A Greater Zion Golf Trip Isn’t Complete Without Side Quests
The ideal Utah golf location is filled with tourist delights for everyone, including some pro events.
We lava southwestern Utah. Here’s why you will too when you take your next Utah family vacation or Utah boys trip or girls trip to the Greater Zion area. Drive just over four hours from Salt Lake City or two hours from Las Vegas to enjoy some St. George golfing with enough side excursions to keep everyone entertained for days, years, eons even.
This Is the Place for Adventure
First off, Greater Zion is an explosion of scenery. Its famous sandstone landscapes come in 50 shades of red, orange and beige (the one time beige is acceptable). There’s a sprinkling of greenery for contrast, including the greens of 14 elite golf courses in a 20-mile radius. Top that off with basalt-buttered buttes and valley floors glittered with black lava rock that’s had 20,000(ish) years to cool off.
Second, the activities are hotter than the Earth’s crust after a magma meltdown. Your trip to Greater Zion will be fire, but also chill. A chill vacation doesn’t mean no adventure, though. You just won’t have any eruptions, whether geological or genealogical in nature. We know how seismic those car-ride tantrums can be.
We’re not just spewing molten mumblings and volcanic verbiage for no reason, though. Greater Zion is where playtime meets a red-rockin’ history. It’s the sedimentary bedrock of adventure, the driver of destination vacations, the tee box to trailblazing. What we’re saying is your list of things to do in St. George will be longer than the area’s tectonic timeline.
Greater Zion has a fun-for-everyone vibe with plenty of accommodation options to meet your vacay needs. Kick it at a golf course, gear up for canyoneering, go with the flow on sand dunes or sing along to Broadway tunes.
How Do You Take Your Tee?
This game isn’t just for the boys. Ladies love the links too. Start your Utah boys trip, girls getaway or couples retreat at any of Greater Zion’s golf courses to enjoy limitless views and activities. All are within 5-35 minutes of each other, with views of the Virgin River, Sand Hollow State Park or lots of lava rocks in Ivins.
If lava is your thing, take a swing at their new Black Desert Resort Golf Course, designed by the late golf legend Tom Weiskopf, that opened for daytime use in May 2023. He expertly placed the greens between volcanic basalt flows from thousands of years ago, and the reviews are already so raving, you may as well bust out some glow stick necklaces when you show up.
And — courtesy of Black Desert — for the first time in 60 million years, Utah will be host to the PGA and LPGA Tours. Okay, so it’s only been 60 years, but that’s still a long time! Now that’s one heck of an activity you could add to a Utah golf trip!
Fit Check for All the Friends
Here’s what your golf cart full of friends and family could expect from Greater Zion’s courses, where even the not-so-into-golf staycationers and holidaymakers will love this Utah golf trip.
Your Bestie, Mulligan Matt
Matt likes seeing what the locals get up to, so he golfs close to city life at the Dixie Red Hills Golf Club. Matt usually plays golf on easy mode, then dips out early to order cocktails for everyone. What a guy. He’s also mastered finding places to dine, and signs up for a walkable foodie tour.
Then he stops at a nearby dinosaur museum to see where a local family literally unearthed ancient footprints in their backyard! It turns out the lizards currently found in St. George used to be wayyy bigger than they are today; the proof is in the fossils!
Your Sister, Sand Trap Sandy
She surprised you all by expertly avoiding the sand traps at Sand Hollow Golf Course. She admitted it’s because she spent the entire first day of the trip at their practice facility. Afterwards, Sandy booked an off-roading tour at some nearby sand dunes, just to stick it to the sand traps.
In the evening, Sandy wants a little less adrenaline while still being surrounded by red rocks. Aha! Perfect solution. Sandy enters a world of pure imagination by seeing a Broadway musical like “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” at Tuacahn’s red-rock amphitheater.
Father-In-Law, Fore Warren
Jeep, Jeep, coming through! Keep an eye on this one! He often gets a little wacky with his swings, and who knows where that ball will go. Warren golfs on the greens of Sky Mountain Golf Course because he’s close to his favorite place to go wild — Zion National Park.
He wanted to see the area at higher speeds so he spent the next several days rollin’ through the backcountry on famous mountain biking trails. He finishes the trip with a Jeep tour to see more of Greater Zion without breaking a sweat.
Cousin Pure Putting Patty
When Patty rolls up, she proves her heart is just as pure as her shots. She talks about how her stargazing tour last night made her feel so grateful to be surrounded by her bestest buds in the whole big universe. We’re not crying, you’re crying.
Patty also heard some exciting news that made her say, “Hold my Arnold Palmer!” The PGA and LPGA Tours would be at Greater Zion’s new Black Desert Resort Golf Course. Patty decides to spend several days there spectating events to see how her skills measure up with the experts.
Lost Ball Larry
Larry loves lounging with friends and taking it easy. He’s an OK golfer, but he’d rather spend his free time sightseeing anyways. He heads to The Ledges Golf Course, where he can literally cross the street into Snow Canyon State Park, take some leisurely hikes and learn where all this lava rock came from.
Larry also loves some reely mellow fishing. He escapes the heat by heading up to Pine Valley and Kolob Reservoirs, the perfect lakes to find some rainbow trout. He then heads to Quail Creek State Park to reel in some large bass and spend an evening swimming under the heavenly desert sky.
The Fairway to Heaven
If your Utah golf trip wasn’t heavenly enough, just come back, duh. Whichever course you choose, your activity options are vast. Stay in an RV or camp in the woods, or stay on Black Desert Resort’s property where the pros will be. You’ll have it better than the pros do, though, because you’ll get to go adventuring between games. You don’t even have to stay behind and sign autographs. Well you can, but that might be weird, especially if you’re Lost Ball Larry.