How pros are prepping for ‘insane’ lava-rock strewn, high-altitude course

PGA Tour pros are facing a lot of challenges at this week’s Black Desert Championship, which will be the tournament’s debut. From collecting FedEx points for next year, to trying to earn one last big payday, they have their hands full.
 
They also face an obstacle they aren’t used to: playing a new tournament course for the first time.
 
And it isn’t just any old parkland course. Black Desert Resort’s Tom Weiskopf-designed course looks unlike any other course played on Tour. The 18-holer is located in the Utah desert. Fairways and greens are lined with black lava rock, with red mesas surrounding the layout and the snow-covered Rockies looming in the distance.

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It’s also a high elevation course, coming in at around 3,000 feet.
 
All of these notable qualities about the course are forcing Tour pros to prepare differently than they usually would, as Patrick Fishburn and Zac Blair explained in their pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday.
 
Blair, who had never played Black Desert before this week despite being from Utah, first noted its stunning beauty.
 
“Obviously really pretty. The scenery out here is pretty insane. I think it’ll look amazing on TV and everything like that,” Blair shared. “Pretty interested to kind of see what the scores are like and what it plays like in tournament conditions.”

Fishburn explained the complications brought on by the course’s high altitude, which the Utah native has experience contending with after growing up in the state.
 
“Playing at altitude is definitely different for sure. I grew up in Ogden [Utah], playing Ogden Country Club, which is probably 4,000 feet elevation and we’re probably 3,000 here. The ball just does different things,” Fishburn said before noting another hurdle to consider: expected high temperatures. “With the heat this week, there is just a lot of different factors. If you’re maybe not used to that it’ll cause a few more calculations going on in the brain, which for me personally, less calculation is better.”

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Both players also explained that accuracy off the tee will be essential given the challenge presented by the lava rocks strewn everywhere you look on the course. Blair noted that it would likely keep many players from hitting driver off the tee, though not necessarily him due to his lack of distance.
 
“I don’t hit it very far so a lot of people have talked about not being able to hit a lot of drivers,” Blair joked. “I kind of felt like could hit a lot of drivers. I’m the shortest player on the tour, so…”

According to Blair, a shot into the rocks this week essentially equals a lost ball.

“I think just the way all the lava rock is and it’s not hazard, just kind of lost ball, it’s not really like anything else. So it’s kind of some places you might go and might be hazard or you might go to Arizona and hit it in the desert and you can still find it and chip it out,” Blair said. “Here, you’re not going to find it most of the time. Especially in the rocks. So I think it’s very unique, very different. People are all kind of seeing it and learning it for the first time.”

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He continued: “But there is plenty of room to play out there. It’s not like it’s super tight all over the place. They have given us plenty of space to hit driver or anything off the tee. Just got to keep it out of the rocks.”

But Fishburn did mention one advantage newer pros will have this week with everyone playing the course under tournament conditions for the first time, as opposed to most Tour courses that veterans have years of experience playing.

“Playing against guys that have been around these things for 10-, 15-plus years. You know, you try to make up what you can in a few days,” Fishburn said. “So this week coming, haven’t seen the course, played it a few times, feel like it will be a level playing field with that at least. Then playing in Utah, having the experience I do playing in Utah, just hopefully something that that helps me.”

Fans and players alike will get the first look at the tournament-ready Black Desert course when the first group tees off on Thursday at 9:40 a.m. ET.

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As managing producer for GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletters, which reach more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience.