Black Desert Resort: Golf in Ivins, Utah

St. George Regional Airport (SGU) is the closest airport, 20 miles from the resort's front gate, in the resort's own words. Black Desert Resort is seven miles from St. George, Utah, also stated by the resort itself. Las Vegas and Salt Lake City are the resort's named connecting airports; the resort states only drive times for each, not a mileage, so neither figure is published here. The resort's own Getting Here page gives no road numbers for the final approach — only map links — so none is stated here. Cvent's venue record for the resort, a directory listing rather than the operator's own page, gives Snow Canyon State Park as 1 mile away, Tuacahn Amphitheatre as 2 miles away, Kayenta Art Village as 4 miles away, Sand Hollow State Park as 19 miles away, Zion National Park as 39 miles away, and Bryce Canyon National Park as 131 miles away.

Black Desert Resort's golf course closes to all play from September 14 through October 6, 2026, while it hosts the PGA TOUR's Black Desert Championship and completes tournament preparations, per the resort's own 2026 Course Conditions table. Outside that window, the course is open to non-members: book by phone at 435-222-7830, or online. The resort's own FAQ answer reads, "Please call the Golf Shop 435-222-7830, or book your tee time online!" and links to Chronogolf, the resort's booking system. Chronogolf's own club record for Black Desert Resort carries a public booking window: "Public players can book up to 30 days in advance at this course." Staying on property is optional: the resort publishes a standing Non-Resort Guest rate alongside its Resort Guest rate, and the FAQ's booking instructions attach no lodging condition — staying on property changes only the price, not whether you can book. Chronogolf's booking system also restricts single-player online bookings, so a solo golfer should call the Golf Shop rather than count on booking online.

The PGA Tour describes the layout as "the par-72 Black Desert Golf Course was designed by Phil Smith and the late Tom Weiskopf"; Golf Digest independently credits Phil Smith, "Weiskopf's longtime design partner," with completing "the visually arresting design" after Weiskopf was diagnosed with cancer as construction began. It is Weiskopf's final design, completed by Smith. The course opened in 2023 — May 2023, per GolfPass. It plays to par 72 over 7,500 yards across 18 holes, plus what the operator calls "a bonus 19th hole for bet settling." The PGA TOUR's Black Desert Championship debuted here in the fall of 2024; the resort's own FAQ records that "the first edition was held in October 2024 and won by Matt McCarty." Golf Digest calls it "the first tour event in Utah in more than 60 years." An LPGA Black Desert Championship followed in May 2025.

Black Desert Resort's own rate table, current through January 1, 2027, publishes four dated 2026 bands. Resort Guest pays $250 from January 2 to March 12 and again from July 7 to September 3, and $325 from March 13 to July 6 and from September 4, 2026 to January 1, 2027. Non-Resort Guest pays $325 in the same two lower bands and $450 in the same two higher bands. For July 7 through September 3, the resort's own footnote states that the listed, lower summer rates apply to tee times from 10:15 a.m. through close, while tee times between 7:00 and 10:00 a.m. are charged at the higher peak-season rates. Rates include green fees, a golf cart, a forecaddie, and food and non-alcoholic beverages at Oasis and Club 73 while golfing, plus access to practice facilities and a keepsake; the resort's FAQ adds dedicated CADDIEMASTER forecaddies and carts capable of fifteen miles per hour. Beyond the rate table, the same 2026 Course Conditions calendar sets cart-path-only restrictions during spring aerification recovery from February 26 to March 12, limited tee access during PGA Tour preparations from August 1 to September 13, and closure to all play from September 14 to October 6 while the PGA TOUR event is played and torn down.

Black Desert Resort's on-property lodging is organized into named collections: Hotel Collection, Plume Wellness Collection, Resort Collection, The Terrace Collection, and The Cove Collection, the last of which the resort itself marks "Coming Soon." The resort's FAQ puts the total at "nearly 800 rooms and suites"; a Cvent venue record for the resort independently gives 791 guest rooms. The resort names seven restaurants in its own site navigation: Basalt ("Elevated Americana"), Latitude ("Baja-California Inspired"), 20th Hole ("Sports Bar"), Flo ("Meet in the Lobby"), Lava Love ("Coffee & More"), Oasis ("Southwestern Fare... A Mexican taqueria-inspired menu"), and Club 73 ("Open-Air Dining... backyard barbecue"). What the sources establish is that these rooms and restaurants exist and what they are named and described as; none of them says whether any given room or restaurant is serving this week, so this guide does not say so either.

The nearest other publicly accessible course to Black Desert is Red Hills Golf Course, at 645 W 1250 N in St. George — 4.4 road miles by OSRM routing, in Washington County, the same county as Black Desert, with the U.S. Census Bureau's geocoder returning Washington County and the Incorporated Place "St. George city" at the clubhouse point. Its name is split across the operator's own material and this guide records both forms: the City of St. George's web pages call the course Dixie Red Hills Golf Course, while the City's own booking system and its Adopted FY27 Master Fee Schedule both call it Red Hills Golf Course. Same course, same address, same telephone number, 435-627-4444.

The operator is the City of St. George, Parks and Community Services, Golf Division, which lists the course among its four City golf courses and describes it in its own words: "Dixie Red Hills Golf Course was the first golf course developed by the City of St. George in the mid 1960's," and "Dixie Red Hills is a 9-hole par-34 layout that meanders around the sandstone cliffs commonly seen in the area." The City's published booking policy is that all tee times must be reserved online and "will not be accepted by phone"; that tee times "can be made online 14 days in advance"; that a credit card number is required to make a reservation; and that cancellations and player reductions must be completed at least 24 hours in advance. There is no membership gate — the City's Loyalty Card is a discount programme for Washington County residents, not a condition of play — but the booking system's own settings do not allow single-player bookings, so a solo golfer cannot take a slot online. The tee sheet is genuinely public: read unauthenticated for September 6 and September 7, 2026, it reported the booking window open and released to the public, with 66 published tee times on each date and unbooked groups still available on both.

The City publishes a dated 2026 City of St. George Golf Division Maintenance Schedule, and for this course it closes the sheet twice. Fall Overseed runs September 9 to September 23, 2026, marked "Closed"; Fall Aerification is listed on September 9, also marked "Closed"; and Spring Aerification falls on April 27 and 28, closed on the 27th and open half a day on the 28th. The booking system bears the overseed closure out rather than merely repeating it: a reading of the tee sheet on September 6, 2026 returned no tee times at all for any date from September 8 through September 20, 2026, the end of the 14-day window, while two other City courses whose published overseed windows begin later returned full sheets of roughly sixty slots a date across the same period. One discrepancy is recorded rather than resolved: the sheet went empty from September 8, a day before the schedule's own published September 9 start. Beyond those dated windows the City publishes no season-of-play statement and no summer-hours notice for this course, so its openness is unverified rather than year-round.

No green fee is published here for this course. The golf division's fee table gives two columns, "October-May" and "June-September", with no year and no effective date attached to either, which does not meet this guide's rule that a published fee carry the operator's own dated qualifier.

Sand Hollow Resort: Championship Course, tenth on the same Golf Digest Utah list and also labelled "Public," was named as the day-two course here before any distance was measured. Nothing found about it is withdrawn: it is a genuinely public course in Hurricane, in the same Washington County, designed by John Fought and Andy Staples and opened in 2008, and its own booking page states that "Reservations may be made up to 180 days in advance," that a credit card is required, that cancellations and player reductions need at least 48 hours' notice, and that "Single players may book within 48 hours by calling the Pro Shop." It is simply farther: 25.1 road miles from Black Desert, against 4.4.