From the state of Mississippi, the PGA Tour returns to Utah after 61 years (since 1963 when Tommy Jacobs won the Utah Open Invitational), more precisely on the fairways of the Black Desert Resort Golf Course for the Black Desert Championship.
ADVERTISEMENT
7.5 million dollars in prize money and 500 FedEx points put up for grabs by the Stars and Stripes Tour on the course designed and planned by Tom Weiskopf in collaboration with architect Phil Smith, a par 71 of 6,740 meters fairly wide with only 2 well-defined water obstacles (at 11 and 13).
Doing battle, in an exceptional panorama, will be many of the golfers who attended last week at the Sanderson Farmi Championship won by Taiwanese Kevin Yu (his first victory on the tour in two seasons). The Asian will not be in the competition but there will be names of the caliber of Beau Hossler, Keith Mitchell, Lucas Glover, Daniel Berger, Bud Cauley and Patton Kizzire, all in great shape in Mississippi and intent on snatching, in these autumn events without the big names, as many points as possible to confirm themselves on the PGA Tour for the year to come.
ADVERTISEMENT
Pga tour, schedule
Eyes also on the New Zealander Ryan Fox, the Argentine Emiliano Grillo and the Irishman Seamus Power. Three big names of the moment who are giving a good game to the spectators and who are in great shape.
Fox, Grillo and Power closed the Sanderson Farms Championship in T11 after 72 holes with a total of -18 (270 strokes) and are well within the PGA card race for 2025. However, two very tempting opportunities await the Argentine and the Irishman: Grillo (in 67th position on the FedEx Cup Fall Point list) hopes to enter the top 60 who are entitled to participate in the first two Signature Events of 2025, the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am and The Genesis Invitational; Seamus Power (currently in 53rd place) is playing for qualification to the top 50 of the ranking who are entitled to entry to all signature events and the full card of the Tour.
ADVERTISEMENT
Kurt Kitayama, Chris Kirk and Erik Van Rooyen making their debut in the autumn season. Kitayama has made the cut 16 times in the 20 tournaments he has entered in 2024 and finished in the top 10 in two events, at the WM Phoenix Open in February and the 3M Open in July.
Kirk, on the other hand, has collected one victory this season (at The Sentry at the beginning of the year) and two other top 10s (at the RBC Heritage in April and the BMW Championship in August). No wins for the South African Erik van Rooyen who, however, has snatched 4 top 10s (Mexico Open at Vidanta, Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches, Myrtle Beach Classic, Rocket Mortgage Classic).
