Below, in this article on the “2024 Black Desert Championship Sunday tee times: Round 4 pairings,” are the 2024 Black Desert Championship Sunday tee times: Round 4 pairings for 69 golfers — but it is incomplete. One of the biggest players is not listed.
It’ll be there from the opening bell to the final whistle, though. It won’t hit a shot, but it will very likely strike golf balls.
We’re talking about the lava rocks that are strewn throughout Black Desert Resort, of course, and you can be sure as the course is scenic that they’ll be on the mind of everyone trying to take home the top prize. They earned screen time during Thursday’s first round, when Michael Kim twice hit into them on the 18th hole, before escaping trouble. They popped up again during Saturday’s third round, when players were forced to take penalty drops out of them, as their jaggedness made strokes impossible. Throughout the week, they’ve been a topic of concern.
Said Patrick Fishburn ahead of the tournament: “This is such a unique look and I’m not sure I’ve played another course with black rock all around it and the desert in the background.”
Said Zac Blair ahead of the tournament: “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. 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. 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.”
Said Nick Taylor ahead of the tournament: “The lava rock comes in a little tighter. Essentially I think a lot of guys are going to play the lava rock as out of bounds. Very few cases I think you’ll be able to take unplayable or I don’t think you’ll be able to play it very often.”
Said Harris English after the second round: “Yeah, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, especially with the black lava rock.”
Said Kevin Streelman after the third round: “You can’t get ahead of yourself. These lava rocks are so — you know, it’s just the end of the hole if you hit it in there.”
No doubt they’ll appear again during Sunday’s final round, where Matt McCarty will start with the lead, and Streelman, English, Jos Highsmith and Stephan Jaeger are tied for second, two shots back. Sunday’s TV coverage starts at 5 p.m. on Golf Channel.
