Palm Springs Trip

ghost5 · December 10, 2016

Hi everyone,

Group of buddies making a second trip to Palm Springs in February, and I have a couple of questions for anybody familiar with the area.

First off, are there any courses that are true diamonds in the rough that you won't see on Golf Advisor etc.? We've played or are going to play all the tracks that are routinely recommended online, but if there are any that for whatever reason don't get much attention we'd love to know about them.

Second question, is Rams Hill worth the drive? It looks incredible, but if anybody with experience could let me know their opinion I'd certainly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

Homerun2Birdie · December 10, 2016

Rams Hill is nicer than any of the public courses in Palm Springs, and to be honest would hold its own against many of the private ones.

http://www.golfwrx.com/forums/topic/1413044-rams-hill-borrego-springs-ca/

I placed a review on it on here not too terribly long ago. Played it about 3 weeks ago maybe, and it was in absolutely flawless condition, I don't know that there was a single aspect of the course condition wise that I could find for improvement... Perhaps the greens were just a tad soft, but I believe they had some rain the night before I arrived. Other than that its absolutely A1.

If you do go I would recommend getting two rounds in, they have a great restaurant with a beautiful patio for lunch. The drive is a pain in the butt so get 36 in and enjoy the heck out of the place. Everyone there is extraordinarily friendly as well.

mizuno player · December 10, 2016

I love the coachella valley. You probably know about the two courses at Desert Willow. Really nice. Stay below the "10" and you will have a great time. Above the "10" take a kite!!

Jealous. Love playing out there. Have fun.

golfgirlrobin · December 10, 2016

Big fan of the Classic Club and SilverRock. Both are always in incredible shape and fun to play.

JMoroz · December 10, 2016

So many great courses in the palm Springs area. Definitely good deals to be had. PGA West stadium course is one of my favorites. Escena is also a decent course for a reasonable price. Quality all depends on what you want to spend in the desert. Other than that, Mission Hills, SilverRock, and the Classic Club are all beautiful as well.

uitar9 · December 10, 2016

My wife and I did our first trip to PS Jan 2016.

Escena and Indian Canyon North (for a 60 something I enjoyed the hollywood history at Indian Canyon) were decent. Played and stayed with friends at Desert Princess. Somehow they snagged $20 rounds at DP.

Coming from the frozen north, any of them were better than snow and 20 below.

bradski · December 10, 2016

Play rams hill for sure. It is as good if not better than any Palm springs course. Maybe list what you have played and we can recommend some more.

oldpalchamp · December 11, 2016

Not a course tip, but don't miss the steaks at LGs!

mizuno player · December 11, 2016

Not a course tip, but don't miss the steaks at LGs!

That place is moaney....

So are the course at LaQuinta.

ghost5 · December 12, 2016

Thanks guys,

And great idea Bradski. The courses we hit last year are:

Desert Willow both tracks

Indian Wells both tracks

TPC Stadium

Classic Club - definitely going back

We have more time this year and are planning for 10 rounds.

The list we have going so far is:

Mission Hills Pete Dye

Escena

Desert Willow Firecliff

Shadow Ridge

La Quinta Mountain

Silver Rock

TPC Stadium - one of the group must love punishment as he's insisting on going back. He believes not being hungover will help him. I think nothing can help you with this track, outside of hiring a tour pro to play for you. Not to mention they fit a group of 50+ ladies in front of us and let them play off the white tees. That is enough for me to never go back to be honest. Anyways rant over.

Rams Hill

Classic Club x2

mikedejong · December 12, 2016

I would add Eagle Falls to the list. Awesome course, always in great shape, and a little cheaper than some. Worth a play definitely.

bradski · December 12, 2016

Thanks guys,

And great idea Bradski. The courses we hit last year are:

Desert Willow both tracks
Indian Wells both tracks
TPC Stadium
Classic Club - definitely going back

We have more time this year and are planning for 10 rounds.

The list we have going so far is:
Mission Hills Pete Dye
Escena
Desert Willow Firecliff
Shadow Ridge
La Quinta Mountain
Silver Rock-
TPC Stadium - one of the group must love punishment as he's insisting on going back. He believes not being hungover will help him. I think nothing can help you with this track, outside of hiring a tour pro to play for you. Not to mention they fit a group of 50+ ladies in front of us and let them play off the white tees. That is enough for me to never go back to be honest. Anyways rant over.
Rams Hill
Classic Club x2

you have most of the list covered. The funny thing about the stadium course is when the pro's played it they cut the rough to basically nothing. When I played there you could be standing over your ball in the rough and not find it.

adding to the list of possible.

Indian canyons south- pro's- very well manicured golf course that has some fun holes. cons- not the hardest course

Mission hills- player course is better than the dye

Eagle falls in Indio is supposed to be solid.

I actually like Terra Lago courses - pro's- some great layout challenging holes cons-turf conditions are decent but not as good as the top courses. I still thought they were as good as any course in San diego

Other than these I would say try access to some private? I would get this list and watch for deals on standbygolf, teeoff.com, and golfnow.

BUCKEYERBALL88 · December 15, 2016

Headed to Palm aorings for the PGA tournament in January. Have a twilight t time booked af silverrock for $100. Look for advice on 1 more course (preferably $100 or less) I wanted to play iw players but it's $189. Is Rams hill worth the drive? (Extra 2 hours drive back to Scottsdale)

Courses I've played in the past:

Iw celebrity

PGA west Nicklaus tournament

Classic club

falken19150 · December 16, 2016

Played PGA WEST Stadium & Nicklaus, Dunes and Mountain courses this week. Weather was perfect and courses are in immaculate condition. Gets dark at about 4:45pm. Greens on Nicklaus and Stadium were a little slow as I think they are trying to let them stretch legs before tourney.

bradski · December 16, 2016

Headed to Palm aorings for the PGA tournament in January. Have a twilight t time booked af silverrock for $100. Look for advice on 1 more course (preferably $100 or less) I wanted to play iw players but it's $189. Is Rams hill worth the drive? (Extra 2 hours drive back to Scottsdale)

Courses I've played in the past:
Iw celebrity
PGA west Nicklaus tournament
Classic club

It is good but if you haven't played some of the others than I would try first. you can get most courses on golfnow or teeoff or standby golf for $100 or less even in Jan.

Desert willow, firecliff

indian wells courses

escena

shadow ridge

mission hills.

stadium pga west

right now golfnow has some good hot deals for next week. they will likely have one of these courses for $70 or so.

ghost5 · December 23, 2016

Thanks again for the info everyone. Can't wait!

vernon · December 27, 2016

My brother and our wives are heading out again on the 10th of February for 8 days. In previous visits we've played La Quinta Dunes and Mountain (Dunes blows in our opinion - total waste of money) Mountain's back nine is pretty cool but overall overrated we thought. Haven't been back.

Played Silver Rock at least once every trip and will continue to do so. Nice setup for southwestern breakfast and Bloody Mary's to start the day. Great range for warmup. Love the course and scenery. Some are overly distracted by the canal system but it only really bothers me on one hole - 15. It makes for what I find to be a very awkward tee shot and at almost 500 yds (par 4) you really don't need an awkward tee shot.

We enjoy both Desert Willow courses although Firecliff is the best of the two. Another great option for food and nice pro shop. A must play for us.

Classic Club is a favorite of my brother and I although the wives think it's a little too tough. Again, great food and really cool clubhouse. No homes on the course which is nice. We've played it six or seven times now and have never encountered the legendary wind. Either lucky or people in the desert are a little paranoid about golf in the wind I guess. Living in Kansas we seldom see the completely still days that are frequent in the desert.

Shadow Ridge is excellent but usually a little more expensive than all but maybe Indian Wells and PGA West. Haven't tried the Players yet but we all enjoyed the Celebrity although there's a string of pretty short par 4's that I didn't really care for. Overall, the rest of the course makes up for it though. Fantastic service but then most places out there treat us great. The day we were there they sent us to an auxiliary range down under a bridge to warmup that was kind of cheesy but not a big deal. Maintenance was taking place on the normal practice tee. If you like flowers and "ambience" this is your place!

Eagle Falls is maybe the most reasonably priced of where we've played and a really fun layout. Clubhouse ain't much but who cares? The casino restaurant has a great breakfast and is just across the parking lot from the course. Have played it our first day out several times as it's a fun but not killer way to start out the week.

Mission Hills Gary Player course didn't do much for us comparatively speaking. Again, being from Kansas we could play it every day at home and be happy but we preferred other venues while in the desert.

We've only played the Nicklaus Tournament course at PGA West and thought it was a good course and enjoyable to play. Lots of houses but that doesn't really bother us as we live on our home course which is in the middle of a development so we're used to it. Sure, all things being equal, no houses would be preferred but not a show stopper by any means. PGA West tee times seemed pretty hard to come by and we've never found any "deals" there. Nonetheless, we absolutely love the clubhouse atmosphere and always pick up a few things in the pro shop. The patio is a great place to have a couple of beers at the end of the day and watch groups flail away on numbers 9 and 18. Both holes play to a double green that's so big we didn't even realize it was a double green until we were finished and were upstair on the deck looking down. We stop by there at least once every trip whether we play there or not.

Would love the opportunity to play one of the private courses but so far haven't had any luck finding a generous member that might be able to help us out. Maybe this year.

Stopped by Escena one day after playing the Gary Player course and thought that it looked really nice but couldn't get on. Had nachos and beers in the clubhouse though and thought the retro style was pretty cool. Have planned to try and play there each trip but have yet to get it out of the thinking stage. Looks like it would make a great first day course as it's pretty wide open although with no driving range, the first day philosophy is kind of compromised. Would like to hit at least a few balls before teeing it up after not playing for 4-6 weeks if the weather at home is bad.

Would like to check out either Terra Lago or maybe Indian Canyons sometime but haven't yet. We hear lots of good things about them and they're pretty competitively priced.

I had not heard of Ram's Hill before but I did a little research after reading about it here and it looks fantastic. Might plan a road trip over there one day just to see.

For food and beverage we always hit Jackelope Ranch once or twice during Happy Hour - just a really fun place and we like the appetizer deals. The place is huge and on nice evenings the outdoor area is pretty impressive. Arnold Palmer's is really good as is Fisherman's for seafood. There are several really good Mexican spots but I can never remember the names until we get there. The Beer Hunter is a favorite especially if there's any good games on and we find Burger's and Beer to be equally good. B&B also has a really good breakfast menu.

Of course, when it comes to dinner we're pretty low maintenance. We don't bother going back to the house to clean up and get dressed to go "out". We're beyond satisfied with the types of places mentioned and always look forward to getting back home to the hot tub and pool. Great way to relax and get ready for the next day. We go out there for the great weather, golf and a few beers and just ain't too concerned with fine dining opportunities! We treat every evening as if it was Friday night at home which makes for a great party atmosphere for the entire week (I should say "party" atmosphere for a bunch of 50 and 60 somethings anyways).

Pete Carlson's is a must see for us every trip as we usually don't even bother to take many golf balls as we always pick up a couple dozen at Pete's. Unbelievable inventory and always way better prices than we can find around home. Roger Dunn's and the PGA Superstore are fun but we don't ever seem to buy much there. Great places to kill an hour though as we don't really have anything similar at home.

Absolutely love the area and can't wait to get back out there! The goal is to someday spend a full month which would be beyond awesome. Would really like to be able to take a couple of days to do the tourist deal and check out the sites but with only a week we're not about to give up a day of golf to sight see!