Bank of Utah Championship Preview: FedExCup Fall Heats Up in Southern Utah

The PGA TOUR's FedExCup Fall hits its midpoint at one of golf's most visually arresting venues. Black Desert Resort Golf Course in Ivins, Utah hosts the Bank of Utah Championship beginning Thursday, October 23rd. All 132 players in the field know what happened here last year: scoring in bunches on a course that surrendered birdies like few others.

Three tournaments remain after this week. Every shot matters more. The $6 million purse and 500 FedExCup points are significant, but the real stakes are about survival and opportunity. Players ranked 91-110 in the FedExCup Fall standings need to crack the top 100 to secure exempt status for the 2026 season. Those positioned 51-60 are fighting for spots in the Aon Next 10, which unlocks early-season access to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and The Genesis Invitational.

The Event

This is stop four of seven FedExCup Fall events. One last chance to cement your position before the calendar flips. The field includes five of the top 50 players in the Official World Golf Ranking: Alex Noren (No. 17), Maverick McNealy (No. 19), Kurt Kitayama (No. 36), Billy Horschel (No. 38), and Jason Day (No. 42).

Seven players in the field have already won on TOUR this season. Several others are scrambling to find the form that will carry them into 2026. The tournament features strong local representation, with eight players holding ties to Utah and four unrestricted sponsor exemptions going to regional talent. Preston Summerhays, a two-time Utah Amateur champion who turned pro after his Arizona State career, will compete alongside Kihei Akina, an 18-year-old BYU freshman making his second consecutive appearance in the event.

The Course

Black Desert Resort Golf Course looks nothing like the rest of the PGA TOUR schedule. Tom Weiskopf and architect Phil Smith carved this layout through a southern Utah lava field. The result is treeless and almost alien. Red rock formations tower in the distance. Volcanic terrain frames every hole.

Last year's inaugural event was a birdie fest, plain and simple. The course averaged 69.061 strokes, making it the second-easiest par 71 hosting a full field throughout the 2024 season. Expansive fairways allowed players to average 11.76 fairways hit per round. The massive greens (7,000 square feet) yielded an average of 13.67 greens in regulation. But those bentgrass surfaces provided the real test. Running at 12 feet on the Stimpmeter, they ranked among the most difficult putting surfaces on TOUR. The 10-15 foot range was particularly brutal. Black Desert posted the lowest putts-made percentage from that distance of any venue measured in 2024.

The course plays 7,421 yards this year, a 50-yard increase from last year. Most of that comes from a new tee at the par-5 18th hole, which now stretches to 595 yards. Weather will also be a factor. Temperatures in the mid-70s replace the low 90s that greeted players during last year's early October date.