From Palm Springs to Vegas and Arizona, the southwest desert is where golf season never ends
by Tony Dear
This article originally appeared in the December 2014 issue of Cascade Golfer magazine. To learn how to receive Cascade Golfer, click here.
By now you’ve heard that the current winter is going to be relatively dry and mild. Even in rainy Seattle, KOMO-TV meteorologist Scott Sistek reported that the winter would be drier than normal, and the average temperature could go up half a degree or more.
Whoopdee-do.
A half-degree rise in temperature and the prospect of a little less rain is nice, but it certainly isn’t enough to keep golfers at home in the Northwest ? or the Midwest, Northeast or any other cold-weather climate ? when Arizona, California and Nevada are bathed in sunshine, temps are in the 70s and golf courses are in glorious condition.
Of course, even with the benefit of all the maps and stats available to him, Sistek couldn’t say with any certainty what we had in store.
“Guess we’ll have to wait and see if we do end up with a mild winter,” he said.
You can wait and see if you like Scott, but the rest of us aren’t hanging around to find out. This winter, we’re taking our games south.
CALIFORNIA
Palm Springs has been in the doldrums for the last few years, but the city that once rightly called itself “The Golf Capital of the World” certainly hasn’t gone away. In fact, while there might not be any new courses to speak of, golf facilities all over the valley (the Coachella Valley has less than one percent of Southern California’s population, but approximately 28 percent of its golf courses) have pulled out the stops to keep Palm Springs golf relevant and the winter golf scene thriving. All manner of specials, deals and player incentives have appeared. Courses have improved their service and continue to offer superb conditions.
One course that may have flown under your radar, but which a nose for good golf will lead you to eventually, is SilverRock, an Arnold Palmer design that opened in 2005 and was a host course of the Bob Hope Classic from 2008-11. The course lies in the golf-mad city of La Quinta, where it seems there must be a golf hole, if not an entire course, for every resident. SilverRock is owned by the City of La Quinta, and can stretch to 7,578 yards, though five other sets enable it to activate the time-worn phrase “suitable for all levels of golfer.” Let’s assume from here on that every course we mention is “suitable for all levels of golfer.”
As you’d expect of a muni, SilverRock does a lot of business – 47,000 rounds last year. Despite the traffic, though, general manager Randy Duncan says this is not your typical municipal.
“For a start, the course is in good enough shape to host a PGA TOUR event any time,” he says. “There are no homes on or around the course, we have state-of-the-art GPS carts, a superb driving range, and a clubhouse patio with views of the mountains.”
Then there’s the greens fee — $170 from Dec. 26 to Apr. 30. That’s not your standard muni rate but, as Duncan pointed out, this is not a standard city-owned course, and rates do fluctuate according to demand – they call it “dynamic pricing.” One rate that isn’t listed on the course’s web site, but which has proved incredibly popular since being introduced last year, is the $40 “Work the Rock” super-twilight that begins two hours before sunset, and is available from November through April.
Another former Bob Hope Classic venue designed by Palmer, and one that you can play for about $140 throughout the winter (or $25 if you’re active military or a public servant) is the Classic Club in Palm Desert (760-601-3600, PlayClassicClub.com), on the north side of I-10, and adjacent to the Coachella Valley Fringe-Toed Lizard Preserve. The course, which was developed by a local charitable organization, holds many charity tournaments during the year, and in 2014 will enable charities to raise over $500,000 for good causes.
The Classic Club is managed by Troon Golf, meaning visitors benefit from the company’s pace of play and family golf initiatives. Troon Family Golf offers free golf to juniors (15 and under) after 3 p.m. each day, provided they play with a paying adult. Juniors also receive free club rental and free instruction, again with paying adults. In addition, “Troon Values Your Time” assigns each course its own Time Par — a realistic assessment of how long it should take to play, based on the course’s length and topography. Classic’s Time Par is four hours and 20 minutes.
Kris Strauss, Troon’s VP of Sales and Marketing, says the program is working.
“GPS data is showing the pace of play is improving,” he says. “Our customers appreciate the fact we are setting the expectation on the amount of time a round should take. We get positive feedback from golfers about having a pace of play policy we are serious about.”