The rise of Greater Zion as a must-visit golf destination

BY Tony Dear • CG Editor

There are numerous walks, panoramas, and moments in golf that seem to transcend a silly stick and ball game. You get the feeling the Creator meant them for more than an idle pastime in which some of us indulge and ultimately become obsessed with.

We’re not complaining, of course. As some of those obsessed golfers, we get to experience places like the 7th at Pebble Beach or 4th at Banff Springs. And if you need to buy a set of golf clubs, a bag, a few balls, a green fee, and a seat on a cart to see the 12th at Sand Hollow in southern Utah, then so be it.

You might get your first view of this extraordinary hole from the green at the 11th, a superb par 3 with a steep runoff to the right and a massive bunker lying in wait for anything slightly under hit. You’ll be forgiven for not immediately recognizing how good a hole the 11th is, though. It might not be until much later in the day when you’re sitting down to a cold drink and sandwich at the Grille, in fact, before you can appreciate its quality.

That’s because by the time you reach the green at 11, all you’re really thinking about is 12. Whether it’s your maiden voyage or ninth trip around Sand Hollow, you’ll need a moment or two to collect yourself before pulling the driver from your bag and teeing your ball up. The emerald fairway at this 443-yard hole stretches out in front of you, rising steadily to the green. On the right, red sandstone cliffs frame the hole, on the left a 100-foot sheer drop and then a wide valley extending north and west towards the Red Cliffs National Conservation Area and Signal Peak.

It is breathtaking, awe-inspiring and, perhaps, a little overwhelming. You leave the green thinking that is surely all the natural splendor any golf course should reasonably be allowed … and then you play the 13th, a short par 4 with the same cliffs and valley, and which can be driven with a well-struck drive.

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Whether it’s your maiden voyage or ninth trip around Sand Hollow, you’ll need a moment or two to collect yourself before pulling the driver from your bag and teeing your ball up.

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The 14th slants northeast away from the valley and is another great hole without causing quite the same level of head shaking and double taking as the two before it, and you assume the drama is over. And then you play the 15th.

This 230-yard par 3 begins on a tee surrounded by red rocks and travels over a chasm to a diagonally oriented green with bunkers short and long. It’s another mesmerizing hole where you’ll take more photographic shots than golf shots (hopefully), and which you’ll be talking about all the way back to Seattle.

Forgive us for taking up half a feature about a 14-course destination with a review of just four holes. You do get carried away thinking about them and, once you see them for yourself, you’ll understand the hype. But you mustn’t ignore what else this amazing place has to offer.

Actually, there’s no fear of that happening because Sand Hollow isn’t even the first course most people think of now when the conversation moves to the possibility of taking a St. George/Greater Zion golf trip.

A city of about 95,000 people on the northeastern most part of the Mojave Desert and the county seat of Washington County, St. George began the 21st century with a handful of really good public golf courses. Since Sand Hollow opened in 2008, and especially over the last five years, however, it has really turned up the heat, going from a golf trip worthy of consideration to a must-visit. Yes, must-visit. It will probably never reach a Bandon Dunes or Monterey Peninsula level of ‘must’, but its credentials are now very strong.

In 2020, the excellent Dale Beddo-designed Copper Rock opened about five miles east of Sand Hollow on similarly sandy, rocky, arid ground that has hosted the Epson Tour since 2021. A couple of years after Copper Rock opened, the 26-year-old, Johnny Miller-designed Entrada at Snow Canyon reopened following a redesign by David McLay Kidd (stay and play as a guest of the Inn at Entrada) that turned a once demanding and fairly one-dimensional test into a far more enjoyable challenge. Its memorable holes come midway through the back nine as the routing enters the southeast corner of the same black lava field that gives what is now the area’s best-known course its most recognizable feature.

Since the Tom Weiskopf-designed Black Desert (part of the $1 Billion Black Desert Resort) opened in 2023, it has hosted both the PGA and LPGA Tours and fastearned a reputation for being an extremely enjoyable, as well as extremely attractive, course. With lush green fairways winding between the black lava rocks and huge white sand bunkers, and with the red mountains looming in the background, the overall effect is both eye-catching and a little surreal.

While the four courses already mentioned will be plenty of golf for most itineraries, there are several other courses worth visiting if you can spare the time. Keith Foster’s Coral Canyon has been a St. George-area favorite since opening 25 years ago. Matt Dye’s The Ledges has vistas you won’t soon forget. Gene Bates’s Green Spring has a few frankly unbelievable holes. Bloomington opened in 1969 and is an old charmer, and the nine-hole Dixie Red Hills, the oldest course in town at age 60, never fails to fill an otherwise empty evening with an entertaining loop.

Then there are the five ‘S’s — SunRiver, Sunbrook, Southgate, St. George, and Sky Mountain. The latter was designed by Jeff Hardin, opened in 1994, and whose remarkable front nine and last couple of holes offer amazing views across the Virgin River Valley and north to the Pine Valley Mountains.

That’s a lot of great golf for one trip. Argh, make it two.

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Greater Zion Golf Courses

• Black Desert Resort

• Copper Rock

• Coral Canyon

• Entrada

• Green Spring

• Sand Hollow

• Sky Mountain

• Southgate

• St. George

• SunRiver

• Sunbrook

• The Ledges

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