG:P: 1

2025
Michael Brennan - 22 -  SG:T: 1, SG:A: 17, SG:ATG: 26, SG:T2G: 1, SG:P: 8
Rico Hoey -18 -  SG:T: 7, SG:A: 2, SG:ATG: 49, SG:T2G: 3, SG:P: 38
Pierceson Coody -16 - SG:T: 2, SG:A: 42, SG:ATG: 14, SG:T2G: 6, SG:P: 34
David Ford -16 - SG:T: 8, SG:A: 12, SG:ATG: 53, SG:T2G: 21, SG:P: 15
Justin Lower -16 - SG:T: 11, SG:A: 10, SG:ATG: 17, SG:T2G: 5, SG:P: 37
Matt McCarty -16 - SG:T: 18, SG:A: 47, SG:ATG: 45, SG:T2G: 36, SG:P: 1
Thorbjorn Olesen -16 - SG:T: 33, SG:A: 22, SG:ATG: 42, SG:T2G: 30, SG:P: 2
Ben Silverman -16 - SG:T: 10, SG:A: 30, SG:ATG: 55, SG:T2G: 25, SG:P: 5

The inaugural winner, McCarty, didn't rank brilliantly for either distance or accuracy off the tee but he ranked eighth for Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and last year's winner, Brennan, drove really nicely.

With such wide fairways, I'd favour length over accuracy here, but this is basically a birdie-fest so it's all about finding plenty of greens and holing putts.

The player to top the Greens in Regulations has finished third in both of the first two editions and Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green has been the most important metric over the first two years, but as demonstrated perfectly by Lucas Glover two years ago, when he ended the week in third place, you've still got to hole the putts to win.

Glover ranked first for GIR and Strokes Gained: Tee to Green so his elite tee-to-green game kept him in the hunt but, despite putting nicely on the front nine on Sunday, he ranked as lowly as 38^th for Putting Average and 60^th for SG: Putting. 

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Look to the new guys on Tour

The first two winners have had very similar profiles.

The inaugural event winner, McCarty, was playing in just his third PGA Tour event, having missed the cut at the 2022 US Open and having finished 63^rd at the Sanderson Farms Championship the week before his win here.

McCarty had been promoted to the PGA Tour after three wins in six weeks on the Korn Ferry Tour over the summer of 2024 and it was a comparable story with last year's victor.

Playing on a sponsor's invite, Brennan won exactly six weeks after he'd claimed a Three Victory Promotion to the Korn Ferry Tour following his third win of the season on PGA TOUR Americas.

Both men were priced at between 50/151.00 and 100/1101.00 and they could both be described as late- maturing pros.

McCarty was 26 and Brennan 23 so they weren't fresh out of college, but they were fairly new names to most golf fans.

It would be quite remarkable for lightening to strike a third time but someone riding a hot wave on the lessor Tours may well be inspired by the first two renewals.

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Courses to consider that should correlate nicely

The Phoenix Open may well be worth considering given it's staged at another Weiskopf designed desert track - TPC Scottsdale.

Form hasn't crossed over strongly yet, but Pierceson Coody has top 10 finishes at both venues and McCarty is a Scottsdale resident.

The American Express is another event staged in the desert where low scoring is essential so that's another event that should correlate nicely over time.

Scottsdale is a slightly tougher track than this one but two of the last three winners have got to double-digits under-par and the last ten winners of the American Express have reached between -20 and -29.

Another Weiskopf track, TPC Craig Ranch, has hosted the last six editions of the Byron Nelson on the PGA Tour, so that too should provide clues.

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 at TPC Craig Ranch in 25 and 26 under-par, Jason Day was victorious four years ago in 23-under-par, Canada's Taylor Pendrith also reached 23-under in 2024, Scottie Scheffler amassed a 31-under-par total there last year and this year's champ, Wyndham Clark, won with a 30-under-par score.

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Keep an eye on the weather

It's worth considering the forecast over the first two days as there was differential of more than two strokes between the two sides of the draw at the inaugural edition with the AM-PM wave averaging 2.21 less than the PM-AM side of the draw.

The advantage switched to the afternoon starters on day one last year with the PM-AM wave averaging almost a stroke less than the other side of the draw (0.93).

They're not massive differentials but on such an exposed layout, any significant changes in the weather could create quite a big advantage to one side of the draw.

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Winner's position and pre-final round Betfair Exchange price

2024 - Matt McCarty - leading by two 2.747/4
2025 - Michael Brennan - leading by two 2.588/5

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Concentrate on the early pacesetters

Low scoring events very often make it tough on the chasers, with everyone holing putts, and McCarty was inside the top five places all week in 2024.

Brennan sat tied 12^th after round one but he was only two off the lead, and he was tied at the top at halfway. McCarty had sat second at the midway point, but he was only one off the lead and both men led by two with 18 to play.

Making up ground in low scoring birdie-fests is really tough but we can't ignore Lucas Glover and Matti Schmid's nine-under-par 62s on Sunday two years ago which saw them end the week in tied third and fifth.

It had been a largely benign week, but the wind picked up on Sunday afternoon and that gave the early wave a squeak.

Having started the day seven strokes behind McCarty in a tie for 28^th, Glover was matched at a low of 13.525/2 as he sat in the clubhouse and Schmid had begun the final day eight off the lead in a tie for 36^th.

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