Black Desert Championship:
Taiwan’s Kevin Yu, a 100-1 pre-tournament price, earned his first PGA Tour victory Sunday at the Sanderson Farms Championship in a playoff over Beau Hossler.
Yu drained a 15-foot birdie on the 72nd hole, ahead of the leaders to get to the clubhouse at 23 under. Those leaders were Hossler and Keith Mitchell. Hossler got up and down from 131 yards for par to force a playoff. Meanwhile, Mitchell ran his 30-foot birdie attempt four feet past and then missed the comeback putt to fall a shot short of the playoff. This was the second 54-hole lead that Mitchell failed to convert this season (2024 Valspar Championship).
This maiden victory earns Yu spots in the Masters, PGA Championship and The Sentry for the first time in his career.
For the upcoming week, the PGA Tour heads to Utah for the first time in 61 years (1963 Utah Open Invitational) to play an inaugural Black Desert Championship. The Korn Ferry Tour has been coming to the Beehive State since 1990.
Mitchell (18-1) looks for redemption from his poor finish last weekend in missing the playoff as does Hossler (28-1), whose failure to hit fairways cost him his potential first PGA Tour victory as well.
At 28-1 are Seamus Power, 11th last week at the Sanderson Farms, and Kurt Kitayama, who played collegiately at UNLV just two hours west of St. George, Utah.
Chris Kirk (30-1) and Lucas Glover (40-1), T-3 last week, are the only OWGR Top 50 players in this field.
There is plenty of Utah representation in the field this week as well, including BYU alums Patrick Fishburn (35-1), Zac Blair (75-1), Peter Kuest (250-1) and Mike Weir (1000-1).
The Field
132 players will be competing for a $7.5 million purse with a $1.35 million first-place prize.
The full field list is here.
The Course
The Black Desert Resort is a brand-new facility in Ivins, Utah. Set 120 miles northeast of Las Vegas near St. George, Ivins sits 3,100 feet above sea level and is part of the Greater Zion region. Black Desert was Tom Weiskopf’s (along with design partner Phil Smith) 93rd and final golf course design before his death in 2022. Black Desert Resort is owned by Reef Capital Partners, which is bringing the PGA Tour to the resort for the next four years, plus the LPGA early in 2025.
The course is a par-71 layout that measures 7,371 yards. It is sculpted through a lava field and the exposed course is framed by striking black lava rock islands and a few large white sand bunkers.
Black Desert plays at 3,100 feet of elevation and there are some moderate elevation changes throughout the course, which occasionally creates blind shots off the tee. While the fairways are very generous, bunkers and rock formations do encroach on the landing areas, however there is little Kentucky Bluegrass rough (two inches).
The Bentgrass greens are firm and undulating but are also large (7,000 square feet) and will play at an average of 12 on the stimpmeter this week.
Water comes into play only on three holes. The three par-5s are all reachable in two and there is a drivable par-4 on each nine – the 320-yard fifth and the 322-yard 14th. However, there are three 500+ yard par-4s on the back nine.
There is a hole-by-hole flyover playlist on YouTube.
Comparable courses include TPC Scottsdale and TPC Craig Ranch (both Weiskopf designs), El Cardonal at Diamante, Vidanta Vallarta, Summit Club, and Shadow Creek and TPC Summerlin (the latter three all Vegas courses not too far from Black Desert Resort).
Statistical Analysis
Any type of extensive modeling is likely a fool’s errand considering we have no data pertaining to this course. However, there are a few statistical categories we can examine that will likely have some importance here.
With two drivable par-4s and three reachable par-5s, driving should matter here a greater deal.
Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee — Average Per Round (2024 PGA Tour season)
- Cameron Champ 0.935
- Kevin Dougherty 0.793
- Keith Mitchell 0.704
- Patrick Fishburn 0.632
- Rico Hoey 0.563
- Kurt Kitayama 0.420
- Alejandro Tosti 0.411
- Hayden Springer 0.378
- Erik van Rooyen 0.375
- Carson Young 0.355
- Daniel Berger 0.354
- Doug Ghim 0.332
- Alex Smalley 0.325
- Stephan Jaeger 0.316
Average Driving Distance (2024 PGA Tour season)
- Cameron Champ 321.1
- Kevin Dougherty 316.7
- Alejandro Tosti 313.0
- Hayden Springer 312.8
- Paul Barjon 312.5
- Keith Mitchell 311.4
- Pierceson Coody 310.6
- Wilson Furr 310.3
- Joseph Bramlett 310.2
- Carl Yuan 310.2
- Rico Hoey 309.8
- Stephan Jaeger 308.9
- Callum Tarren 308.8
- Patrick Fishburn 308.5
As mentioned above, players must take advantage of the scoreable holes, particularly the par-5s.
Strokes Gained: Par-5s (Last 36 rounds)
- Hayden Springer 19.1
- Patrick Fishburn 18.4
- SH Kim 18.1
- Callum Tarren 15.5
- Seamus Power 14.3
- J.J. Spaun 12.7
- Joe Highsmith 11.1
- Harry Hall 9.7
- Austin Smotherman 9.6
- Adam Svensson 9.2
- Joseph Bramlett 9.1
- Kevin Chappell 8.7
- Beau Hossler 8.7
- Chesson Hadley 8.3
- Paul Barjon 8
The greens are 7,000 square feet on average and have plenty of undulations. So they are easy to reach, but the approach is still highly important to get it close and on the proper level.
Strokes Gained: Approach — Average Per Round (2024 PGA Tour season)
- Keith Mitchell 0.688
- Doug Ghim 0.662
- Lucas Glover 0.571
- Patton Kizzire 0.532
- Chez Reavie 0.522
- Andrew Novak 0.492
- Henrik Norlander 0.465
- J.J. Spaun 0.465
- Greyson Sigg 0.450
- Ryan Moore 0.431
- David Skinns 0.423
- Mac Meissner 0.376
- Chan Kim 0.365
- Kurt Kitayama 0.365
- Joel Dahmen 0.353
The greens at Black Desert are 100% bentgrass.
Strokes Gained: Bentgrass Putting — Average Per Round (Last 36 rounds)
- Dylan Wu 0.74
- Harris English 0.62
- Chandler Phillips 0.62 (18 rounds)
- Aaron Baddeley 0.60
- Harry Hall 0.55
- Patrick Fishburn 0.49 (20 rounds)
- Justin Lower 0.47
- Seung-yul Noh 0.47
- Taylor Montgomery 0.43
- Martin Laird 0.40
- David Skinns 0.39
- Justin Suh 0.38
- Andrew Novak 0.36
- SH Kim 0.36
- Beau Hossler 0.33
- Kevin Tway 0.33
- Roger Sloan 0.32
Selections
Patrick Fishburn (35-1, FanDuel)
With no Tony Finau in the field, Fishburn is the best Utah native player teeing it up this week. That can come with added pressure, but Fishburn looks up to the task.
His best performance of the season came at altitude, finishing third at the Barracuda earlier this summer, and he had another recent finish of third at the Procore four weeks ago.
He was also the runner-up at the Korn Ferry Tour’s Utah Championship in 2022, so he is capable of performing in front of the home fans.
Andrew Novak (40-1, BetRivers)
Novak has four top-10 finishes this season on the PGA Tour, including a T-8 in the Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale (Weiskopf design).
He has made seven cuts in a row and finished inside the top 25 in five of those starts.
Novak also has good course form on correlated courses/events having finished eighth at the Utah Championship and also eighth and 15th at the Mexico Open played at Vidanta Vallarta.
Daniel Berger (50-1, DraftKings)
A former top-20 player in the world, Berger has been on the comeback trail since returning from an 18-month layoff because of a back injury.
Last week at the Sanderson Farms, he posted his first top-10 since starting his return at the beginning of 2024. A 71 on Saturday prevented him from being there at the end to win, but perhaps that is just not being used to being in contention for a long time. Now he says he is 100% healthy.
Berger also has four top-11 finishes at Weiskopf-designed TPC Scottsdale, so he is capable of contention here and he led the field last week for Strokes Gained: Off-The-Tee.
Alex Smalley (50-1, BetRivers)
Smalley closed with the best round of day on Sunday, shooting 63 to finish T-5 last week at the Sanderson Farms.
He ranked fourth in the field last week for Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (Off-The-Tee + Approach).
Ben Kohles (80-1, FanDuel)
Kohles finished runner-up earlier this year at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson held at Weiskopf-designed TPC Craig Ranch in an event he should have won but made a mess of 18 to lose by one stroke.
While only finishing 16th last week at the Sanderson Farms, Kohles was third in the field with 23 birdies, which should translate to a resort course like Black Desert.
KH Lee (90-1, FanDuel)
Lee won the CJ Cup Byron Nelson back-to-back in 2021 and 2022 at the Weiskopf-designed TPC Craig Ranch.
He also finished second in the 2021 Waste Management Phoenix Open held at TPC Scottsdale, another Weiskopf design and was seventh at TPC Summerlin last year.
Ryo Hisatsune (120-1, FanDuel)
Hisatsune is the defending champion of the Open de France, yet he will not be defending because he is in Utah this week.
He missed the cut last week at the Sanderson Farms but was top 6 for Strokes Gained: Ball Striking through two rounds. He finished T-13 at this year’s CJ Cup Byron Nelson, played at TPC Craig Ranch, plus shot a 65 at Torrey Pines North (another Weiskopf design) earlier this season.
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