Charley Hull got off the charter flight from Texas to St. George, Utah, and felt like she’d landed on Mars.
“The views are unbelievable,” gushed Hull, who took in a 3 ½-hour hike early week, taking plenty of photos.
The inaugural Black Desert Championship features 17 of the top 25 players in the world. Hull, one of the resort’s ambassadors and a noted fitness junkie, called the resort’s gym phenomenal. Players are staying onsite at the resort, making it already one of the easiest and most enjoyable stops on tour before they even hit a shot.
“You gotta be very precise of the tee, obviously,” said Hull of the course, which opened in 2023. “The fairways aren’t super tight, but once you miss the fairway, it’s pretty much you’re in the black rock. It’s not super long, so it’s kind of shortish, but you’ve got to be picky with what clubs you need off the tee. I think I’ve only hit like about four drivers out there. It’s a lot of rescue woods, 3-woods 4-irons and stuff like that, but it’s a good challenge of a golf course, especially if the wind gets up.”
Hull missed the cut last week at the Chevron Championship but felt like she wasn’t far off, noting that she struggled with driver in the opening round. On Friday, Hull told her caddie on the 17th tee that if she could finish birdie, eagle she’d make the cut. She nearly aced the 17th, with the ball finishing 6 feet from the pin. She missed the putt and moved on to the par-5 18th, where her caddie asked how she’d like to lay up.
“I was like listen, we got 250 to the pin,” said Hull. “I know it’s getting dark now, but if I hole this shot with my 3-wood, I said, we’re making the cut. I don’t know if you’ve seen the shot, it like lipped ’round the hole for albatross. It’s not over until the fat lady sings, and that was a classic example.”
Five of the nine winners on tour year are in the field, including last week’s champion, Mao Saigo, who outlasted four players in the largest playoff in LPGA major championship history. Saigo enjoyed a champion’s dinner in the clubhouse at The Club at Carlton Woods before heading over to Utah on the charter flight.
“I can’t still believe that I won a major tournament,” said Saigo through an interpreter. “Very, very happy, but at the same time, I’m in a different tournament, new tournament this week and trying to switch my mentality for the week.”
Last October, the PGA Tour hosted its own Black Desert Championship, won by Matt McCarty. It’s the only course in the country that hosts both tours.
For England’s Hull, the LPGA’s first stop in Utah since 1964 suits her style.
“I’m very much an outdoorsy kind of person,” said Hull. “I’m not really a city girl, never have been; never will be. I just love being outdoors, and this is fantastic.”
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