Talking GolfGetaways: Your Golf Getaways Podcast · Mitch Laurance and Darin Bunch

Talking St. George and Beyond with the Original ‘Essential Destinations’ Team

·1 hr 44 min·5 clips

Entrata’s David McClay Kidd renovation turned a former Johnny Miller course from punishing to playable.

1. Talking Golf Getaways centers on a St. George, Utah and Mesquite, Nevada golf trip with Sand Hollow, Entrata, and Boulder Creek. 2. Mitch Lawrence hosts with Darren, Brian Orr, Vic Williams, and Chris McKeown, and Brian and Vic matter because they shape golf-travel planning and course coverage. 3. The episode asks what makes a destination golf trip work when the scenery, the lodging, and the group all matter as much as the scorecard. 4. Brian says the group stayed at the Sand Hollow condos, where the decks overlook golf holes and the mountains, and Mitch says the setting was new to him. 5. Mitch describes waking up to the eighth green framed by snow-capped mountains and red desert, and he says he will never forget that view. 6. Brian says the St. George landscape looks like “another planet” because of the red rock cliffs, reddish-pink sand, and almost tree-free terrain. 7. Brian explains that Sand Hollow’s championship course was shaped with relatively little dirt movement, while 99% of the major earthwork came on holes 11 through 15. 8. Vic says the stretch from the 11th par 3 down toward the valley feels “surreal,” and he compares the experience to playing strategic golf on a severe landscape. 9. Brian says the Sand Hollow Links course on a smaller footprint deserves more respect because it is not an executive course or a lesser option. 10. Brian compares that nine-hole course to Sweeten's Cove and says it can work as a 27-hole day with the championship course. 11. Brian explains that photos of Sand Hollow’s back nine often get dismissed as AI because the cliffs and fairways look almost fake. 12. Mitch says standing on the tees changes the experience because the valley drop and cliff lines make the shots look harder than they are. 13. Entrata enters the conversation as a private course linked to the Inn at Entrata and accessible through a hotel stay. 14. Brian says Entrata was originally built by Johnny Miller and later renovated by David McClay Kidd, with some old lava holes still part of the routing. 15. Mitch says Kidd’s renovation made the greens and surrounds more fun by adding run-off areas and reducing the punishment for missed shots. 16. The hosts contrast Johnny Miller’s “make it long, make it tight” era with Kidd’s emphasis on playability and ground-game options. 17. Chris describes Boulder Creek as a 27-hole facility that feels hyper-local, and Brian says it is a hidden gem about 25 minutes outside Las Vegas. 18. The conversation moves fast between course architecture, travel logistics, and reunion humor, with repeated references to ads, social accounts, and inside jokes. 19. Listeners who like desert golf, course architecture, and trip-planning ideas will get the most from it. 20. People looking for a tight, edited review of one course only may skip it.

As heard by us

A desert golf reunion that feels lived-in because the friendships and course notes do.

This episode follows a golf-travel reunion in St. George, Utah, and Mesquite, Nevada, as Mitch Lawrence, Darren, Brian Orr, and Vic Williams revisit the original Golf Getaways Essential Destination crew.

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Why you'd press play

You want a golf trip that sounds like friends trading banter over St. George and Mesquite.

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