This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Somewhere between Cypress Point and Mulligans, Zac Blair developed his love of golf courses.
Blair will launch his third PGA Tour season Thursday in northern California. He'll study course architecture during his travels, gathering ideas he hopes someday will lead to his own facility.
And he'll just keep playing, for business and pleasure. The numbers would say Blair is costing himself some money along the way. While earning $2.1 million in two years, he wore down in the second half of his 2015-16 season, which ended in August. In his last seven Sunday rounds, his stroke average was 74.0.
"I definitely feel like there are times when I play too much," he said. "But I love golf. I've loved it my whole life. It's all I know how to do."
So he's likely to play in another 30-plus events in 2016-17, and that's just the start. His discovery of what else was out there began during his rookie season of 2014-15. Preparing for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Monterey Peninsula in California, he was invited to play the exclusive Cypress Point one afternoon. "I can't turn that down," he thought. From there, he began mapping out other stops on the tour calendar — whether on weekends, after missing the 36-hole cut in a tournament, or early in the week.
"Every week, there's an unbelievable course, whether we're playing it or it's close by," said Blair, a former Fremont High School and BYU golfer.
"Unbelievable" is both Blair's go-to adjective and his highest compliment. He appreciates this ongoing opportunity to play the PGA Tour and everything that comes with it. Perpetually appearing younger than his age (26), he's an old soul when it comes to golf, as he travels the tour with his wife, Alicia.
Blair has watched his father, Jimmy, design layouts such as the Mulligans Creekside executive course in Ogden and renovate Sun River Golf Club and Bloomington Country Club in St. George. Historically, he has studied the designs of C.B. MacDonald and Seth Raynor, who worked in the early 20th century. They designed layouts that have endured, such as Chicago Golf Club and the National Golf Links of America in New York.
Blair's enthusiastic descriptions of these courses drive home a key point: Every member of the PGA Tour is a phenomenal golfer, but not all of them truly love the game, its venues and its history — certainly, not as much as Blair, who's also collecting old golf books.
A tour card is not a ticket to any private club, so gaining access to some of these courses takes some networking and persuasion. Blair recognizes he's "probably a little spoiled," and that's healthy. His stories illustrate how much he enjoys experiences such as touring Chicago Golf Club with an assistant pro in two hours, on a day the course was closed.
Blair once arrived at Fishers Island, off the coast of Connecticut, by boat, docked near the 17th fairway. The sun broke through after five holes, creating a spectacular day on a course he considers "every bit as good as Cypress Point."
Those stops were just the warmup for a trip that Blair put together with his father and his agent, Christopher Mullhaupt. They spent the week of his 26th birthday on Long Island in August prior to The Barclays event in the FedEx Cup Playoffs, playing a series of classic courses that included Shinnecock Hills. Blair shot a 68 from the tees that will be used in the 2018 U.S. Open.
The weeklong experience "was out of control, how cool it was," Blair said.
And it made him even more determined to build his own spectacular venue. It will be rewarding, once it all comes together — from buying the property (he's considering two locations, about 40 minutes from Salt Lake City) to designing and building the course and creating a destination for people who appreciate the game. In his vision, the course will be walkable, playable for golfers of all abilities and memorable, from start to finish.
As a social media enthusiast, Blair solicits suggestions for the club's facilities — but there will be no pool. As he said, "I want a place where it's just all about golf."
That's his game, after all. He'll begin the PGA Tour's 2016-17 schedule Thursday in the Safeway Open. The event is hosted by Johnny Miller at Napa, Calif., where Utahns Tony Finau and Daniel Summerhays also will launch their seasons.
Following the tournament, Blair may try to play some famous San Francisco-area courses before resuming the tour schedule. "I definitely play more than anybody I've ever met," he said, "but I love it."
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