In a tournament that felt closer to a weekend scramble than a PGA Tour event, the Black Desert Championship turned golf’s elite into amateurs, with lost balls, rulings galore, and players scrambling through lava rock-strewn roughs. The rugged Utah course pushed pros to the edge, with a staggering 201 official rulings across four rounds, thanks to the unforgiving lava fields that swallowed balls at every turn. By comparison, the 2024 Valero Texas Open needed just 60 rulings across its entire weekend.
While some players found humor in the chaos, Matt McCarty made the best of it, managing to snag the win, aided by a lucky free drop from an unplayable lie on Saturday. For McCarty, accuracy ruled the day as he ranked in the top 10 across Strokes Gained metrics, cementing the notion that this wasn’t a course for the bomb-and-gouge strategy. Fans watching loved the shake-up, as lava rocks and desert flora became part of the spectacle. Social media chimed in with glee, with comments like, “Can’t gouge it out of lava rock and make birdie,” and “This is the carnage we want!” echoing the satisfaction of seeing pros struggle with “real golf.”
One fan joked, “Boohoo… I lost my ball… welcome to regular golf like the rest of us.” Another noted the change in landscape, “Same with cacti and rattlesnakes… you just sacrifice your ball to the golf gods.” This rugged course took an average PGA Tour event to new extremes, where big hitters didn’t hold the edge. Only one of the five longest drivers made it into the top 15, while accuracy experts soared to the top of the leaderboard.
While critics wonder if the PGA will return to this desert terrain, fans left with stories and laughs about a tournament where shot precision, not power, was king. Patrick Fishburn captured it best, saying, “It’s a great design. Rewards a good shot and punishes a bad one.” For golf fans, the Black Desert Championship was a welcome dose of “regular” golf madness that they’ll be talking about for years to come.
