Green Spring Golf Course

Green Spring is the course people in southern Utah bring visitors to when they want them to see
one hole. Gene Bates designed it for Washington City and it opened in 1989, and while the whole layout
is strong, the reputation rests on a single tee shot.

Devil's Gulch

The par-four 6th requires a drive across a genuine red-rock gorge. There is no safe angle that avoids
the decision - the carry is the hole - and it is routinely named among the hardest holes in the state.
What makes it a good hole rather than merely a hard one is that the reward scales with the risk: the
more of the gorge you take on, the shorter and flatter the approach. It is the single most
photographed golf hole in Washington County after Sand Hollow's cliff holes.

The rest of the course

The remaining seventeen are better than their billing. Bates routed the course through rolling
benchland with real elevation change, and from the Blue tees it rates 72.7 with a slope of 132 - a
slope that puts it firmly among the more demanding public rounds in the area, not merely a one-hole
novelty. The greens are quick and there is more water than the desert setting suggests.

Who it suits

Green Spring is a strong round for a mid-handicap player who wants a memorable hole without the
sustained punishment of Copper Rock. There are four sets of tees for men, and moving forward one set
changes the character of the round substantially - Devil's Gulch in particular becomes a manageable
proposition rather than an intimidating one.

The setting

Washington City sits east of St. George along the Virgin River, and Green Spring occupies the bench
above it. The gorge that defines the 6th is cut into the same coral-toned sandstone that gives the
neighboring Coral Canyon community its name. The historic
Washington Cotton Mill, built in the 1860s during the Cotton
Mission that brought settlers to this valley in the first place, is a few minutes away in old
Washington.

Living here

The course anchors the established Green Spring community.
The Green Springs commercial district sits immediately below it, which makes this one of the few
golf neighborhoods in the county where daily errands do not require a drive across town. For visiting
golfers, golf trip lodging in St. George covers basing yourself
on this side of the valley.