The PGA TOUR’s fall schedule rolls on, and as with any PGA TOUR event, comes the ability to play in DraftKings Pick6 contests, a single-user daily fantasy game where users choose players to go for more or less than the totals.
This week, the PGA is headed to Utah, for the newly named Bank of Utah Championship, where the players will be taking on Black Desert Resort, in Ivins, Utah, a 7,300+ yards Par 71 venue with Bentgrass greens and a wide open desert design. This will be the second season that the event is played on Black Desert and the Tom Weiskopf-designed course allowed a ton of birdies last season with the winner, Matt McCarty, getting to 23-under par. The weather for 2025 looks great again, so expect lots of low scoring.
I went over more stats and course dynamics in the Bank of Utah Championship PGA Cheat Sheet, and included some notes on the course below.
“The course itself looks like it has a small amount of elevation change in portions, with some rolling fairways where players who catch the right corridors off the tee could get significant rollout. In terms of setup, the venue plays as a 7300+ Par 71, although I don’t think it will play extra long for the pros. The fairways look wide enough (average 30 yards across) that most players will be banging driver off most of the par 4s and par 5s, and with the desert/lava landscape, the lack of traditional rough should make the players even bold with their selections and routing off the tee.
The course will play as a traditional Par 71, with three par 5s, and some solid risk, reward holes, including the short Par 4, 14th, and a closing Par 5 where players can get very aggressive off the tee if they so choose. Despite being in a more unique setting, with a few more variables thrown in, I don’t expect Black Desert to play much differently than TPC Craig Ranch, and to an extent, TPC Scottsdale; Weiskopf’s other two famous designs that are still on the PGA schedule.
The large fairways will make this a driver-heavy course, but not an overly difficult driving venue, which will help players who aren’t accurate off the tee. Additionally, the larger greens will mean those who can properly gauge green depth with their short-to-mid-irons will be able to get much closer to the flags on approach. ”
As of now we have Round 1 totals up on the Pick6 site for play, so that’s where we’ll be focusing this week. As mentioned above, the weather looks solid so I’m expecting low scores again and will be focusing on birdie or better and strokes categories, mainly where I think players can outperform. Last year’s winner, Matt McCarty, gained strokes almost everywhere but massively outperformed on the greens, gaining over 5.0 strokes putting for the week.
With that in mind, I’ve focused on a few of my favorite plays for Round 1 below.
Michael Thorbjornsen Less Than 67.5 Strokes
This feels like a great spot to be bullish on Thorbjornsen, who is inching closer and closer to securing his first PGA title. The American recently posted a top five over in Japan where he went off in the final group and finished T-3. He’s been hitting his irons as good as anybody of late, gaining over 10.0 strokes on approach alone at the Baycurrent Classic. Overall, he’s now gained 3.0 strokes on approach in each of his last three starts.
While we’ll need to see an improvement with the putter, even just a little positive momentum there in Round 1 likely elevates him to a low score given how well he’s hitting it. Add in the fact he’s traditionally been a fast starter and ranks 27th in Round 1 scoring, taking the bullish route and going for him to beat this 67.5 total in Round 1 seems like a great way to start our Round 1 Pick6 lineups.
Maverick McNealy More Than 67.5 Strokes
While I do expect solid scoring conditions for this event, not everyone is going to shoot 5-under or better every day, so we need to look objectively at who might be worth fading in Round 1 as well. McNealy comes in having not played since the Procore in early September, where he did finish a solid T-13, but will be playing Black Desert for the first time this season after a long break. Breaks can sometimes help, but in the case of McNealy, a slow start wouldn’t be overly shocking.
He’s only 101st in Round 1 scoring on the year and hasn’t gained more than 3.0 strokes on approach in an event since May at the Memorial. Being more of a putting-based player, one poor round with the flatstick likely stops him from hitting this less than on 67.5, and with him never having played the course, he won’t have the experienced edge on the greens he’s used to at other stops.
Overall, a player I would either fade or avoid in Round 1.
Rico Hoey More Than 14.5 Greens in Regulation
14.5 GIR is quite high for a one round GIR total but context does matter here. Black Desert has slightly larger greens that should be easy for pros to hit and weather conditions look phenomenal for Round 1. Then you have the fact that Hoey is legitimately one of the best iron players in the world, and comes into this week ranked second on the PGA in GIR%.
Some more context: Hoey played here last season and finished T-21, but he was T-17 in GIR% and hit over 81% of his greens overall. He hit 14 or more greens in each of his four rounds of play and hit 16-of-18 greens in Round 4. Given that he comes into this week playing some great golf after posting a T-4 in Japan and has now gained over 1.0 strokes on approach in each of his last six events, a bullish stance looks like a great way to play his Round 1 GIR total. I see this as a plus-venue for him, so a consistent opener for him, with a few birdies and little-to-no mistakes, seems likely.
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