Sit with Patrick Manning for a few minutes and it’s clear he’s surveying each room he sits in, looking to see what pieces can be improved and reworked. The managing partner of Black Desert Resort, which this week is hosting the inaugural Black Desert Championship, Manning is a real estate development veteran, with more than three decades of experience and somewhere in the neighborhood of $8 billion in real estate sales under his belt.
This week’s event has proven a big success, as the Tom Weiskopf-designed course, which sits against a stunning backdrop in Southern Utah, has proved perfect for TV, with the red rocks and jagged cliffs offering a dramatic disparity from the green grasses and foliage of the high desert.
Golfweek got a chance to sit down with Manning, who is looking to push the envelope when it comes to player experience at the fledgling resort, and is interested in developing the region around St. George.
Black Desert: Leaderboard
Patrick Manning: We knew that visually it was going to be stunning on national television and when Steve Wenzloff (PGA Tour’s VP Of Design Services) came out and toured the property for seven hours, he told me ‘nothing’s gonna pop on national television like this will.’ So that’s not surprising. I knew we were gonna take really good care of the players. I’ve had a couple of them. I’m not gonna name drop who it was, but I’ve had a couple of them tell me this is the best Tour, like as far as five-star accommodations, five-star service, five-star player dining, five-star caddie lounge. You know and just this setting.
A Black Desert Championship sign on the fourth hole during the first round of the 2024 Black Desert Championship at Black Desert Resort. (Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images)
PM: Huge priority. I wanted to give them an experience they don’t have anywhere else in the world and partially what that is when they’re outside the ropes, they can go to their accommodations. So they can get from their condo to the elevator, down to the locker rooms, and then into player-only dining, which is a 14,000-square-foot restaurant, they can get from there to fitness and all of that without any public interface. So they can have a very private experience. Of course, some of them just come out and hang out in the lobby to talk to everybody. But for those that want to just get that mental focus, they can have privacy.
PM: To…
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