Black Desert Championship launches amid Utah's professional sports resurgence

Utah's influence in professional sports used to be limited to the hard court and soccer field, but this week the Jazz and Real Salt Lake are joined by a newly minted NHL team that won its debut game handily 5-2 against the Blackhawks, plus a PGA Tour hearing let's get started today.

The inaugural Black Desert Championship, the third chapter of the eighth FedExCup fall, is the first time the PGA Tour has come to Utah since 1963, when Tommy Jacobs defeated Don January by one stroke to clinch the State Open, which was then part of it was the circuit.

Golf fans can take a look at the 7,371-yard, par-71 Black Desert Resort Course, the centerpiece of a brand new $2 billion development in southern Utah that spans 630 acres. Tom Weiskopf's final design, with emerald green fairways set against black lava rock fields and red-hued cliffs, promises plenty of drama for tour players outside the top 50 vying for status on the top golf course.

Fall events carry the same weight as in-season competitions. Winners receive 500 FedExCup points, a two-year exemption, and also secure spots in the majors to which PGA Tour winners are invited, as well as participation in the Sentry Tournament of Champions and the Players Championship.

There are a number of native Utahns in the field, including Zac Blair, Patrick Fishburn and Jay Don Blake. If you include those with strong ties to the Beehive State, the number increases to nine. Other notables include Presidents Cup Internationals captain Mike Weir, who lives in Park City and attended Brigham Young University, where he was named WAC Player of the Year in his final season. Then there's 18-year-old phenom Kihei Akina, who received scholarship offers from a flood of top golf schools, including Oklahoma State, North Carolina and Arizona State, before deciding to commit to the BYU program.

“The landscape out here is pretty crazy. I think it will look great on TV and so on. I’m pretty excited to see what the results are and what it looks like under tournament conditions,” Blair said.

Ogden, Utah's Patrick Fishburn, 85^Th in the standings, hopes to improve its position in the priority list to increase its chances of playing in the 2025 FedExCup season. The 32-year-old rookie has four top-10 finishes this year, including a third-place finish at the Procore Championship last month.

“It was a lot better than where I started. It started really rocky. I didn't play well. “Obviously there's no net to fly here on the PGA Tour,” Fishburn said, adding that his game has improved with changes to his driver and putter equipment that have paid off and he's getting better at coping Feel more comfortable with firmer and faster greens on courses with more challenging setups.

“I've been playing pretty consistently lately and I'm enjoying playing at Utah State. Have a lot of experience playing at height. The dry desert air, a lot of factors that I’m just comfortable with, curved greens and things like that,” he added.

Jay Don Blake, born, raised and still a resident of St. George, is making his 500th PGA Tour start at the tournament today. The 65-year-old veteran's career highlight came in 1991, when Blake posted six top-10 finishes, including a leaderboard-leading performance at the Shearson Lehman Brothers Open. Blake was a rock-solid player throughout, finishing in the top 125 for an impressive 15 years.

While filming a documentary about his life, Blake learned that he had received a sponsorship exemption to participate in that week's tournament. As he and his wife stepped out of a golf cart after a morning of shooting, they were suddenly swarmed by 10 of his grandchildren. Then Patrick Manning, managing director of Reef Private Equity and Black Desert, appeared behind his family and presented him with a framed certificate, officially inviting him to take part in the championship.

“It was a very emotional, very proud moment to be a part of what's going to happen this week, to have my family there and all the support they've given me over the years,” Blake said, calling the gesture a “big surprise” and compare it to a dream come true.

“Since I play in 499 tournaments, it's been, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 years since I played in a PGA Tour event. I never thought I would make this 500th. I tried to get sponsor exemptions, I tried to qualify a few times but it just didn’t work out.”