Best Golf Courses In Palm Springs

Best Golf Courses In Palm Springs

The best golf courses in Palm Springs are an intriguing collection which includes a desert course with water on all but four of its holes, and another where $70m was spent on its clubhouse alone. Palm Springs, around a hundred miles from Hollywood, became a favoured destination for Hollywood stars in the 1930s, attracted by its hot springs and weather – the weathermen have calculated it averages around 300 sunny days a year here. This weather combined with the spectacular landscape made it an appealing place to build golf courses and so now Palm Springs is a favoured destination for golfers.

Bighorn (Canyons)

• Location: Palm Desert
• Designed by: Tom Fazio
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,000 Yards
• Green Fee: Private
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This fairly flat desert layout through the mountains has water in play on six holes. The long par-3 17th is a typically attractive hole on the layout and also an intriguing adaption of a redan hole, whereby the green tilts towards the tee rather than away from it.

Bighorn (Mountains)

• Location: Palm Desert
• Designed by: Arthur Hills
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 6,907 Yards
• Green Fee: Private
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Water is in play on six of the final 10 holes of this stunningly beautiful and immaculately maintained desert track. The 18th hole (above) finishes underneath the 80,000 sq ft clubhouse which cost a reputed $70m to build and opened in 2017.

Classic Club

• Location: Palm Desert
• Designed by: Arnold Palmer
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,322 Yards
• Green Fee: Dynamic pricing
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There are 30 acres of water hazards on this tough desert course with all but four holes having water on them. The par-5 9th and the long par-4 11th are both played to essentially island greens, and the 12th is a death-or-glory par 3 over water.

La Quinta Country Club

• Location: La Quinta
• Designed by: Lawrence Hughes
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,060 Yards
• Green Fee: Private
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Accuracy more than control of length is required on approach shots here, as the greens are typically long and thin, narrower at the front than back and flanked by bunkering on each side, but never in front. These greens are reached from fairways normally lined by trees or, occasionally, water hazards.

Mission Hills Country Club (Dinah Shore Tournament Course)

• Location: Mission Hills
• Designed by: Desmond Muirhead
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,250 Yards
• Green Fee: Private
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The 646-yard 18th (above) is played to an island green and from 1994 to 2022 the winner of the Chevron Championship, a Women’s Major, traditionally jumped into Poppies Pond, also known as Champions Lake, by the 18th green. Well all bar one winner – Pat Hurst did not do so in 1998 as she could not swim. She waded in up to her knees instead.

PGA West (Stadium)

• Location: La Quinta
• Designed by: Pete Dye
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,300 Yards
• Green Fee: Dynamic pricing
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On the island green par-3 17th (above), Lee Trevino made a hole-in-one to win four-hole carry over skin worth $175,000 in the Skins Game of 1987, a recognised PGA Tour event. The par-5 16th has a greenside bunker 20ft deep. This is a highly penal course.

Quarry at La Quinta

• Location: La Quinta
• Designed by: Tom Fazio
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,083 Yards
• Green Fee: Private
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Building this course on a former mine and gravel pit involved moving over 1.2 million cubic yards of earth, planting more than 4,000 trees and 80,000 shrubs and cacti. Seven holes run along the quarry floor, the rest run along a desert plain or are weaved in among the mountains.

Tradition Golf Club

• Location: La Quinta
• Designed by: Arnold Palmer
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 6,889 Yards
• Green Fee: Private
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Typical hole designs here involve forced carries over beautifully planted out waste areas as well some huge white bunkers and, often, threatening water hazards, all towered over by mountains. The Y-shaped par-4 7th has two lakeside greens – turn left after the drive for one, right for the other. The par-4 17th (above) is played from a tee 200ft above the fairway.