4 Days, 5 Courses: A St. George Bucket-List Trip

Why St. George?

We'd been doing Scottsdale every year for the better part of a decade. Same resorts, same courses, same $300 green fees. It was fine — nobody complained — but it had gotten predictable. Then Jake, who'd done a business trip to Las Vegas and tacked on a day at Sand Hollow, came back with photos that looked like they were taken on Mars. Red cliffs, black lava fields, fairways carved through sandstone. "We need to go here," he said. That was June. By August, we had the trip booked.

St. George sits in the southwest corner of Utah, about two hours northeast of Las Vegas and four and a half hours south of Salt Lake City. The town itself is small — maybe 100,000 people — but the golf is stacked. Within a 25-minute drive, you've got a dozen courses, and at least five of them are genuinely world-class. The scenery is the obvious draw — the red rock formations make Scottsdale look like a parking lot — but the quality of the course design, the conditioning, and the value compared to Arizona is what sealed it for us.

Day 1: Sand Hollow — The Course That Started It All

We flew into Las Vegas on a Wednesday morning, rented two SUVs, and drove straight to St. George. The drive is easy — Interstate 15 the whole way, flat desert giving way to the Virgin River Gorge, and then suddenly you're in red rock country. We checked into the Hilton Garden Inn around 1 PM and had a 2:30 tee time at Sand Hollow.

Sand Hollow is the course Jake wouldn't shut up about, and within three holes we understood why. The front nine plays through red desert terrain — not desert-scrub-with-some-rocks desert, but actual sandstone formations rising 50 feet on either side of the fairways. Hole 3 is a par-3 over a lava field. A literal lava field. The black volcanic rock against the red sand against the blue sky — it doesn't look real.

The back nine at Sand Hollow opens up a bit more but the conditioning stays immaculate. The greens were rolling at maybe 10.5 on the stimpmeter, fast but fair. Hole 15 is the signature — a par-5 that bends around a massive red rock outcropping. You can try to cut the corner and carry 220 over the rocks, or play it safe and have a long approach. Four of us went for it. Two made it. The other two contributed to the desert's growing collection of Pro V1s.

We finished around 6 PM just as the sun was dropping behind the Pine Valley Mountains. The light on the red rocks at golden hour is something else entirely. We stood in the parking lot for ten minutes just looking at it before someone said "I'm starving" and broke the spell.

Day 2 Morning: Entrada at Snow Canyon — The Private Club Experience

Entrada is technically a private club, but Trident got us on as part of the package. This matters — you can't just call up and book a tee time here. Having access is one of the reasons we went through a trip planning service instead of doing it ourselves.

If Sand Hollow is the dramatic spectacle course, Entrada is the refined one. Johnny Miller designed it, and it has that classic Miller touch — strategic bunkering, elevation changes that reward smart play, and greens that look straightforward until you're standing over a 6-footer with three feet of break you didn't see from the fairway.

The course winds through Snow Canyon State Park. The par-3 seventh hole is framed by snow-white Navajo sandstone cliffs — that's where the name comes from. It's not snow, it's ancient sand dunes that hardened into stone 180 million years ago. We spent more time taking photos on this hole than actually playing it.

The conditioning at Entrada is immaculate. Private club conditioning — tight fairways, pristine bunkers, greens that putt true. Our group shoots between 78 and 95 on a typical day, and Entrada stretched everyone. The layout demands accuracy off the tee, which is a change from the "grip it and rip it" style that Sand Hollow allows.

Day 2 Afternoon: The Ledges — The Views Course

After a quick lunch at Xetava Gardens Café (highly recommended — it's two minutes from Entrada and the patio overlooks Snow Canyon), we headed to The Ledges for a 1:30 tee time.

The Ledges is the most visually dramatic course we played, and that's saying something after Sand Hollow and Entrada. Built on a plateau above St. George, the views are 360 degrees — Snow Canyon to the north, the Pine Valley Mountains to the northwest, and the city of St. George sprawling out below to the south. On a clear day, you can see into Arizona.

Matt Dye designed it (Pete Dye's nephew), and you can feel the Dye influence — railroad-tie bunkers, forced carries, optical illusions that make distances hard to judge. The elevation changes are extreme. Hole 1 drops about 100 feet from tee to fairway. Hole 16 is a par-3 with a 200-foot elevation change and views that literally stop you mid-swing.

Fair warning: The Ledges is hard. We played it after 18 holes at Entrada, and by the back nine we were mentally and physically cooked. The elevation changes make it a workout even in a cart, and the forced carries can eat balls if you're not hitting it well. If we did this trip again, we'd play The Ledges fresh in the morning, not as an afternoon add-on after a full morning round.

Day 3: Coral Canyon — The Complete Package

After the two-round Day 2, we gave ourselves a break with a single round at Coral Canyon and an 8:30 tee time. Nobody complained about sleeping in.

Coral Canyon might be the most "complete" course in St. George. It doesn't have one single jaw-dropping feature like Sand Hollow's lava rock or The Ledges' elevation drops — instead, it does everything well. The routing is excellent, the conditioning is top-tier, the pace of play was the best of the trip (we finished in 3 hours 50 minutes), and the course has a natural flow that makes it fun even when you're not playing well.

The front nine plays through a residential area but doesn't feel like it — the lots are set back far enough that you forget they're there. The back nine is where Coral Canyon shines. Holes 12 through 15 play through an actual coral-colored canyon, with towering sandstone walls and desert flora. Hole 14 is a risk-reward par-5 with an island-style green perched on a rocky shelf. It's beautiful and terrifying.

We used the afternoon for a detour to Snow Canyon State Park — 20 minutes from St. George. If you have a free afternoon on your trip, don't spend it at the hotel pool. The petrified sand dunes trail is a two-mile loop that takes maybe 90 minutes and the landscape is otherworldly. Several guys in our group said it was the highlight of the non-golf portions of the trip.

Day 4: Copper Rock — The Surprise Favorite

Here's the thing nobody tells you about Copper Rock: it might be the best course in St. George that doesn't get the attention it deserves. Every "top courses" list leads with Sand Hollow and Entrada, and rightfully so — but Copper Rock, which is about 20 minutes south of town in Hurricane, is a legitimate top-5 course in the region.

The course sits at the base of red rock mesas with views to Zion National Park on a clear day. The design uses the natural terrain brilliantly — arroyos, elevation changes, rock outcroppings — and the conditioning was some of the best we experienced all week. The greens were fast, firm, and true. The fairways had that tight, links-like turf that rewards a running game.

Hole 11 is the signature — a par-3 with a tee box elevated about 80 feet above the green, framed by copper-colored rock formations on three sides. You're hitting a 7-iron into what feels like a natural amphitheater. Three of our guys parred it. The other five made the walk of shame into the desert to look for their balls.

What sets Copper Rock apart is the value. We paid about $89/person — roughly half of what Sand Hollow and Entrada cost — and the experience was comparable. If you're building a multi-day trip and need to balance bucket-list courses with budget-friendly rounds, Copper Rock is the answer.

Where We Stayed: Hilton Garden Inn St. George

We booked eight rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn, which sits right off the main drag in St. George and puts you within 15–20 minutes of every course we played. The hotel is modern, clean, and predictable in the best way — you know what you're getting with Hilton. The rooms were comfortable, the WiFi was fast (important for the guys who needed to check in with work), and the breakfast was included, which saved us from having to coordinate a restaurant for eight people every morning.

For a group of eight, the hotel made more sense than a vacation rental. We didn't need a shared kitchen or living room — we were barely at the hotel except to sleep and eat breakfast. The pool was fine for post-round cool-downs, and the lobby bar became our evening staging area for dinner planning.

The rate was about $159/night, which is standard for St. George in October. Split across the four nights, that's about $636/person for lodging. Not cheap, but when you factor in the included breakfast and the convenience of separate rooms (nobody snoring in the next bed), it was worth it for our group.

What we liked: Central location (every course within 20 min), clean modern rooms, included breakfast, reliable Hilton standards, lobby bar for group meetups.

What we didn't: It's a hotel, not a resort — no resort amenities, pool is basic, restaurant options limited to the on-site grill. For larger groups wanting the mansion experience, a vacation rental like the ones in Pecan Valley or Paradise Village would be a better fit.

The Numbers

Here's what this trip actually cost per person, based on 8 players and 4 nights:

For comparison, our last Scottsdale trip was about $2,200/person for 3 days and 3 courses. St. George gave us more golf, better scenery, and a lower price tag. The math speaks for itself.

Pro Tips for Your St. George Bucket-List Trip

Would We Do It Again?

We already booked the return trip. Same group, next October, five nights instead of four. We're adding Black Desert — which just opened and is already being called the best course in Utah — and replaying Sand Hollow because you have to. We're also switching from the hotel to a vacation rental in Pecan Valley (a 7-bedroom place with a private pool and putting green) because half the group wants the house experience.

St. George ruined Scottsdale for us. That's the honest truth. The courses are better, the scenery is incomparable, the value is stronger, and the town has just enough restaurants and breweries to keep the non-golf hours interesting without the resort-town markup. If you play golf and you haven't been to St. George, put it at the top of your list.