How do experts prepare for the ‘crazy’ method of lava-rock scattered in the desert

The PGA Tour pros face many challenges at this week’s inaugural Black Desert Championship. From collecting FedEx points for next year, to trying to win one last big day, they have their hands full.

They also face an unfamiliar obstacle: playing a new tournament course for the first time.

And it’s not just any old park course. The course designed for Tom Weiskopf’s Black Desert Resort looks like no 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 structure and the snow-capped Rockies looming in the distance.

It is also a high altitude course, going in at about 3,000 meters.

All of these remarkable qualities about the course force Tour pros to prepare differently than they usually do, 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 even though he is from Utah, first noted its incredible beauty.

“Obviously, he’s really good. The place out here is really crazy. I think it’s going to look amazing on TV and everything like that,” Blair said. “I like to see how the scores are and how they play in tournament situations.”

Fishburn described the problems brought on by the course’s high altitude, which the Utah native experienced after growing up in the state.

“Playing at a higher altitude is definitely different. I grew up in Ogden [Utah]plays the Ogden Country Club, which is probably 4,000 feet high and we’re about 3,000 here. “The ball just does different things,” Fishburn said before noting another obstacle to consider: expected temperatures. “As intense as this week is, there are just so many different things. If you’re probably not used to that it will create a few calculations going on in the brain, which for me personally, the less calculations the better.

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Both players also explained that accuracy off the tee will be important given the challenge presented by the lava rocks everywhere you look on the course. Blair noted that it may have prevented many players from hitting the driver, though not because of the lack of distance.

“I don’t hit very far so a lot of people have talked about not being able to hit a lot of drivers,” joked Blair. “I felt like I could hit a lot of drivers. I’m the shortest player on tour, so…”

According to Blair, shooting from the rocks this week is basically like a loose ball.

“I think lava rock is and isn’t dangerous, a loose ball, it’s not like anything else. So those are the kinds of places you can go and you can be dangerous or you can go to Arizona and crash it in the desert and you can still find it and get it out,” Blair said. “Here, you won’t get it much time. Especially on rocks. So I think it’s very, very different. People like to see and learn about it for the first time.”

He continued: “But there is a lot of room to play there. It’s not like it’s super tight all over the place. They gave us plenty of space to hit the driver with anything but tea. I just have to keep it off the rocks.”

But Fishburn said there is one advantage the new pros will have this week when everyone is playing the course under tournament conditions for the first time, unlike many of the tour courses veterans have been playing for years.

“Playing with guys who have been in this stuff for ten, 15 years and more. You know, you try to do what you can in a couple of days,” Fishburn said. “So this coming week, I haven’t seen the course yet, I’ve played it a few times, I feel like it’s going to be at least as good a field as that. Then I play in Utah, I have the experience that I do playing in Utah, I hope that something helps me.”

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

Kevin Cunningham

Golf.com Editor

As executive producer of GOLF.com, Cunningham edits, writes and publishes stories on GOLF.com, and manages the brand’s e-newsletter, which reaches more than 1.4 million subscribers each month. A two-time alumni, he also helps keep GOLF.com buzzing with breaking news and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the technology team to develop new products and new ways to deliver engagement. site to our audience.