The Yuma Open Golf Tournament: When the Hogan and Nike Tour Played Desert Hills

The Yuma Open golf tournament was a professional event played four times, in February 1990 to 1993, at Desert Hills Golf Course, Yuma's municipal course. It was a Ben Hogan Tour event from 1990 to 1992 and a Nike Tour event in 1993, the developmental tour now called the Korn Ferry Tour. It was not a PGA Tour stop.

The best-known number from the event is 196: P. H. Horgan III's 54-hole total in 1991, then the tour's scoring record. Here is the full record, what it says about Desert Hills, and how to play the course today.

Quick facts

• Event: the Yuma Open, a Ben Hogan Tour event (1990-92) and Nike Tour event (1993).
• Course: Desert Hills Golf Course, the City of Yuma municipal 18.
• Format: 54 holes, played in February.
• Purses: $100,000 to $150,000.
• Record: P. H. Horgan III, 196 (17 under) in 1991, then the tour's 54-hole scoring record.
• Not a PGA Tour event. No PGA Tour event in Yuma in the 1950s or 1960s was found.

Yuma Open golf tournament: winners and scores

All four were three-round events over a Friday-to-Sunday weekend in February, the heart of Yuma's winter season. Purses ran from $100,000 to $150,000.

The 54-hole record

Horgan's 196 in 1991 works out to an average of about 65.3 a round for three rounds. At the time, it was the lowest 54-hole total the tour had seen.

The other winning scores tell a similar story. Pearson's 198 the year before averaged 66, and both the 1992 and 1993 winners finished on 201, an average of 67. The 1993 edition, the only one under the Nike Tour name, went to a playoff, with Ron Streck beating Chris DiMarco.

How far under the course rating the winners went

The course rating is the score a scratch golfer is expected to shoot. Set the winning averages against today's Championship rating of 72.2 and you get a feel for the gap between a scratch golfer and a tour winner at Desert Hills. The tournament-era tees are not documented, so this is a rough comparison, not an exact one.

What the Yuma Open says about Desert Hills

Low scores at Desert Hills are not a knock on the course. The championship tees today play 6,824 yards with a rating of 72.2 and slope of 121, a solid municipal test. The course's profile helps explain the numbers: open fairways, rolling terrain, some elevation change and large, undulating greens.

The course site still lists its tour history. It says Desert Hills hosted Ben Hogan Tour, Nike Tour and Sunbelt Senior Tour events, and that the course has been voted Yuma's best golf course 19 of the last 20 years in a local reader poll.

A few other facts about Desert Hills:

• Opened: 1973, built by the City of Yuma.
• Designer: disputed. A 2008 Golf Club Atlas thread says city engineers laid it out, with consultant Dick Slavinski involved. Forrest Richardson, credited by GolfPass and GolfNow, says there that he only redid the practice green and the No. 9 green in the 1980s or early 1990s.
• Water: the scorecard diagram shows ponds at the 3rd, 7th, 17th and 18th.
• Renovation: a new irrigation system in 2025, funded by a state water-infrastructure grant, with work done nine holes at a time from June to September 2025.

Desert Hills tees today

Ratings are from the USGA database. The 2012 scorecard prints different names and yardages, so pick a tee by its rating. The tournament-era layout and tees were not documented in our sources, so do not assume the pros played these exact yardages.

February at Desert Hills, then and now

Every Yuma Open was played in February, the middle of Yuma's peak winter-visitor season. That timing still defines the course. NOAA normals at the Yuma airfield give February an average high of 73.4F, a low of 50.4F and only 0.38 inches of rain, which is why winter is when Yuma golf is at its best.

It is also when Desert Hills is busiest and most expensive. The city's January to March table is the highest of its seasonal tiers, and tee sheets fill early in the morning. If you want to play where the pros played without the peak-season crowd, November is a good alternative once the course reopens after its fall overseed, and April has easier tee times as winter visitors head home. The Yuma golf rates guide shows how each course's prices move through the seasons.

Playing Desert Hills today

The course that hosted the Yuma Open is a public municipal course you can book this week. Rates from the city's posted table (seen October 23, 2026; rates change):

The November and December 2026 table was not posted. In November and December 2025 the before-11 AM rate was $65 with a cart and $45 walking. Walking 9 holes after 4 PM is $9.

Booking. Call 928-373-5220 (6:00 AM to 6:00 PM) or book on the city's TeeItUp page, which opens each date at 12:00 AM eight days ahead. GolfNow also resells times. On October 23, 2026 there were no online times through October 31, and the engine told golfers to call the pro shop, so check the post-overseed reopening before you plan an early-November round.

Punch cards. For a winter stay, the city sells a 10-play green-fee card with cart at $650 or walking at $500, valid January to March, plus a separate 10-play cart card at $150, valid all year.

Pace. The scorecard's USGA pace rating is 4 hours 18 minutes, but spring 2026 reviews reported 5-hour rounds at busy times, so take an early tee time.

The 19th hole. The Hills GastroPub in the clubhouse was rated 4.4 on Google (254 reviews) when checked.

Next door. The 18-hole Arroyo Dunes Par 3, just north of Desert Hills, is part of the same city golf operation. A walking 18 was $20 in January to March.

Full details are in the Desert Hills course guide and the longer Desert Hills golf course guide. For how it stacks up against the Foothills favorite, read Desert Hills vs Las Barrancas.

After the Yuma Open: the Yuma County Open

The Yuma Open ended after 1993, and no later professional event in Yuma appears in our sources. Yuma's main tournament today is the Yuma County Open, a local amateur event played over Labor Day weekend across several courses. In 2017 it used Yuma Golf & Country Club, Desert Hills and Mesa del Sol; in 2018, Mesa del Sol, Las Barrancas and Desert Hills. The 2026 edition was not confirmed. It can tie up tee times at the host courses that weekend.

If you are curious how Yuma's other championship-length courses compare, best golf courses in Yuma ranks them and Yuma golf courses puts every course side by side. The Mesa del Sol course guide and Las Barrancas course guide list their tees and ratings. For more Yuma history between rounds, see things to do in Yuma.

Plan it on the map

Open the Yuma golf map to find Desert Hills about 11 minutes from downtown, with every other course and stay around it. The $30 plan can put a round where the Yuma Open was played into a golf trip, or into a whole winter stay with a weekly course rotation.