Ivins • Two days before the PGA Tour was set to return to his home state, Zac Blair huddled with doctors worried about his shoulder.
The same shoulder that had kept him out of golf for over a year was flaring up again. He feared it was another torn labrum — and an arduous recovery process ahead.
“I had to get an MRI,” Blair said. “It came back OK for my labrum. We will see.”
Blair still doesn’t know what is wrong with his shoulder. He’ll follow up with doctors after a tour stop in Las Vegas next week.
Whatever the issue, it wasn’t enough to stop Blair from teeing off at the Black Desert Championship, the PGA Tour’s first stop in the Beehive State in over half a century.
“It was awesome,” Blair said after his round Sunday. “I think it was cool being down here. Hopefully they keep coming back. It was a fun week with all the fans.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Zak Blair on the seventh hole during the first round of the Black Desert Championship PGA Tour golf tournament in Ivins, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
Blair was the only Utah golfer to make the cut this week. It was his 14th made cut of the season in his 24th event. But Blair shot 4-over Sunday to finish the tournament 2-under-par and in 66th place.
“It’s always good to make the cut,” Blair said. “Wish I would’ve had a little better week. You know, it was kind of just one of those weeks where nothing really went my way unfortunately. But it was a lot of fun.”
Blair called Black Desert “a perfect kind of fall stop” for the Tour.
The tournament was Blair’s first time at the Tom Weiskopf-designed golf course, but a return to familiar territory.
“My dad has lived down here for a long time, maybe since I was a freshman in college. Spent a lot time down here in the winters and a lot of golf tournaments down here,” Blair said of the St. George area. The courses are “just so different down here. The scenery is definitely a lot more dramatic when you’ve got the red rocks and everything like that. So there is a handful of them down here that are pretty cool, this one included.”
Blair was also around some familiar company, playing alongside his longtime friend, and fellow BYU golfer, Patrick Fishburn early in the week.
Fishburn was playing well coming into Black Desert — finishing top six in three of his last five events — but he missed the cut with a disappointing 71-69 on Thursday and Friday.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Patrick Fishburn hits a tee shot on the 8th hole during the first round of the Black Desert Championship PGA Tour golf tournament in Ivins, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
“It’s a great design. Rewards a good shot and punishes a bad one,” Fishburn said of the course. “There is definitely some tricks out there. You can take it low. We’ve seen that; guys are playing well. I think precision yardage, controlling your distances with your irons and wedges is kind of the key out here. I think I kind of struggled with that this week.”
The closest Utah player outside of Blair to play the weekend was Kihei Akina, a Lone Peak senior committed to BYU. Akina finished 4-under and was poised to make the cut when he came off the course.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kihei Akina chips on the seventh hole during the second round of the Black Desert Championship PGA Tour golf tournament in Ivins, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.
He rallied with four birdies in his final eight holes to put himself in position. But the cut line moved to five-under late and he missed it.
This was Akina’s first PGA Tour start. He made a Korn Ferry Tour appearance this summer at Oak Ridge.
“The course here is a little bit harder. The setup is a little bit harder. Obviously the field is a lot better,” Akina said. “So you have to play really good golf just to compete out here. I didn’t really know what to expect ... but the Korn Ferry kind of helped just know what to expect.”
St. George native Jay Don Blake made his 500th PGA Tour start at Black Desert. He did play with his gold, Bullseye putter. But the scoring didn’t follow and he finished 10-over.
“To be in my hometown, the 500th PGA TOUR start [is] going to be the end of my PGA TOUR career. I don’t think I need to get 501,” he said. “Had a lot of crazy emotions all the time. I mean, the first tee shot was pretty nerve-wracking. I never really felt totally comfortable.”
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Jay Don Blake acknowledges the crowd on the ninth hole during the first round of the Black Desert Championship PGA Tour golf tournament in Ivins, Friday, Oct. 11, 2024.
He continued, “The golf was just another thing really. Being able to participate in the 500th event is just a crazy dream story. I mean, I gave up on trying to get 500 about 10, 12 years ago.”
As for other local golfers, former BYU golfer Mike Weir missed the cut at plus-3. He was 6-under at one point on Thursday, but fell apart on the back nine and never recovered.
Corner Canyon senior Bowen Mauss missed the cut at 4-over.
“It’s awesome. I had a lot of support behind me and a lot of people cheering me on,” he said.
Zac Jones, a current BYU senior also shot 4-over. Peter Kuest, a former BYU golfer, went 3-over. And Dustin Volk, a Davis County golf director, ended at 15-over.
“It was really cool kind of seeing so many people out there,” Blair said of the event. “You’ve got a bunch of people volunteering, a bunch of people from Utah and other places coming to help out and come and watch. They love golf down here, and they love golf in Utah. It’s fun to see all the faces out here.”
