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Jeremy Pugh

Jeremy Pugh is Salt Lake magazine's Editor. He covers culture, history, the outdoors and whatever needs a look. Jeremy is also the author of the book "100 Things to Do in Salt Lake City Before You Die" and the co-author of the history, culture and urban legend guidebook "Secret Salt Lake."

Aug 15
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Black Desert Course’s wavy fairways amidst black lava fields. Photo courtesy of Black Desert Resort.

Black Desert Resort to Host First PGA Tour Event in Utah in 60 Years

By Community

In 1963, Tommy Jacobs won the PGA Tour’s 1963 Utah Open Invitational at the Salt Lake Country Club. It wasn’t pretty. Despite a stellar round, Jacobs stumbled on the final stretch putting up a double bogey on the 17th and shot another double bogey on 18. Fortunately, Don January, the guy chasing him on the leaderboard, couldn’t pounce and Jacobs held on with one stroke.

That was the last time a PGA Tour Event was held in Utah. Of course, the Utah Open has continued as a PGA-sanctioned event, but last spring the PGA declared the Black Desert Championship, in Ivins, will be part of the FedEx Cup fall series. This means the best golfers in the world could chase Cup points on the par-72 course. 

This doesn’t mean Scotti Scheffler will be playing (which is what you were wondering), but it could happen! 

The 7,400-yard Black Desert Course. Renderings courtesy of Black Desert Resort.

The PGA Tour first appeared in Utah in 1930 when World Golf Hall of Fame member Harry “Lighthorse” Cooper won the Salt Lake Open. Seven years later, the tour returned to Salt Lake City in 1937, when Al Zimmerman won the first of back-to-back Utah Open titles.

The historic Western Open, now known as the BMW Championship, stopped in the Beehive State a decade later, when seven-time PGA Tour winner Johnny Palmer captured the 1947 tournament in Salt Lake City.  

In 1948, Salt Lake City hosted the Utah Open Invitational, where Lloyd Mangrum edged George Fazio in a playoff. The event was played three more times (1958, 1960, 1963) with the 1963 edition featuring Tommy Jacobs’ dubious win.

Black Desert, a new luxury resort in Ivins, is huge. Sitting on 600 acres of land, the resort has  800 hotel rooms and luxury residences. The 19-hole course is a favorite for pro golfers who have come during the off-season to practice. 

The Black Desert course was designed by Phil Smith and, World Golf Hall of Fame inductee, the late Tom Weiskopf, becoming his final design (see sidebar).

“We are honored to host the world’s most prestigious professional golf Tours at Black Desert Resort,” says Black Desert’s managing partner Patrick Manning. 

“Bringing the best from the PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour to Black Desert and them having the best experience imaginable, along with their fans, is priority number one.”

The Black Desert Championship is one of two professional golf events coming to Black Desert Resort, which will also host an LPGA Tour event in 2025.  

Grandstands are being built along the course to accommodate the crowds. Renderings courtesy of Black Desert Resort.

Play the Course

Black Desert’s 19-hole, 7,400-yard course was designed by hall of famer Tom Weiskopf, who won 16 PGA Tour titles between 1968 and 1982, including the 1973 Open Championship. Weiskopf was the runner-up at The Masters four times. After winding down his career playing golf, Weiskopf became a noted golf course architect. Weiskopf passed away in 2022 and the Black Desert Course was the final course designed by this golf legend. He was voted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2023 and will be inducted this year. 

The pro-level course is unique in that much of it was built around volcanic formations that are prevalent outside of St. George. The lava rock adds scenery as well as more than a little drama for players. Find out more and book a tee time at blackdesertresort.com/golf

If You Go:

  • What: The PGA Tour’s Black Desert Championship

  • When: Oct. 9-13, 2024

  • Where: Black Desert Resort, 1500 E. Black Desert Dr., Ivins, blackdesertresort.com

  • Tickets: VIP experiences and grounds passes are currently on sale at blackdesertchampionshipmens.com. On-sale dates for individual rounds have not been announced. 

  • Note: Organizers caution that these tickets will be only available through the PGA’s official ticket provider, Ticketmaster, and not to fall for scams. 

Jul 25
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Police Report of Walter Kelbach_SLM JA24_Salt Lake City Police Museum

The Tale of a Shocking ’60s Robbery and Murder Spree in Salt Lake

By Utah Lore

In 1966, two 18-year-old gas station attendants were kidnapped in Kearns and stabbed to death. The bodies of Steven Shea and Michael Holtz were discovered stripped of their clothing in a remote location. The brutality of the crimes caught Salt Lake residents off guard. “It wasn’t that we didn’t have robberies and murders in Salt Lake City at the time,” says Salt Lake Police historian Steve “Duffy” Diamond, who passed away in 2015. “It was the harsh nature of these killings that got the attention.”

Murder in Salt Lake

On a wintry night of that year, two men—Myron Lance and Walter Kelbach—were drinking at Lally’s Tavern on the west side of Salt Lake City, on the corner of 400 South and 900 West, now a vacant brownstone. The bartender was chatting with them about the two bodies that had been found.

“The bartender (Lloyd Graven) said something like, ‘I wish I had the guys who killed those kids right here. I’d teach them a lesson,’” says Diamond. “Lance and Kelbach told him he had his chance, brought out their guns, and started blazing away.”

Fred Lillie, 21, James Sisemore, 47, and Beverly Mace, 34, were gunned down that night at the bar. Lance and Kelbach emptied the register and fled. They were captured later that evening at a police roadblock. The investigation uncovered that they had killed Shea and Holtz and that, before the tavern shootings, Lance and Kelbach had shot a cab driver, Grant Strong. The final body count was six. 

“It was like sitting in a foxhole at the battlefront,” Graven told The Salt Lake Tribune in 1966. “He turned on me and shot point-blank. The concussion of the shot knocked me down. He leaned over the bar and shot at me lying on the floor. How he missed, I’ll never know.”

Lance and Kelbach were convicted and sentenced to death in April 1967. (Lance chose the firing squad; Kelbach decided he would hang.) But in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional, and their sentences were reduced to life in prison. After the verdict, the duo gave a startling prison house interview for NBC. 

Murder in Salt Lake
Walter Kelbach with an unknown woman. Photo courtesy of the Sale Lake City Police Museum.

Lance said, “I haven’t any feelings toward the victims.” Kelbach added, “I don’t mind people getting hurt because I just like to watch it.”

After capital punishment was reinstated, the state again sought the death penalty for the duo, but a Fifth Circuit Court judge rejected the state’s arguments because of the case’s age.

“They were without remorse,” Diamond says. “They were so cold-blooded. It shocked everyone.”  

Extra! Extra! Extra!

In 1968, Lance attacked a prison guard with a sharpened spoon. In that same year, the duo escaped with seven other inmates but were captured in Idaho. During the ’70s, Kelbach attempted to adopt a younger, male parolee. His request was denied. Lance died in prison in 2010 of natural causes. Kelbach passed away in 2018 after serving 51 years.

Interested in learning more Utah lore? Read about Utah’s “Black Dahlia”

Jul 19
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Horse and Carriage from Pioneer Day Parade_SLM JA24_JayLynn Photography

Why Utahns Show Up Early to The Pioneer Parade—Way Early

By Utah Lore

You may arrive at this year’s 24th of July parade at what you assume to be right on time, lawn chairs in tow, ready for the grand marshal’s whistle and the drum majors’ first beat. You are too late. You’ll be relegated to a patch of dirt near Liberty Park, while the primo spots are already filled with enthusiastic daughters and sons of Utah pioneers who have shown up ready to play…12 to 16 hours before go time. 

This parade, after all, is part of the emphatically celebrated anniversary of the Latter-day Saints’ arrival in the Salt Lake Valley. Few states have such a rich history that it warrants an official day off and a parade of this magnitude.

Snagging key parade spots, and the modest revelry that ensues up and down the town’s main drag, may not be unique to Utah. We all love a parade, after all. But the vibe around 6 p.m.-ish, and on into twilight’s last fading on the 23rd, is essential Utah. 

First, there are the teens, up late with a good excuse for prowling. But “prowling” is too sinister a term. These are the Archie-comic, suburban-parallel-universe versions of the bridge-and-tunnel crowd. You’ll meet a fleet of good-natured Davis County teens, enjoying nothing more intoxicating than Mountain Dew and a pass to be out beyond curfew, thrilling in the “big city.” While mom and dad (and vast extended families) dutifully GUARD THE SPOT with elaborate systems of coolers, lawn chairs and Honda generators, the young crowd is free to roam. Besides, if Mom and Dad are not physically there, the Holy Ghost stays up late tonight (this is Pioneer Day Eve, after all). 

Next, there are the Bible Bangers. Limited most often to the “protest zone” just off Temple Square, this ragtag fleet of Jesus Freaks and End-of-Timers is set free to carry its fire-and-brimstone message to the gathered throngs. Everyone is up all night. What time is it? Half past John 3:16. 

Combine those earnest, mostly LDS-mission-bound teens from the suburbs, all hopped up on sugary sodas, with wild-eyed prophets representing The Lord Savior Jesus Christ “hisself” on one long Rocky Mountain Las Ramblas, and now you’re in Utah, baby.

And by 2 a.m., after the SLCPD has shooed away the antagonists in the debate over the Trinity, it’s proper family time. Bring on the card games, laughter and a shared goal to enjoy the dawn’s early light, to cheer on the marathoners as they enter the city and to anticipate the Grand Marshal’s whistle—which means salt water taffy for all! 

It’s going to be a good morning here in Utah.  

Jun 27
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Best of the Beehive 2024

Editor’s Note: How to Love Utah

By Community

It was 40 years ago, I was at the Sandcastle Theater, in Woods Cross, marveling at the film Footloose. It wasn’t that the movie itself was a marvel. I was marveling because I recognized the places on the screen. While the film is set in a fictional midwestern town, I could see Utah up there in 35mm.

The Wasatch Front rises over nearly every scene. I had been to the farmland where the film’s wild chicken fight occurs (it was filmed on a schoolmate’s uncle’s property). I had been to the Lehi Roller Mills, where Kevin Bacon’s Ren McCormack works. And, in a sense, I had been to Payson High School, which looked (and still looks) like pretty much every Utah high school of that era.

In this issue, we chronicle the making of Footloose (“Cuttin’ Loose in Payson”) and last spring’s successful efforts by Payson High’s Class of 2024 to bring Kevin Bacon back to his old dance floor. In pulling the story together, it reminded me of that 1984 moment of, well, call it cinematic vertigo. The movie made me feel like I was from somewhere not just anywhere. I came from an actual place and it’s a place that I still love 40 years later.

Thus the theme of our centerpiece article, Salt Lake magazine’s Best of the Beehive. Each year, we share our favorite and readers’ favorite things, and this year, we decided to share the reasons we love Utah. And although we could only cram about 75 (ish) onto the pages, you’ll discover plenty to love.

Need even more proof that Utah is the best place to live? Read our 2023 Best of the Beehive issue here!

May 08
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Utah Major League

Utah Bets Big on Major League Dreams

By City Watch

People will come, Ray. They’ll come for reasons they can’t even fathom…And they’ll watch the game and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. People will come, Ray. Oh…people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.” So intones James Earl Jones’s Terrance Mann in the final scenes of the 1989 baseball film Field of Dreams. 

Utah is indeed dreaming big, about baseball, hockey and, once again, the Winter Olympic Games (2034). Here we go again. In 2002 Salt Lake hosted the Winter Games, maybe you heard about that, and it is widely accepted as Utah’s debut on the national stage. Careers were made and Mitt Romney, well, you know what happened there.

The big dreams are two-fold. Big League Utah, backed by the Larry H. Miller group, wants to build its Field of Dreams—a Major League ballpark for an MLB team on a patch of land near the Utah State Fair Park, on the TRAX Green Line. Meanwhile, back at the idea factory, current Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith is pushing to bring a National Hockey League team to the Delta Center and eventually—wait for it—rebuild the Delta Center into a world-class NHL-NBA-Olympics Venue. The trifecta! 

There is juice behind both. The Millers have come to the table with $3.5 billion in funding and it turns out the Utah State Legislature wants to play ball (and hockey). Two bills signed by Gov. Spencer Cox paved the way for some sales and hotel tax jujitsu that could be used to back both efforts to the tune of $900 million. Let’s just call that a cool billion.

But if we build it, will they come?

Consider this. Currently, Utah has two major league teams, the Utah Jazz (NBA) and Real Salt Lake (MLS). These big dreams, if realized (and that’s one big if) would bring that number to four. We also have two professional minor league teams, the Bees and the Grizzlies. The Wasatch Front has a population of about 2 million. In other cities about our size, only Minnapolis-St. Paul and Denver have four majors. Phoenix, which has 6 million people is about to lose its NHL franchise the Coyotes, because of a lack of fan support (and also hockey in the desert is weird). 

Yes, Utah has fans. Average attendance at Jazz games is a not-to-shabby 18,000, considering how the team is playing. At the college level, the Cougars and the Runnin’ Utes create devotion bordering on insane. However, the Bees rarely fill up Smith’s Ballpark, unless it’s a firework night (because it’s a cheap night out with the kids) and the Grizzlies’ average attendance is about half of the capacity of the Maverick Center.

And, of course, it would be “way cool” to have as many teams as stupid Denver. The State of Utah itself was based on the big dreams of its settlers. But is that ancient precedent enough? 

Will they come?  

Apr 29
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Salt Lake magazine Editor Jeremy Pugh - Photo by Natalie Simpson-Beehive Photography

Editor’s Note: New Ways to Play

By Community

For this issue, we looked at the state of travel on the Wasatch Front—without a car. Our story “Alternate Routes” examines the ways pedestrians, bikers, scooters, skaters and anyone not in a car (somersaults maybe?) navigate the Wasatch Front. Over the last decade, there has been a huge infrastructural push to change the prevailing wisdom that roads and cars are the only way to fly. Around Utah, in cities from St. George to Logan, elected officials, regional planning agencies and grassroots groups of transit nerds have been putting action to the idea that transportation means more than just cars. This is more than just painting some lines on the road and calling it a bike lane and passing out orange flags at crosswalks. It’s a shift in thinking. We like to move for fitness, for cleaner air, and, honestly, for fun. Our cars get us there, sure. But do we enjoy the ride? Our story will help you discover the fun of stabling that car in the barn and moving through the city in new ways. 

“People often think about what they lose if they stop driving,” says Sweet Streets Director Ben Wood. “And what you’ll find when you make the switch, is you gain much more than you lose in just terms of community, connection and a sense of place and a sense of home in the city you live in.” 

And, while we’re on the subject of doing new things in spaces formerly reserved for something else, let’s talk about Pickleball. You may have heard about this thing. Or you may have just heard it—a new kind of sound in the park—dink, dink. Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the nation, and Utah is the no. 1 state in the union for pickleball. (And you thought it was Florida?) Shh. Don’t mention that to the tennis players you know. Many tennis players deride pickleball as a mere game—akin to croquet or tossing a frisbee around. But love it or hate it, pickleball is here to stay. Across the state (and especially in St. George),  parks and recreation departments have been reconfiguring dormant public courts in parks for the picklers, as they call themselves. Our writer, Heather Hayes is a former tennis player newly converted to pickleball. She wades into the debate in her story “What’s All the Racket”. She discovers a range of views from tennis purists to pickler upstarts. Somewhere in the middle lies the truth, she found. 

As things heat up in Utah, we know this issue will help you discover more ways to enjoy the warmer days. From after-work hikes (“Shake Off the Day”) to breakfast on a patio (“The Rise of the Breakfast-only Joint”), we’ve got you covered.

Bring on summer!

Executive Editor Jeremy Pugh

Photo by Natalie Simpson @beehivephotovideo

Read more stories like this and all of our Community coverage. And while you’re here, subscribe and get six issues of Salt Lake magazine, your curated guide to the best of life in Utah.

Apr 11
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Scelto-Salt-Lake-Magazine-Photo-by-DanCampbell

First Bite: Scelto in Sandy

By Eat & Drink

I am admittedly a Salt Lake snob, generally adhering to the principle that anything south of 33rd is “the country.” But I was drawn out of my usual stomping grounds recently by talk around town of a new Italian-inspired restaurant called Scelto in, gasp, Sandy. 

To be clear, there are of course great restaurants down south. The Charleston comes to mind, for example, but the south end of our valley is also littered with chain restaurants leaving its residents high and dry if they’re looking for something that doesn’t come with fries. Scelto has a shot at helping this situation. Unfortunately, in a strip mall, Scelto restaurant’s owners have worked hard against the grain of Sandy commercial real estate options. They called in two of Salt Lake’s eminent pros, Gary Vlasic and Jamie Clyde, to design the space and help us all forget that it previously may have been a martial arts dojo. The resulting restaurant is clearly not a dojo. It is spacious, well appointed and inviting. 

I made my visit with a good friend of mine who does a lot of business in the tech sector and his first thought once we were seated was that he’d offer to meet colleagues here as a midway point instead of his usual trek to Lehi, which is truly a dining wasteland. This is kind of the point of Scelto. Salt Lake is growing fast, especially to the south and there is an opportunity for experienced operators to establish excellence amid the sea of mediocrity. 

Will Scelto succeed? Let’s go to the table. First, the wine list is very Italian, a good sign for a place deeming itself to be inspired by Italy and it has some nice splashes of French as well as the Kendall Jackson Chard, as is required in Utah. On the table, we wandered into seared Ahi (not Italian) and arancini (very Italian) for starters. Always dubious about fish in the desert, the Ahi was fantastic, a nice piece of fish well prepared with no fuss. I always chuckle at arancini, in actual Italy, it’s more of a street food. The fried egg-shaped ball of rice and often meat (but in this case, mushrooms) is always on the table when I see it on a menu. For the salad course, I never pass up a beet salad, and this simply presented plate of arugula, baby beets, pine nuts, fennel and a lemony balsamic ticked that box. For the mains, we stayed firmly in Italy—lasagna and carbonara. The chef, however, did bring out a short rib that was easily better than both. The fall-off-the-bone meat was served with caramelized shallot, mashed potatoes and a lovely red wine jus. The carbonara didn’t dazzle but the lasagna was another story. My friend is well-traveled and considers a lasagna to be the litmus test of any Italian meal. “It’s a simple dish but easy to mess up,” he says. Scelto’s kitchen did not mess it up. The beef ragu had been clearly and appropriately simmered for hours, which is the most important and complex part of a good lasagna. 

Scelto is still working out some bugs like any new endeavor but my first visit showed promise and I’d like to go back and try some of the Italian-inspired corners of the menu.  And, my dinner companion gave it a thumbs up as a good spot to entertain Lehi clients (that spares him the trek into actual Lehi.)

  • What: Scelto, an Italian-inspired restaurant

  • Where: 849 E. 9400 South, Sandy

  • Hours: Open for lunch and dinner Monday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Saturdays for dinner from 5 to 10 p.m.

  • Online: sceltoslc.com and on Instagram @sceltoslc.

Feb 27
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UrbanHillFeature-e1709064092997

2024 Outstanding Restaurant of the Year: Urban Hill

By Dining Awards, Eat & Drink

Last year, we named Urban Hill one of our four restaurants to watch. The Salt Lake outpost of Park City’s Hearth & Hill announced its presence with authority when it opened in the Post District in 2023.

Photo by Lydia Martinez

Photo by Lydia Martinez

Potato Latkes. Photo by Lydia Martinez

Now it’s an outstanding representation of what can happen when dedicated owners put their money where our mouths are. Owner Brooks Kirchheimer and his family have hired the best in the business, namely, Executive Chef Nick Zocco and a supporting cast of service standouts. The food on the plate is bold, the delivery is educated and efficient without being officious or pedantic and the wine glasses are always full of selections from a daring list. Awards panelist Stuart Melling summed up our thoughts. “Everything they do is so high-end and thoughtful,” he says. “They actually pay their staff a living wage that translates into service quality. Every time I go, I inevitably have some weird question for the server like, ‘Is this preserved lemon in the jus?’ and they ALWAYS know the answer. I have yet to stump them.” 

510 S. 300 West, SLC  |  urban-hill.com

Read our first impressions of Urban Hill from 2023!

Hungry for more? Find all our current and previous Dining Awards winners here! And while you’re here, why not subscribe and get six annual issues of Salt Lake magazine’s curated guide to the best of life in Utah.