Dixie Red Hills opened in 1965 as the first municipal course in St. George — the original nine, before Southgate, before Sunbrook, before the city had any of the layouts that put Washington County on the snowbird golf map. It sits north of downtown off Bluff Street, tucked under the sandstone cliffs that gave the place its name, and it has stayed nine holes for sixty years.
The Original Nine Under the Cliffs
Ernie Schneider routed the course at the foot of the red rock that walls the north side of the city. The fairways meander between the cliff face and the older neighborhoods that built out around it — mature cottonwoods, established shade, the kind of fast greens that come from a course that has been mowed the same way for decades. The yardage is short by modern standards (2,733 from the back tees, par 34) but the layout is genuinely scenic in a way the bigger courses can't replicate. The cliffs are right there.
A Walking Course in a Cart Town
Dixie Red Hills is one of the few courses in the area where most rounds get walked. Nine holes under an hour and a half. The clientele is a mix — retirees doing a quick after-breakfast loop, locals squeezing in a round before work, families bringing kids to learn on a course where the par-3s are short enough to actually be reachable. The pace is slower than Sunbrook or St. George Golf Club, the green fees lower, and the experience closer to what golf in St. George felt like before the resort developments arrived in the late 1980s.
Sixty Years of Municipal Golf
The course is operated by City of St. George Leisure Services as part of the four-course municipal system — Dixie Red Hills, Southgate, St. George Golf Club, and Sunbrook. Tee times book through the city portal. Greens fees are city-resident-friendly. The course has not been redesigned in any major way since Schneider laid it out, which is part of its appeal — what you play at Dixie Red Hills in 2026 is recognizably what locals played in 1970.
For visitors building a Washington County card, Dixie Red Hills is the historical bookend. Black Desert opened in 2022, hosts the PGA Tour, and stretches to 7,500 yards. Dixie Red Hills opened in 1965, charges municipal rates, and has nine holes under the red cliffs. Both are St. George golf — one is the present and one is the origin point.