A major golf championship in the Four Corners? One can dream.
One did dream earlier this week. Following the riot Jan. 6 at the U.S Capitol by a mob in support of outgoing President Donald Trump, the PGA of America announced it would move its 2022 PGA Championship away from Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, and would seek a new host for the event, adding to the growing list of professional sports organizations to distance themselves from the twice-impeached president.
Golf Magazine and Golf.com writer Dylan Dethier, author of the “Muni Monday” column series highlighting stories from public golf courses around the world, released a list of the top-five public courses he viewed as an “ideal fill-in host” for the 2022 PGA Championship.
No. 4 on that list, none other than Piñon Hills Golf Course in Farmington.
A true gem in the high desert of northwest New Mexico, the city-owned course built in 1989 and designed by Ken Dye regularly makes top-10 lists for being one of the best municipal golf courses in the U.S.
And while a private course accustomed to hosting PGA Tour golf will be the more-likely selection, the recent success of the PGA playing its championship at public courses – including the 2020 PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco – had Dethier thinking of Piñon Hills.
Piñon Hills found itself in pristine company in Dethier’s column. At No. 5 was New York’s Bethpage Black, home of the 2019 PGA Championship as well as the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009. Torrey Pines North in La Jolla, California, came in at No. 3, and No. 1 went to Chambers Bay in Washington, which hosted the 2015 U.S. Open.
And while PGA Professional Chris Jones, who has served as general manager of Piñon Hills since 2007, is used to seeing the course make various lists each year, the idea of major championship golf in the Four Corners also had him daydreaming.
“It would be incredible. We come to the course every day and see our locals, but to see the top pros play golf at our course would be amazing,” Jones said. “Obviously, we’d love to see that happen at some point. It would take an enormous amount of planning, but we’d certainly never turn anything down.
“We pride ourselves in our golf course and our rankings every year. When it takes another step up to saying we could have something major at our golf course, it makes you take a step back and realize how lucky we are.”
So, what would a PGA event with the best players in the world at Piñon Hills look like?
While the course rating of 73.9 and a slope rating of 139 – both numbers that make it a slightly more difficult challenge than this week’s Sony Open being played at Waialae Country Club in Hawaii – is on par with many PGA events, length would be the biggest issue.
The average PGA Tour course is 7,200 yards, with the majority of those events being played at sea level. With Piñon Hills sitting in thin, dry air 5,400 feet above sea level and playing 7,198 feet, new tee boxes would be needed to accommodate bombers such as Bryson DeChambeau and Dustin Johnson.
Because today’s top players hit the ball so far off the tee, the par-72 course could also drop down to a par-70 by turning two par-5s into par-4 holes.
Former Farmington Daily Times sports editor Joshua Perry, who is now a golf betting writer for The Action Network, looked at Nos. 13 and 17 for their potential to be shorted into par-4s.
“Those are a driver and a wedge for Bryson,” Perry said.
Hole Nos. 5 and 14, two par-4s, could also be drivable for the big hitters, though the difficult No. 5 would bring a canyon in front of the green into play as well as other out-of-bounds areas for those willing to take the risk. Jones said No. 5 could be drivable with a hybrid or 3-wood for many top players despite measuring 355 yards. No. 14 plays only 343 yards and would require a little left-to-right shot shape to reach the green and avoid the bunkers right and water left.
Piñon Hills offers wide fairways on many driving holes, but it makes up for it with challenging, undulating greens. Perry said it would be a perfect course for a player such as 2020 PGA Champion Collin Morikawa, who has above average length and accuracy off the tee – someone who isn’t necessarily a bomber but isn’t a short fairway finder, either.
The par-3s also offer a unique challenge, from the sandstone boulder embedded in the green at the 229-yard No. 6 to the 245-yard back tee location on No. 12.
“Our pin placements can make such a difference,” Jones said. “On No. 9 (589-yard par-5), it can be a three-club difference from the front of the green to the back. We have fun setting up our course for tournaments, and we’d have a lot of fun setting up for the guys who do this for a living.”
While Perry believes a four-round winning score of 20-under par or even lower wouldn’t be entirely out of question at Piñon Hills, he agreed that a spring tournament, such as the PGA Championship now played in May, could bring windy conditions that would keep scores in check.
Of course, with hosting a big event comes some sacrifices for local regulars. If the course underwent any renovations, it could require partial closures for months at a time along with a total closure in the few weeks leading up to the tournament to keep it in pristine condition.
“There definitely would be some challenges, but it’s not anything we would shy away from at any level if someone came to us and said they wanted to come here,” Jones said. “There are come concessions that would have to be made, but the reward of having an event like that is something our community would welcome and be proud of. I’m sure if we could host something like that, or anything close to that, pass holders and our regular golfers would be totally supportive.”
Piñon Hills operates out of a small clubhouse that likely would undergo a renovation for any kind of PGA-sized event. But the surrounding areas could easily accommodate a massive crowd with plenty of parking at neighboring San Juan College as well as Piedra Vista High School, where fans could be shuttled from their cars to the course.
And while a tournament in the Four Corners may not draw the more than 200,000 spectators Bethpage Black has grown accustomed to, it’s not out of the question to think it could draw a six-figure gallery with fans from across the region.
Currently, the closest regular PGA event to the Four Corners is the Phoenix Open played the first week of February at The Stadium Course at TPC Scottsdale. It is world famous for the massive stadium seating around the par-3 16th green.
Fans from across the Southwest would undoubtedly provide an incredible major golf experience in Farmington.
Perry admits an event on the Korn Ferry Tour, the developmental tour for the PGA Tour, would be more the speed for a course like Piñon Hills. That tour regularly hosts tournaments in Farmington, Utah, and at TPC Colorado in Berthoud, and Piñon Hills could be an ideal candidate to replace either of those events in future years.
Jones, who said he has talked with a few Mini Tours over the years about bringing a smaller pro tournament to Piñon Hills, said the biggest key to getting a regular tour stop is scheduling and geographical location.
“If a tour was going through Denver or Phoenix and we were in the middle on its way to another tournament, then we could get on a schedule easier,” he said.
Asked whether it is more likely Piñon Hills could get a smaller tour to make a regular stop in Farmington or for the famed municipal course to get a major event one time, Jones said the course would welcome either with open arms.
“It would be a win-win for everybody,” he said. “To get a one-time huge event like a major championship, that would pour a lot of money into our community to host something like that, and it would put a lot of money into our facility. The reward of having a PGA type event is something we would embrace, our community would embrace and the Durango golf community also would embrace.”
Durango’s Hillcrest Golf Club regularly hosts its Navajo Trail Open pro-am tournament, as does Farmington’s San Juan County Club with the San Juan Open. Yet, somehow, the Four Corners hasn’t landed on the radar of any large tour yet.
Maybe it’s time for that to change.
John Livingston is the Regional Sports Editor of The Durango Herald. He can be reached at jlivingston@durangoherald.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlivi2.
