Best golf courses near Palm Springs, CA

Tradition Golf Club was intended to be Palmer Course Design’s answer to the most opulent private courses in greater Palm Springs, such as No. 85 The Quarry at La Quinta and No. 196 Vintage Club (Mountain). Built on the old Hacienda del Gato Ranch, the front nine is routed over rolling desert and through a flood-control basin, while most of the back nine is tucked at the base of the rocky slopes of the Santa Rosa Mountains, with three holes (15th through 17th) curving around a 90-degree bend dubbed the “Coyote Canyon.” Almost every hole here has a distinguishing feature, from desert wash to serpentine waste bunker to double fairway to boulder landscaping to cascading waterfalls. The common overall theme are fields of wildflowers spread throughout the far roughs. During a 2005 Golf Digest Panelist Summit, Arnold Palmer explained he had those flowers planted to appeal to his first wife, Winnie, who loved flora much more than golf.

Stone Eagle is the most remarkable course in the golf-heavy Palm Springs market. It sits atop a rocky plateau, a thousand feet above the Coachella Valley but still thousands of feet below the peaks of the adjacent Santa Rosa Mountains. When Tom Doak first walked the site, he said, “I thought this must be what the surface of Mars looks like: rocky, rugged and red.” Given the luxury of routing an 18 without any homesites, Doak did his lay-of-the-land best to create a faux links high above the desert floor by tucking fairways into creases of the land and positioning shots to play over low ridges into bold greens that mimic the rugged topography. At Stone Eagle, Doak used hillsides of rocks and boulders the way Old Country architects used sand dunes. The only difference: sand is soft, rock is not.

The Vintage Club proved to be the last collaboration between former tour golfer-turned-architect George Fazio and his young nephew, Tom. But while George was heavily involved in promoting this exclusive Palm Springs area club to prospective members, Tom was sweating the details out on the construction site. The opulent course was built for $6 million, considered an outrageous amount at that time, but Tom explained that sum was necessary in order to “create an environment where none existed,” a phrase he would repeat later in the decade when constructing No. 27 Shadow Creek in Las Vegas. Tom spent $1.5-million building just The Vintage’s 16th and 17th holes, including three cascading waterfalls at $175,000 apiece. It was money well spent.

Set hard against the mountains, the aptly named Mountains course is one of two courses at Bighorn Golf Club ranked inside the top 30 on our Best in California list. The Arthur Hills design features some dramatic elevation changes, with many downhill tee shots providing fantastic vistas of Palm Springs down below. The course receives high marks from our panelists for its conditioning and aesthetics. In early 2018, the club completed a new 80,000-square-foot clubhouse that cost $70 million.

Bold and dramatic bunkering is a key feature on the first of two Jack Nicklaus-designed courses at Toscana Country Club. Nicklaus’ team moved a lot of earth to create some rolling terrain that offers impressive elevation changes. A number of long par 4s require precise approach shots over water and well-guarded putting complexes. Often times, challenging the bunkers off the tee creates the best angles in the greens.

The second 18 holes at Toscana Country Club weren't completed until a few years ago, with the North Course's first nine holes and its 18th were built at the time of the South course's completion. Toscana's North course fits in the Jack Nicklaus style playing through and around beautiful arroyos and water features with bold green and bunker complexes. Holes are picturesquely framed by layers of landscaping and the surrounding mountains.

One of the most underrated courses in the desert is the Firecliff course at Desert Willow. Dr. Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry designed 36 holes (including the Mountain course) on this flat desert floor in the Coachella Valley and moved enough earth to create some interesting holes that frame the surrounding mountains. Playability for all handicap ranges is strong, but even for the better players, the Firecliff course is a intriguing and fair test of golf.

This Arnold Palmer-designed layout used to be in the rotation for the Bob Hope tour event. Water comes into play on 14 of the 18 holes, and many holes have fairways that slope toward the water hazards, so driving the ball is at a premium. The facilities are top-notch at this Troon-managed club—including a 63,000-square foot, three-floor Tuscan-inspired clubhouse.

The Reserve is a private club in Indian Wells, Calif., built by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish that is routed against the surrounding mountain ridges and follows the natural contours, winding through the terrain to create interesting and varied holes. Tee and approach shots are well framed, and the housing never intrudes into your view as you play.

When Pete Dye was building the Mountain Course at La Quinta in 1980, he knew that even if the layout wasn't ideal working through resort corridors, the holes would make up for it with the views, shelved against the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains, their stony facades towering above. Holes like four, five, six, 14 and 15 play so tight to the mountains that the walls of rock are in play and care must be taken not to hit them. The design is premium 1980s Dye, desert version, with long stips of sand paralleling fairways and plateau putting surfaces set above moat bunkers. The downhill par-3 16th, playing from a platform tee in the foothills over a field of boulders to a drop-shot green surrounded in sand and rock, is one of the most memorable in California but nearly every holes requires high, precision approach shots into the elevated greens. The Mountain Course is part of the vast PGA West conglomorate of courses that now numbers nine. The headliner is the Stadium Course, the evil West Coast twin of TPC Sawgrass and home course of the PGA Tour's The American Express as well as several must-see TV Skins Games in the late 1980s. The Stadium Course should be on anyone's list who visits the Palm Springs/La Quinta area if for no other reason than to experience what was intended to be the hardest golf course in the country, as interpreted in the mid-80s by Dye and the Landmark Land Company developers (this was the mandate given to Dye at the time). Spoiler: it remains frightening in roughly the same proportion as most 80s slasher films still do. But if you could only play one course at PGA West and it was the Mountain Course and not the Stadium or any of the others, you'd still leave feeling you got a taste of the best resort golf the Coachella Valley offers.

The second of two courses at Bighorn to open, the Canyons was designed by Tom Fazio and features prominent bunkering throughout. Like the sibling Mountains course, the Canyons layout receives high marks from our panelists for its conditioning and aesthetics. In early 2018, the club completed a new 80,000-square-foot clubhouse that cost $70 million.

Former site of the ANA Inspiration, now to be a senior tour event, opened in 1972 and was designed by Desmond Muirhead. It is an old school parkland course with hazards, primarily bunkers defining the landing areas off the tee. The green complexes offer a variety of recovery shots unless you are short-sided, then they require a high pitch or flop to end up close to the pin. Bunkers are well maintained and consistent while the greens have defined and subtle slopes that make putting a challenge. Mature trees intrude into the fairway and often represent an unfair challenge where shots in the fairway are blocked or require the shot be shaped to access the pin. Some of the holes do not allow a driver as the risk is not commensurate with the reward. The finishing five holes are the standout on the property—with the well-known 18th hole and Poppie's Pond, the concrete-lined pool that is part of Champions Lake and site of the famous jump by ANA winners.

Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort is a 36-hole facility conveniently located just a few miles from the Palm Springs airport. The Ted Robinson-designed Resort course is a playable and scenic layout with wide, rolling fairways. Though water comes into play on at least six holes, the landing areas are generous, often leaving plenty of room to hit driver. The signature par-3 8th—perhaps the most demanding hole on the course—plays over water to a tiny green set beside a creek.

Originally opened in 1961 as the private Canyon Country Club, the now-public Indian Canyons Golf Resort is a 36-hole facility set at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. Over the years, celebrities and politicians have played at Indian Canyon, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan. The property is surrounded by mountains on three sides, often shielding the courses from the wind. The South course has relatively wide fairways guarded by numerous bunkers that often have tall faces. There are plenty of palm trees lining the fairways that can cut off angles for approaches to the small greens.