What do you know about the part of the world referred to as the Coachella Valley in California?
Well, if you are like most Canadians you know it’s warm and you can golf there in the winter months without wearing a toque (knitted hat for our American friends).For most of us in the Frozen North, that’s all we need to know.The rest is gravy-very tasty gravy. Many will know you can travel through nine cities totaling under a half a million people spread through the area. You can be in one city and across the intersection hit another. Just scratching the surface here.
For the second year in a row my wife and I had the pleasure of spending some time in the region and experienced a few of those things to do along with soaking up the sun and playing golf ( of course there is plenty of shopping). Now if golf is all you want to do there is plenty of that available so I will touch on four courses we played and enjoyed.
But in between rounds of golf you should venture out to enjoy the rest of this area where the movie stars of decades past used to travel in order to get a break from Hollywood. While strolling downtown check out the sidewalk and you might recognize a few names in the stars that dot the area. But onto the golf.
The first course we played was SilverRock Resort in LaQuinta which is owned by the city making it a municipal course. Take a moment to soak that in when you are out playing this track and keep in mind this course got ravaged by a flood back in 2013.
The back drop of the Santa Rosa Mountains, complete with big horn sheep, is a great setting and the golf course can play long or relatively short so you can pick your poison. It was an enjoyable 18 holes of golf with excellent conditions from tee to green. If you are armed with some local knowledge you could save a stroke or three but for the most part what you see is what you get. Assuming you can hit it where you want to. It was a great start to golf in December.
As for off course activity we started with the downtown section which begins on North Palm Canyon Drive. Park the car and walk around to get the flavor of the buildings, the shopping, the people and the relaxed atmosphere.
We enjoyed lunch consisting of some very tasty tacos and a quesadilla at Maracas on day one and followed up the next day with lunch at Lulu which comes with a very funky décor and likely the best mushroom soup I have tasted.
Course number two on the trip was the Players course at the Indian Wells Golf Resort. There seemed to be a colour of green on each fairway that was maybe a little more vivid than I have seen anywhere. Conditions once again on this John Fought design operated by Troon Golf were near perfect. Worth noting is the fact there were plenty of people working on the course when we played but they never held us up during the round. With the San Jacinto, Santa Rosa and San Bernardino ranges all in view at some point you are constantly taking pictures at each tee box it seems. I found it to be a very friendly 18 holes with some spectacular challenges on a few to keep you sharp. Overall a lot of fun to play and easy to travel around.
Some off the course activity once again included the Living Desert Zoo/Garden which we took in during the first weekend celebration where the facility is dressed up for Christmas. It was a great tour of the massive space which features residents of Africa’s desert terrain. We did get to see the three cheetahs who were curious about us but the park would be even more fascinating in the daytime when more animals were out. It was still a very cool visit and the engaging staff there are eager to share their knowledge.
Onto golf experience number three which was at the PGA West Nicklaus course which will play host to the PGA Career Builder Challenge event in late January. I’m certain the players in this tournament will find different challenges than we did but I must say even if we were hitting the ball well it still would have been a tough 18 holes. Letting it fly off the tee could bring some trouble into play on many holes so accuracy was a premium but once you got to the green you could get your read and trust the line for the most part. It was obvious we needed to be better putters after a few holes. More of the great scenery provided by the Santa Rosa’s and course conditions which were hard to blame for any poor play.
Off the course again to explore and it was a trip out to Indian Canyons where you could take a hike on four different trails giving you four different views of what the local geography provided. We went with the Palm Canyons trail and it was a real experience. These trees are giants and this oasis was a great example of what the Agua Caliente Cahuilla ancestors may have experienced centuries ago when they settled the area.
The final golf course of the trip was Desert Willow which features the Firecliff and Mountain View public courses. We tackled the Firecliff track and it didn’t take long to see why this is one of the top courses in the region. The natural areas, water features and bunkering all blended in nicely to give you a fair chance at a good experience. Even a few stray shots wound up in areas where you could still get back to your fairway without too much trouble in your way. Once again there was no shortage of dramatic scenery as you made your way around the generous fairways and greens which ran true to form. A very enjoyable experience and I hope to someday play the Mountain View course for comparison.
Of course we concluded the trip with a visit to Shields Date Farm, sampled a date shake (great flavor) and sipped on it while taking in the movie “The Romance and Sex Life of the Date”. It likely never got an Oscar nomination but you do learn a few things about dates and how they come about.
If you have never made the trip to Palm Springs then you need to ask yourself why as it’s got so much to offer on shopping, eating, night life and of course golf. As well, they have an airport which is probably the simplest to arrive and depart from.
So make like the Hollywood stars of the past and escape to Palm Springs at least once. I am betting you will make a return visit.
