La Quinta Mountain or Classic Club?

Hi everyone,

We are going on our first trip to palm springs (8 guys) and we have determined 4 of the 5 courses we will play:

Toscana CC

Stadium

DW Firecliff

Indian Well's Players

The above courses are set and we're not really debating on changing any of them, what we are wondering is for our last day (early morning round) would you recommend Classic Club or La Quinta Mountain? We are all average handicaps and enjoy a good challenge, along with good conditions and nice visual appeal. We will be heading on our trip in early June and any advice between the two would be helpful.

Thanks!

Classic Club is one awesome tough track. I loved it when I played it this past winter.

Ditch the Stadium course to play the Nicklaus Tournament course, and try an get on the Mountain course in the afternoon to get the sun going down over the mountains. Stadium is not a "fun" course unless you're a masochist and Nicklaus is still a good challenge, as for the Mountain course it is the harder of the two La Quinta courses and is challenging but also a lot of fun. If you want to see some low scores play the Dunes course...I was four under when I played the front nine.

Classic Club for me, no question. But check the wind, it can be super windy out there

Classic club. The best layout in the desert for courses open to the public. The only way you don't play it is if the wind is hurricane force. If it's medium or mild play the classic club.

Thank you guys so much! Sounds like it'll be the Classic Club. Completely appreciate the comments on the Stadium and saw that as well through browsing the forums. I think we'll go ahead with it for the novelty factor...

Another vote for Classic. My go to in the desert.

La Quinta Mountain

just returned from there 2 weeks ago. awesome.

ahovanes,

Would love to hear a review of your trip when you return. I'll be in the area the first few days of July. Right now I'm planning on Classic Club and either DW Firecliff or Shadow Ridge. Would love to hear your review on conditions and layout.

I hope you enjoy your trip.

Thanks,
OK_Golf

[quote name='OK_Golf' timestamp='1431967795' post='11579486']
ahovanes,

Would love to hear a review of your trip when you return. I'll be in the area the first few days of July. Right now I'm planning on Classic Club and either DW Firecliff or Shadow Ridge. Would love to hear your review on conditions and layout.

I hope you enjoy your trip.

Thanks,
OK_Golf
[/quote]

I will absolutely try to give a brief review and some pictures as well. As of now, the trip can't come soon enough.

I agree with everyone else play Classic Club. I am heading out there in Nov and going to make sure thats one of the course I play. I also really like Desert Willow FIrecliff course

I came back from the trip on Monday and I wanted to provide a quick review - i'm not sophisticated with my language or with golf architecture, so take this review as someone who loves the game - unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures but I wanted to put my thoughts down before I forgot some of my key takeaways:

TPC Stadium - Everyone agreed that this was the worst course we have played in our 5 years of doing these trips - I hated it less than others in my group, as I did find some appreciation in the visuals on the back 9 - but the front 9 was frustrating and boring up until hole 9. A great tee shot can easily roll into a bunker that you didn't see from the fairway. Houses lined the course and opened up onto the fairways. Conditions were...okay at best. All in all, i'd say for the rate we paid I was fine with having experienced the Stadium course, but if it was a local track I don't think i'd be back. - 6.5/10

Toscana CC - Beautiful private course that I feel privileged to play. It truly is a tale of two 9's currently, front 9 is a classic desert layout, while the back 9 is a classic layout with more trees, white bunkers, standard rough, etc. The conditions were the best I have ever played, except for some greens that appeared to have some slight damage. This was my favorite course of the trip due to the uniqueness of both nines and I would put this as a top stop if you're able to get on. - 10/10

Desert Willow Firecliff - Heard great reviews going into the trip and I loved it. My favorite part of the course was the fact that each hole felt secluded. I believe there are maybe 3 holes total where you can see another hole - and I loved that feeling. Conditions were great, service was good and I would easily put it as my favorite public track that we played on the trip. - 9/10

Indian Wells Players - After the first 4 holes, this course was pretty immaculate and fun. I liked the course for what it was, a good, fair test of golf. It felt like a walk in the park (we had carts) and I loved the semi-Augusta feel that I got with the tee boxes/very little to no rough. It was our second round of the day and I wish we had skipped TPC and played this course while I was fresh. I wouldn't put it above Desert Willow, but it was a great track and easily would highly recommend playing this course if you find yourself down there. - 9/10

Classic Club - The course that started the thread - On our guys trip we end the trip with the top 4 players advancing to the championship round and playing a skins game with no carryovers to determine the winner. I won, so that's the good news. The other thing I liked about the Classic Club is it was a great match play course, I felt that there were a lot of holes with great risk/reward opportunities. The clubhouse was great as well and I really wanted to love the course. The conditions however, were horrible - the fairways/the rough/the tee boxes - all were in poor condition. I'm not sure if it's just due to the time of the year but the other courses we played were all in better condition. I'd love to get back and play the course when the conditions are better, as I did love the routing and layout, but again, I have to knock off a few points due to conditioning - 7.5/10.

Hope the above helps add a perspective for anyone visiting Palm Springs soon!

ahovanes,

Thanks very much for the review. Particularly info on the Classic Club. Sad to hear it's in bad shape. Previous posters had said that DW Firecliff's greens were in poor condition. Apparently you didn't find that to be the case? I'll be in the area in about two weeks and am excited to play a couple of rounds.

If I'm choosing two rounds out of DW Firecliff, Classic Club and Shadow Ridge, it sounds like Classic Club is not making the cut, huh?

Did the Classic Club staff say anything? Was it drought/water issues?

I have not played firecliff or classic, but played shadow ridge last month. Course was in great condition and the layout is great. Only bad thing was we went on memorial day weekend and on the back nine there were tons of kids out on the fairways (the marriott resort residences line the fairways of the last few holes). Nobody was there controlling that situation. All of us were very worried about shanking and hitting one of those kids. Horrible parental supervision.

OK_Golf - I had heard about the Firecliff greens and was concerned as well - personally, I felt that the greens were great as they rolled true. Were some patches ugly? yes - but no impact at all on playability.

Unfortunately the Classic Club staff didn't say anything about the conditions, and even the tee boxes had been punched, so I definitely would say I was looking on the brighter side of things when I said they weren't that bad.

If I had one round to play between Classic and Firecliff, it would be Firecliff hands down for me. We did not play Shadow but I have heard great things about that course...

I have to say that PGA West Stadium might be the single most disappointing golf experience of my life.

Glad I played it once; never have to repeat the experience.

I hate to say I told ya so re: the Stadium course

Kidding of course...it's definitely an experience, plus the PGA West complex is very nice. It's interesting that you called it "boring" because I personally found it both visually and strategically interesting, just much too difficult to really enjoy. Though that also could have been down to the 115* temps and fact that anytime I wasn't hitting I was chugging Gatorade and water and eating as much as possible to keep my energy up and not paying 100% attention to the course itself.

I would probably recommend someone wanting to experience it accept going in that you need to play VERY conservatively and just enjoy the experience rather than trying to score because unless you play at least scratch golf you very rarely will be able to do so.

SilverRock or Eagle Falls are better

Hello GolfWrx experts of the Coachella Valley!

I'll be in the area next week and wanting to get the latest info on course conditions, specifically for:

Classic Club
DW Firecliff
Shadow Ridge

ahovanes had a mediocre experience with conditions at Classic Club, but said Firecliff was good, others have said Firecliff's greens were spotty (a month or so ago).

What's the latest? Any final recommendations on which 2 out of 3 to play?

This might be too late for you, but Classic is in rough shape right now...

Is the Classic Club still in poor shape or was that just due to aeration and time of year? I'm in the area mid December and it is a possible venue.