Black Desert Golf Course: A Visual Surprise in Rocky Terrain of Utah

When it was suggested to Patrick Manning, not related to the football Mannings, that he look at some land in Utah, he decided to visit. Manning, managing director of Reef Private Equity and developer of 100 resorts, to his surprise, was moved.    

“Somebody told me I should go check out Entrada at Snow Canyon, which is next door to us,” Manning said on The Golf Show 2.0. “This land at one time was part of the Entrada project, but what they meant was the Black Desert.”

What that meant was black lava in the west, a striking, dramatic and unexpected change in terrain.

Manning recalled that he and his wife were standing in the location of the resort center when he said to her, “I am suffocating under the pressure of the overwhelming feeling that we're supposed to sell everything and move here. This is where we're supposed to be.”

She wondered why, and he didn’t have an answer. But in front of him was a landscape he had never seen before with a vista of lava and massive red rock outcroppings surrounded by mountains and plateaus. He didn't know it at the time, but there was a meeting of the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Plateau, and the Great Basin joining together right in front of him. 

He and his wife sold everything in Florida and moved west.

“Tom Weiskopf’s architect, Phil Smith, I think he said it great,” Manning added. “He said Kona meets Sedona. It's gonna be a monster.”

Black Desert is 19 holes, but naturally, only 18 will be used in the PGA Tour event.

However, the resort is currently 700 acres which might be sufficient for at least three courses, depending on the amount of rock outcroppings and their locations. The lava poses problems.

“It’s pretty much stroke and distance every time you hit it into the lava,” Mark Rolfing said on Golf Central. As a Hawaii resident, Rolfing knows lava. You can’t mess with it.

However, Manning said he came upon some golfers who were playing the course and kept yelling “Lava Love.” He asked for an explanation.    

“I went over to somebody and said what is lava love, I don't even know, and they said when your ball’s heading toward the lava everybody yells lava love. You get a favorable bounce,” he explained.

Well, they hope for a favorable bounce.

“I was in the lava. It's just like it went in the lake,” Manning noted.  But he had a brainstorm. “It's going to be the name of our coffee shop in the lobby!”

Now, Manning is the first to admit that it was a long shot to get a PGA Tour event. It was a process.  First, he got the LPGA to sanction an event by equaling the biggest purse they’ve ever had plus paying for private jet travel from the Chevron.

“We are sending eight jets to Houston to pick up all the field and a plus one and flying them all here privately on us, and then they'll stay at the resort for free, and we will take really, really good care of them,” he promised.

He also promised a purse announcement that will be larger than any non-major. Manning insists he is pro-female. In fact, when he heard about how much less the women got than the men got, he became ridiculously pro-female.

“So, we're really looking forward to really rolling out the red carpet and showing the women that they're loved and appreciated,” he insisted. 

Then with that nailed down, he started talking to the PGA Tour, which usually requires a great introduction, which he didn’t have. They told him no three times. But Manning kept at it until they agreed to visit the course.

They walked it for several hours, and the grass wasn’t even grown in yet.  

“When we got to the 18th green, Steve Wenzloff, VP Design Services of the PGA Tour, announced that we were going to receive one (tournament ) by saying, ‘You know Patrick, there are spectacular golf courses on the PGA Tour, and there are epic holes but nothing will pop on national television like this one will.’"

So, as you enjoy the Black Desert Championship, check the flights and figure out a way to make a trip to Ivins, Utah.