Dixie Red Hills Golf Course

Dixie Red Hills is where golf in southern Utah began. The City of St. George describes it as the
first golf course it ever developed, built in the mid 1960s, and it is generally credited as the first
course in the area - anticipated enough that it opened for play with only seven of its nine holes
finished. Every other course in the county exists downstream of that decision.

The course

It is a nine-hole par 34 of roughly 2,733 yards, which makes it the shortest and most walkable round
in the county. The layout meanders directly among the red sandstone outcrops at the base of the Red
Hills, and the rock is not scenery held at a distance - it sits in the playing corridors and creates
sharp doglegs that demand position rather than power. Holes 1, 3 and 6 are the ones regulars name.
A driver is often the wrong club here; the course asks for accuracy and a controlled ball flight, and
it exposes a player who only knows one shot.

The trees

The other defining feature is shade, which is not a small thing in this climate. Hundreds of mature
cottonwoods, Mondell pines, mesquite and other plantings have grown in over sixty years, and they make
Dixie Red Hills materially more comfortable to walk in the warm months than any of the exposed desert
courses. The tree canopy also tightens the lines considerably - the corridors are narrower now than
they were designed to be.

Who it suits

This is the beginner's course, the junior's course, the quick-nine-after-work course and the
walking course. It is also the right round for a visitor who wants to play where the region's golf
history started without committing a full day. Because it is nine holes at a municipal rate, it is
consistently the least expensive golf in the area.

The setting

The Red Hills are the sandstone escarpment that forms the northern wall of the St. George basin, and
the course sits at their foot just north of the historic downtown.
Pioneer Park is on top of the same formation a short distance east, and
the Red Hills Desert Garden, the state's first desert
conservation garden, is closer still. All three share the same geology.

Playing it cheaply

Dixie Red Hills is the backbone of any budget golf itinerary in the region - see
golf St. George on a budget for how to build a trip around the
city's municipal courses.