Palm Springs course reviews

[DaveP043]

I just got home from an visit to the Palm Springs area, and as requested I'm posting my quick reviews of each of the courses I played.  I'm making this a new thread so that others can add more reviews as time goes along.

Indian Springs – Excellent condition, pretty fast greens, not too punishing. This course ran through houses, but there was lots of room. A perfect course to warm up on. We had lunch here, included with our greens fee, I had a good burger.

Eagle Falls – Behind the casino, it looks completely flat until you cross over onto the golf course proper, then it looks amazing. Like many courses here, the holes run through valleys, with nasty stuff on both sides. Lots of places to lose balls. Greens not so fast, but significant contours. The “clubhouse” is in modular buildings, but a nicely stocked pro shop. We didn't eat here, can't say anything about the food. Not a single house anywhere on the course, I like that.

Classic Club – This is a real treat to play, a very demanding layout in outstanding shape. First class treatment, from the curb-side greeting, through the pro shop, onto the terrace for lunch. Nice fast greens, lots of water. A bit pricey, but the fee included a $15 voucher to use with the beverage cart or in the grill. We saw just a couple of slightly bare spots in one or two fairways, but otherwise the course was perfect. This was a host club for the Hope thing for a few years, 2007 to 2010 if I remember right. Again, not a single house on the course.

Silverrock – Our first “repeat” from last year. A good solid course, a nice variety of yardages, doglegs both left and right. There's a little water, but on only maybe 5 or 6 holes. Conditions were generally good. I did see a couple of funky spots, maybe a little disease, on maybe 2 or 3 greens, but the ball still rolled nice and smooth. Green speed not as fast as yesterday, but still comfortably fast. This is the most dramatic course so far, right against the base of the mountains. We did get to see our friends, the mountain goats.

Desert Willow Mountain View – Another repeat from last year. This one played a little shorter, and a little less punishing than the last two. Wider fairways, very few forced carries, but still challenging. The greens are smaller, and the green speed was between Silverrock and Eagle Falls. Even though you play through some condos, you never really feel like any of them comes into play. There was a little patchy turf on the greens, mostly within two feet or so of the edge, but it rarely impacted the roll of the ball. I just thought of this a day later, most or all of the holes were mostly straight, very few doglegs.

Marriott Shadow Ridge – Very good shape, pretty fast greens, and VERY undulating. The rest of the course was good, with a nice mix of distances, from 300 to 460 yard par 4 holes. The course runs through the resort, but not much visual impact from the resort. A little picky thing, small GPS screen, no touch screen for lay-up distances, kinda shabby that way.

Westin at Mission Hills Dye Course – Enjoyable, not as penal as some Dye designs, reasonable driving room on almost every hole, but still plenty difficult. Greens were generally only mildly contoured, decent pace. As with many Dye courses, the problems became more severe as you got closer to the green. This one played to par 70, with only two par-5 holes all day, not really my preference. This one runs through the Westin resort, but was never really “squeezed” by the buildings. Surprisingly, there was no GPS at all, but they did provide a sheet showing the hole layouts and some key distances.

Marriott Desert Springs Palm Course – We played the sister course last year. The course is solid, with a little more terrain than many of the others, with “ripples” in the fairway that seemed to be 10 feet from top to bottom. A good variety of shorter to longer holes, with a few water features, and some really pretty waterfalls. Good true greens, reasonably quick pace, and some nice undulations. The same small GPS screen as at Shadow Ridge.

Terra Lago North Course – Interesting layout, lots of up and down, more than anywhere else we played, as well as significant water hazards on a few holes. Greens were really good, pretty fast, enough undulation to scare you from time to time. Tees and fairways were a tiny bit shaggy, but not a problem. Generally there was enough room to drive the ball, but off the fairway it got pretty nasty pretty fast, so it was easy to lose a ball. This course is also apparently in a more windy area, so we had some one to two club adjustments to make, the first time all week,

Final verdict, favorites were Classic Club and Silverrock. Close second were Terra Lago, Desert Willow, and Eagle Falls. Next was Shadow Ridge, lower than the others due only to the severity of the greens. We were pleasantly surprised by the pace of play, we only had one round that took over 4 hours, and that was 4:15 at Desert Springs.

[tristanhilton85]

I've played all of them and I generally agree with your reviews. I think that you probably like the Marriott Desert Springs course better than I do and I like Shadow Ridge better than you. You're right about the GPS's at Shadow Ridge; almost useless.

Terra Lago is/was my home course, and I was a "member" there a couple of years back. From a layout/design perspective, I think it is as good as any other course in the valley, however, it can be a bit rough around the edges so to speak (like the shagginess of the tee box you mentioned, etc.). The fact that you had a good paced round at Terra Lago is good too, I know that I've played many rounds there that approached 5 hours.

If I had to rank them, I think I'd go Eagle Falls, Shadow Ridge, Classic Club, Terra Lago, Desert Willow, SilverRock, Desert Springs. All are pretty close for me (other than Desert Springs).