Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Outdoors

The best golf courses in Palm Springs: These spots are worth a visit

The best golf courses in Palm Springs are both challenging and gorgeous

By
The Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course.
La Quinta Resort & Club

The whole point of playing a round of golf is to enjoy the sunshine and the views while working on your handicap. No better area offers the perfect weather conditions almost all year long and countless courses to putt along than Palm Springs. If you want to take a vacation to see how many of the best golf courses in Palm Springs you could go up against, start your list with these. With over 350 days of sunny conditions, you should be able to test your irons at all of them.

The best golf courses in Palm Springs that are challenging, but fun

The Firecliff Course in Palm Springs.
Desert Willow Golf Resort

Indian Canyons Golf Resort: South Course

Tee off where Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower, Bob Hope, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Frank Sinatra all have, at the South Course at the Indian Canyons Golf Resort. Starting as the private Canyon Country Club in 1961, it was given a facelift in 2004 by Casey O’Callahan, with LPGA powerhouse Amy Alcott lending a hand in the design.

Recommended Videos

While the course is outlined by the San Jacinto mountains, you’ll weave through five par five holes, 850 palm trees, and 500 Washingtonia Filifera trees, so try to keep your eye on the ball. Be sure to check out the Players Course while you’re there.

Related: 
Upgrade your daily routine with the best smartwatches for men

Desert Willow Golf Resort: Firecliff Course

If you want to challenge yourself but have views that make you forget about your score, the underrated Desert Willow Golf Resort has a course for you. Play through various water features, work your way around over 100 bunkers across over 7,000 yards, see how you end the par five final hole, and know if Golf Digest got it right when it gave Firecliff a spot on the Place to Play list. 

Escena Golf Club

A newer addition to the pool of courses in Palm Springs in 2005, Escena Golf Club is the first public course to open since the 1990s. Conveniently located by the Palm Springs International Airport, Jack Nicklaus designed the course to have breathtaking views of the San Jacinto Mountains. While the perfect challenge for a skilled golfer, everyone will have over 7,200 yards of beautiful rolling greens and decently spread fairways to work on their handicap.

Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort: Resort Course

If you love having room to drive the ball, the Resort Course at Tahquitz Creek Golf Resort delivers. Designed by Ted Robinson, this links-squee course starts with a fast par four hole and ends with a gentler par 5 with gorgeous views. But watch out on the 8th hole, as the water bunkers on the side of a super-small green will get you every time if you aren’t paying attention.

The best golf courses in Palm Springs for tournaments

A view of the Pete Dye Mountain Course.
La Quinta Resort and Club

PGA West: Pete Dye Mountain Course

Pete Dye used the beauty already there when designing the Mountain Course. When you attempt holes 4 through 6, and 14 and 15, you play right against the Santa Rosa mountains, where your skill will come in handy because the stones are fair play to ruin your game. It might be the oldest of the five courses in Coachella Valley (built in 1981), but every hole along the 6,781 yards of tough green has tall grass, rocks, and pot bunkers to keep your game sharp.

SilverRock Resort

Don’t let the name SilverRock make you think you will play in straight desert conditions. At more than half of the holes, you will fight water features to sink the hole. You won’t miss the stunning views of the Santa Rosa Mountains as you take on an 18-hole course that hosted the Bob Hope Classic tour event from 2008 to 2011. That’s not surprising, considering Arnold Palmer and Erik Larsen designed the course, which opened in 2005.

PGA West: Nicklaus Tournament Course

Jack Nicklaus did not go easy on anyone designing the Tournament Course. Not only does every hole have a new feature and challenge to tackle and bunkers to battle, but there are two island greens to figure out. Due to the combination of gorgeous mountain views and over 7,200 yards of treacherous greens, it’s the perfect location for the first PGA Tour event every year in the U.S.

Classic Club

No matter what level your game is on, you’ll have a good time playing on the Classic Club course. If you are scared of water, this course will put you through it. Out of 18 holes, 14 have some type of water feature to deal with, and quite a few holes that happen to angle towards the water. Home of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic from 2006 until 2008, Arnold Palmer didn’t hold back when he added 30 acres of water hazards to weed out the beginners from the pros.

We know asking for the best golf courses in Palm Springs is subjective, depending on how you play the game. Some players want a course with a friendly vibe that isn’t too demanding, while others want to be challenged and feel they are playing in the Masters. Whether you want a satisfying round that ends in both parts, tears and joy or a softer course that offers nothing but the most amazing views, these courses in Palm Springs will let you soak up the sunshine and stretch out your swing for almost 365 days a year.

Dannielle Beardsley
Dannielle Beardsley
Former Contributor
Dannielle has written for various websites, online magazines, and blogs. She loves everything celebrity and her favorite…
Topics

Editors’ Recommendations

What is a draw in golf? How to hit it, when to use it, and more
Unlocking the power if the draw in your golf swing
People riding a golf cart around the gofl course

In many other sports, a draw means to end a game in a tie, so naturally, I was in for a surprise when I learned it’s something completely different in golf. In fact, a draw refers to a type of shot where the ball curves gently from right to left in the air for a right-handed golfer. Alongside the fade, hook, and slice, the draw is one of the core shot shapes every golfer encounters. In a word, it’s a supercontrolled shot that is as beautiful as it is powerful. Here’s how to hit a draw, when to use it to support your strategy, as well as some famous draws during the Masters and PGA Tour.
How to hit a draw in golf

To hit a draw, a golfer usually aligns their stance slightly to the right of the target. The face of your club needs to be closed relative to your swing path on impact but still slightly open to the target line. Too closed, and you’ll hook it wildly, but too open, and you’ll actually be hitting a push or a fade. When hit correctly, the ball flies with a topspin and a sidespin, and this is what creates that right-to-left trajectory. If you need a visual explanation, Me And My Golf has a great video where they explain two ways to draw the golf ball.

Read more
Rainy day? You can still tee off with this new Carl’s Place golf simulator screen
Carl's Place has a new golf simulator screen for better image quality
Carl's Place new gray golf simulator screen

Golf simulator company Carl's Place just launched the brand-new High-Contrast Gray Golf Impact Screen, designed to transform indoor golf experience. This system is the first of its kind, complete with stunning visuals full of vivid colors, deep blacks, and sharp contrast so that it feels like you're actually there.

This is accomplished by switching out a white screen for a gray one, which reduces the risk of washed-out imagery in bright environments. This gray material went through numerous stages of testing and reformulations to give it the perfect balance between visuals and mechanical performance, and it might just be one of the best impact screens the industry has seen to date.
“Ambient lighting is one of the biggest challenges in indoor golf setups, especially in multi-use or commercial spaces where full light control isn’t realistic,” said Carl Markestad, President at Carl’s Place. “Our High-Contrast Gray Impact Screen combats that by boosting color vibrancy, contrast and clarity—just like we’ve done for years in the home theater world.”

Read more
When is golf season? Here are key dates to know
When does golf season start?
Golf ball on a golf course

Golf is a great way to challenge yourself and get some fresh air while you're at it (though it can also be frustrating, which is why the game has also been called "a good walk spoiled"), but if you're brand-new to the sport, you might be wondering, "When is golf season?" I know that's not always a straightforward question to answer. Golf season is tricky to pin down, primarily because it can vary depending on where you are in the world. Fortunately, that gives you a great excuse to travel! And I'm here to help answer your questions. Keep reading to learn about some key dates that you should know as we head into golf season.
When is golf season?

Generally, in the Northern Hemisphere, golf season runs from spring through fall, roughly from March or April to October or November. This is when the weather is warm enough and the courses are in good condition. However, there are plenty of places in the United States where golf can be played year-round, such as parts of Florida, Arizona, and California.

Read more