Fairways • Winter 2010
Congratulations Utah!

by Randy Dodson

The 2010 golf season has started and with it comes historic news from the United States Golf Association. Soldier Hollow Golf Course at Wasatch Mountain State Park in Midway, Utah, has been selected by the USGA as the site of the 2012 U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship. It will be the first USGA Championship conducted in the state of Utah. The dates of the championship are July 9-14, 2012.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Utah and our golf community. We have a rich history of golf in this state and we look forward to sharing it with the rest of the country,” said Utah Golf Association Executive Director Thomas Pagel.

Soldier Hollow, the host of the 2006 Utah State Amateur, includes the Silver and Gold Courses. For the championship, 17 holes from the Gold Course and one hole from the Silver Course will be used.

Soldier Hollow’s PGA Professional Chris Newson said, “Soldier Hollow is proud to be the first course in Utah to host the United States Golf Association. This is a tremendous honor for our facility and we know it will be a successful championship.”

The U.S. Amateur Public Links was first contested in 1922 as a way to give public course players an opportunity to compete for a national championship. It is open to amateur golfers who are bona fide public course players and hold a USGA Handicap Index not exceeding 4.4.

We will provide an in-depth look into the USGA’s selection process and all the individuals involved with making the decision to bring the championship to Utah in our spring issue of Fairways. Congratulations Utah!

The new golf season has also brought a lot of changes to the golf landscape in southern Utah. The biggest news for the last two years in Utah’s southland was the opening of Sand Hollow Resort’s Championship and Links courses. The Championship course has become the newest “must play” course in the state and deservedly so.

Just as the dust had settled from the opening of Sand Hollow a new whirlwind of activity arose with the decision by Hurricane City to hire Vanguard Golf Management (see Jim Rayburn’s story on page 53) as its course management partner for Sky Mountain golf course.

Events then blew into a full force hurricane when it was announced that Vanguard Golf had purchased, with the help of some investors, the very popular Coral Canyon golf course in Washington, Utah.

Those few business decisions also created a small tornado of change in the director of golf and head professional positions at four of the 12 golf courses in the area. We highlight who’s who on page 42 of this issue.

The good news is with all the change in ownership, management and personnel, golf in southern Utah is still in very good and familiar hands.
News coming out of Mesquite is the opening of the Conestoga golf course within the Sun City Mesquite development. Please enjoy our course review on page 45.

The Gary Panks designed Conestoga course managed by Troon Golf opened for play in January of 2010. The 18-hole course flows with the character and contours of Mesquite’s spectacular landforms. From what I’ve heard, Conestoga is a tranquil but dramatic golf experience and is a welcome addition to the Mesquite championship golf menu.

More changes have occurred to the overall golf family in Utah. Sadly we have lost two of the vanguards of Utah golf. Within nearly a month of each other Karl Tucker and George Schneiter passed away from complications related to poor health. Both men have made a difference in the lives of many golfers both on the local and national golf scene. We are happy to briefly highlight their lives in this issue of Fairways.

Randy Dodson is the publisher of Fairways magazine.