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.

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.

Indian Wells Golf Resort is a 36-hole facility that previously hosted a season of Golf Channel’s Big Break series and as well as the Skins Game, an unofficial PGA Tour event last held in 2008. The Clive Clark-designed Celebrity course opened in 2006 and features undulating fairways, meandering streams and pristine ponds that are often connected by flowing waterfalls. A few tee shots, particularly on the back nine, can be quite demanding with narrow corridors and well-protected fairways.

This esteemed Pete Dye design weaves in and out of the picturesque Santa Rosa Mountains, which provide ample elevation changes and stunning visuals. The signature 16th hole—a downhill par 3 played to a trademark island green—is practically cut out of the mountainside.

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.

Conveniently situated next to the Palm Springs airport, Escena Golf Club is a Jack Nicklaus design with tremendous views of the San Jacinto Mountains. There are a variety of holes moving in each direction with generally wide fairways and large, gently sloping greens. The strikingly modern clubhouse is the perfect place for a post-round drink overlooking the mountain backdrop.