Palm Springs Vacation: Golf in Palm Springs Area

When golf vacationers say, “We’re playing Palm Springs,” what they really mean is they’re teeing up in the Coachella Valley, which encompasses Palm Springs and other golf-crazy communities such as Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Indian Wells and Indio.

With its rugged desert scenes and surprisingly lush, verdant fairways peppered with palm trees and framed by mountains, the Coachella Valley is home to more than 110 golf courses. A vacation destination for Hollywood A-listers since the 1920s, the area was later popularized to the dimple-ball set when golf lovers like Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Dinah Shore moved to Palm Springs and played golf there regularly. Today, you might see Coachella Valley homeowners Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones roaming the fairways.

In recent years, marquee name golf designers like Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Greg Norman and Pete Dye have fashioned a variety of exceptional resort, high-end daily fee and private golf courses that take full advantage of the intriguing terrain, 350 days of annual sunshine, low humidity and winter high temperatures that average in the 70s.

Before you plan a Palm Springs golf vacation, here are a few things you should consider:

• High season is generally February through April, when the temperatures are cooler and the sun shines brightly.

 

• The 8th hole of the Gary Player course at the Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa.

Courtesy of the Westin Mission Hills Resort & Spa

• Value season is June or July through September when temperatures rise and green fees go down (dates vary among courses). The absolute lowest fees are “Twilight Rates” during the summer months when discounts can be as much as 50 to 60 percent.

• Green fees range from $75 to $200 for resort courses and $45 to $150 for public-access layouts.

• The area is home to two outstanding professional tournaments for those who enjoy watching the best golfers in the world. The PGA Tour’s Bob Hope Classic is played in January each year. In 2010, the courses included are PGA West, SilverRock Resort and La Quinta Country Club. The LPGA stages one of its “majors,” the Kraft Nabisco Championship, in early April at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

Next: Best Golf Courses in Palm Springs