St. George, Utah — John Fought has traveled to six continents, first playing tournament golf and later as one of the game’s leading course architects. In all of his travels, Sand Hollow Golf Course occupies a special place in his mind.
“It’s probably the most unique site I’ve ever worked on,” said Fought (pronounced “Fote”). “That is some of the most interesting landscape in the world. It’s just like working in a national park.”
In a sense, Fought was working in a park. Sand Hollow, the perennial No. 1 among Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Utah, is surrounded by Sand Mountain and Sand Hollow State Park, where visitors can do everything from riding ATVs across massive dunes to cliff diving and scuba diving in the park’s reservoir. The proximity of Greater Zion’s four state parks – Sand Hollow, Gunlock, Quail Creek, and Snow Canyon – guarantees that visitors are never far from their next adrenaline-pumping activity, which could take place in the mountains or on the beaches. It’s all there for your choosing.
This is the backdrop for what is arguably the most-underrated destination in the southwest. Thanks to the Greater Zion region’s reliable climate that annually produces 300 days of sunshine, golfers can tee it up year-round at 13 courses clustered within a 20-mile radius – including six courses that Golfweek ranks among the top 10 in the state. Sand Hollow and Entrada at Snow Canyon are among the local courses offering stay-and-play packages. Greater Zion’s golf landscape will get even better this year with the opening of Copper Rock Golf Course, located on the east side of Sand Hollow State Park.
The names of the region’s courses often hint at the jaw-dropping nature of the landscape. At courses such as Coral Canyon, The Ledges, Sunbrook, Sky Mountain, and Entrada, holes often are framed by stunning red-rock formations, lava fields and canyons. Long views of mountain peaks in the surrounding parks heighten the sensory experience. Invariably, many visitors will find themselves reaching for their cameras as often as their drivers during the course of a round.
Fought’s experience building Sand Hollow illustrates why this is such a compelling landscape for golf. In the lingo of golf architecture, the golf holes at Sand Hollow were “found”; Fought estimated that only about 75,000 yards of dirt were moved, much of that to fill a ravine on the postcard-perfect par-4 12th. By comparison, architects sometimes have been known to move more than 1 million yards of dirt in creating modern courses.
“We did not mess with (the land) at all. It was just there,” Fought said. “There was no reason to shape it, make it contrived, or make like something it really wasn’t. It’s a site that’s as natural as I’ve worked on.”
While Sand Hollow’s 12th and par-3 15th, which plays through rock outcroppings, tend to get splashed across more magazine spreads, Fought is particularly fond of the cliffside 13th, a potentially drivable par 4.
“When I got to that hole and looked at it, I said, ‘You have got to be kidding me. This looks like the Lord built it,’” Fought recalled.
Those sorts of transcendent experiences happen a lot in Greater Zion.