Patrick Manning
Managing Director | Black Desert Resort
Through Black Desert Resort, Patrick Manning is transforming Southern Utah into a premier destination for world-class sporting events — including the PGA Tour and LPGA Tour in 2025 and the Greater Zion Cup pickleball tournament in 2026.
When given the opportunity to host the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Tour at Black Desert Resort, Patrick Manning didn’t just make it happen — he went above and beyond to make sure the athletes would be supported during and after the golf tournament. In fact, he did something that’s never been done before: He covered the price of transportation via private jet, accommodations and meals. He also insisted on offering top-tier prize money, with the LPGA Black Desert Championship paying out a purse of $3 million.
“Probably the most surreal moment of my entire life was when I was sitting in my Jeep on the tarmac of the St. George private airport,” Manning says. “Through the clouds, I saw a silver dot, and I knew that was the first of the private jets that I had sent for the women to bring them here.”
To show their appreciation, Manning received over 70 handwritten notes from the ladies, expressing their thanks to him for seeing them and saying that nobody had ever done something like this for them before.
Set at the junction between the Mojave Desert, the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin, it’s the landscape of Black Desert Resort that makes it a place unlike anywhere else. And with both the PGA and LPGA tournaments taking place at Black Desert in 2025, the beautiful landscape was seen in 750 million households worldwide.
“All those people are seeing this incredible scenery that they don’t see anywhere else on the PGA or LPGA tours, and they want to come golf,” Manning says. “People don’t do that necessarily with the NBA. They don’t say, ‘Because I saw a Utah Jazz game, I want to go to Utah.’ Overall, the economic impact of these tournaments is substantial. … It’s not just a four-day tournament — it has a 365-day impact on the economy.”
In continuation with Manning’s goal to make golf accessible to everyone, he coins Black Desert’s golf experience as “guilt-free.” With a water park, luxury spas and restaurants, every member of the family is able to enjoy the resort together. “You meet up at dinner that evening, and nobody’s apologizing. You’re all just sharing what a great time you have,” Manning says. “That’s really the vision of Black Desert: guilt-free golf and a resort that is fun for everyone.”
So, what’s next? In an ongoing commitment to bringing world-class events to the region, the resort plans to debut 21 state-of-the-art pickleball courts and a Championship Court with seating for up to 1,000 spectators this spring, according to a press release. In partnership with the Professional Pickleball Association and Greater Zion, Black Desert will then host the Greater Zion Cup, a premier pickleball tournament and one of only five Cup events on the Carvana PPA Tour, shortly after.
“We’ll host about 30,000 fans at this major tournament, one of the biggest in the country,” Manning says.
