Lehi • Web.com Tour regulars accustomed to playing the Utah Championship at Willow Creek Country Club are in for a big surprise this week when they tee it up at Thanksgiving Point Golf Club as the tour's annual Utah stop changes venues after a 16-year run in Sandy.
They will also make a lot fewer birdies and eagles, predicts 2015 tournament director Mark Whetzel, Thanksgiving Point's director of golf and general manager since 1999.
"It is going to be a great test of golf, and something the players will enjoy, but they are going to have to fit their games to the golf course," Whetzel said. "We want birdies, but it is not going to be a birdie-fest out there, that's for sure."
Certainly, it was at Willow Creek, and almost absurdly so three weeks ago at Hillcrest Country Club in Boise when the winning score was four-time winner Martin Piller's 28-under 256.
The tournament begins Thursday as 156 golfers chase the Billy Casper Cup, the new trophy created for this event.
At Willow Creek last July, Andres Gonzales, who is now on the PGA Tour, posted a 21-under-par score to tie a record set by J.J. Killeen in 2011 and matched by Steven Alker in 2013.
Whetzel originally predicted a winning total of only 5- or 6-under par this week at much-longer Thanksgiving Point. At a media event on July 15, he amended the prediction to "10 or 12 under" because the rough won't be grown as long as first planned.
Thanksgiving Point, which hosted Johnny Miller's Champions Challenge before the event ended five years ago, will play close to 7,700 yards, about 200 or 300 yards longer than Whetzel was anticipating. The variable is the wind. Calm conditions would allow for lower scoring. But if the prevailing north wind is in play, Nos. 15, 16 and 17 will be demanding.
And No. 17, which can measure 250 yards from the back tee box, is one of the most difficult par-3s in the state, especially in windy conditions.
"I can't wait to see what they're going to do, coming down the stretch," Whetzel said.
Conversely, Web.com Tour players routinely battered Willow Creek, which was the tour's fourth-easiest course in 2014 with a full-field scoring average of 69.4 while playing as a par-71.
Whetzel recently guided Hal Geyer, a Web.com Tour rules official, around the course and pointed out options for tee boxes. Only at No. 17, where part of the green is hidden from the back tee, did Geyer choose anything but the longest possible yardage.
Lehi's Tony Finau, who used a fifth-place finish at Willow Creek last year as a springboard to the PGA Tour, where he is 40th in the FedEx Cup Standings, said most players he's talked to are in favor of the change.
"Willow Creek is a really great venue, but it got a lot of mixed reviews, I feel like, from the players on the Tour," Finau said. "A lot of guys [complained] that back-to-back weeks at Boise and Utah, you had to shoot 25 under [to win]. I think it will be nice to mix it up a little bit. Here at Thanksgiving Point, scores aren't going to be that low."
Finau won't play at the course close to his home this week, but his younger brother, Gipper Finau, received a sponsor's exemption and will play. The only other golfer with Utah ties in the field is former BYU golfer Keith Clearwater.
Piller, the Boise winner, said Tuesday he has heard "absolutely zero" talk about the venue switch from his fellow Web.com Tour regulars, but praised Willow Creek as a "fantastic" venue.
Thanksgiving Point was awarded the tournament after a bid process conducted by the Utah Sports Commission. Willow Creek is building a new clubhouse that is not scheduled to be completed until July of 2016, and the commission looked in a different direction.
It is not clear whether Willow Creek will attempt to regain the tournament or not; general manager Alex Nicolaidis is traveling and was not available for comment.
Meanwhile, Whetzel hopes TP becomes the tournament's longtime host.
"They kind of test the waters, and then if everything goes well, and we do everything that I promise, then we will do a three-year or five-year deal," he said. "We are hoping that this is a permanent fixture here."
optional trim Whetzel said that knowing his golf course could be altered in the near future, because the property where the driving range is currently located has been sold to the LDS Church by the owners of Thanksgiving Point, Alan and Karen Ashton. The church was scheduled to present its plans for the development to the Lehi planning commission on Thursday night, but the item was pulled off the agenda.
Whetzel said course designer Johnny Miller is on board with the changes and has agreed to create a new driving range on-site, perhaps where the 10th hole now sits. A new hole, a par-3, will likely be built around the pond that is currently to the west of the 11th hole.
"We fully 100 percent support [the church's plans]," Whetzel said. "We think it is going to add not only to our golf course, but the entire property."
Kurt Kragthorpe contributed to this report
drew@sltrib.com
Twitter: @drewjay
| Tribune File Photo Hole 7 of the golf course of Thanksgiving Point located in Lehi, Utah.
