[Peter Ferlicca]

I just played this Robert Trent Jones Jr. course in the Coachella Valley yesterday, and this was my 5th time out there.  This was the first time I have played it in howling winds; it was a constant 40 mph wind with some gusts up to 50 mph.  My playing partner who is a tall lanky guy almost got blown over a couple of times while putting.  Let’s just say that putting was extremely difficult when you can't even hold your balance.  I must say though that I still loved the course and find it to have great par 4's and IMO a great set of par 3's.  Most days out in the valley it will be perfect, but if you catch this course on a windy day, good luck with shooting a good score.  My playing partner and I who are both about 3 hdcps were hitting three woods on 160 yard par 3's.  I still think this is the only course that actually utilized the nice sandy dunes that are all over the Coachella valley.

Hole 1 Par 5 (518 Yards)



Hole 2 Par 4 (386 yards)



Hole 3 Par 4 (328 yards)
Cool shor par 4 that has a great green complex, requires you to hit a creative chip shot


Hole 4 Par 4 (394 yards)


Hole 5 Par 3 (167 yards)
A good looking par 3 with the clubhouse in the background


Hole 6 par 4 (349 yards)
A great green with no bunkers and fall offs on everyside


Hole 7 Par 4 (390 yards)



Hole 8 Par 3 (171 yards)
A sideways biarritz green over water


Hole 9 Par 5 (536 yards)
A cool looking sand burn that runs down the left side of the fairway


Hole 10 Par 4 (376 yards)
The next three holes are great par 4's in a row



Hole 11 Par 4 (346 yards)

The scrub to the left in between holes 10 and 11, this is the sandy scruff that is all around the course



Hole 12 Par 4 (365 yards)
A great spot for the green up on the dune


Hole 13 par 5 (576 yards)




Hole 14 Par 3 (184 yards)
A awesome par 3, the green is extremely tilted and can provide some scary pin positions, it was dead into the wind, full three wood.



Hole 15 Par 4 (411 yards)



Hole 16 Par 5 (517 yards)
The lake is a little out of character with the rest of the course



Hole 17 Par 3 (187 yards)


Hole 18 Par 4 (414 yards)
This hole was straight into the wind, I nutted my driver, caught all of the my three wood, and still had to hit a full sand wedge to get on the green.

Here is a look at the double green shared with 9 and 18

[David Stamm]

It's been a long time since I've been out there, but I like this course. It's a little odd in spots, but enjoyable. That wind is typical there, and legendary. I remember my brother in law opening his car (it was an big S class MB) and it nearly blew the door off in the parking lot. That got our attention. Then 100 yd 7 irons on the range really put us on notice. 

[Sean Leary]

I like it as well. One of my favorite Jr. courses for sure.....

[Damon Groves]

Sorry fellas. Can't say I agree about Desert Dunes. It seems most of the par 3s are played to basically the same distances and not a lot of strategic element to the course. Even when thinking about the course simply hard to remember the holes which does not say a lot.

Out that way I think Desert Willow and Shadow Ridge are far superior in strategic elements, variety of holes and memorability.

Maybe it is just me and my general dislike of RTJ Jr courses.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Slightly OT, but I once interviewed for a retirement  community course out west and proposed to name it Desert Prunes.  For some reason, I didn't get the job......

[David Ober]

Interesting story about this course: About five or six years ago, a buddy of mine was medalist at U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifying at Desert Dunes on one of the aforementioned "gusty" days. Anyone want to guess what his 18-hole score was as medalist that day?

[Michael Warren]

I played this course a few years back and it is a fun course to play.  We started off the day with a frost delay though which was a little unexpected.  I felt like those two or three holes after the turn were kind of out of place.  I'm not exactly sure how those trees fit in with the desert landscape.

[Peter Ferlicca]

Interesting story about this course: About five or six years ago, a buddy of mine was medalist at U.S. Mid-Amateur qualifying at Desert Dunes on one of the aforementioned "gusty" days. Anyone want to guess what his 18-hole score was as medalist that day?

Dave,

I am quite interested in what it would be, I bet it was probably around 78, 79.  If it is any higher than that it must have been just blowing like crazy.  If you mishit it just a centimeter off with a fade or draw it is gonna fly into the bushes.  You have to hit a fantastic golf shot after a fantastic golf shot when you are playing in that kind of wind, it gets tiring.

[David Ober]

I had it wrong. It was for the SCGA Amateur. Here are the scores, LOL!

Amateur Qualifying
Jun 9, 2004
Desert Dunes GC 
 
Info Results Leaderboard
 Qualifiers: 3   Alternates: 2 
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 Pos  Player Scoring To Par Total
Total Thru
Full Leaderboard
QUALIFIERS 
1 Tom Norys +15 F 87
T2 Michael Carpenter +17 F 89
T2 Paul Rice +17 F 89
ALTERNATES - IN ORDER 
T2 Bruce Baumann +17 F 89
T5 Robert Funk +19 F 91
DID NOT QUALIFY
T5 Don Delair +19 F 91
T7 Billy Crawford +20 F 92
T7 Steve Steele +20 F 92
T9 Martin Chesler +21 F 93
T9 Ben Choe +21 F 93
T11 Ben Hobe +23 F 95
T11 David Kendall +23 F 95
T11 Ted Lyford +23 F 95
T11 Jim Moore +23 F 95
T15 Bill Albers +24 F 96
T15 Brandon DiTullio +24 F 96
T15 Louis Gonzalez +24 F 96
T15 Steven Hurtig +24 F 96
T15 Andy Kitchen +24 F 96
T15 Rich Morrison +24 F 96
T15 Bill Weil +24 F 96
T22 Jon McGihon +25 F 97
T22 Bobby Meyerson +25 F 97
T24 Marty Brown +26 F 98
T24 Bryan Wilson +26 F 98
26 Chuck Layton +27 F 99
T27 Ryan DeGood +28 F 100
T27 Adam Marshall +28 F 100
T29 Rob Foster +29 F 101
T29 Aaron Hobbs +29 F 101
31 Chris Arkin +34 F 106
32 Harry Kuemmerle +35 F 107
33 Drew Cornell +37 F 109
34 William Folkerts +45 F 117
DID NOT FINISH
WD Edward Ananian       
WD Mark Gardner       
WD Ryan Goble       
WD Kyle Hopkins       
WD Alex Hyde-White       
WD Barrett Johnson       
WD Brian Mahoney       
WD Nick Paytas       
WD Matt Pecarovich       
WD Matthew Pierce Jr       
WD Joe Sanders       
WD Brody Schmidt       
WD Richard Simonin       
 

[Matt_Ward]

Firsrt off -- this is one of the worst courses I have played. I agree w Damon on this one.

The tree inclusion is truly silly -- to name just one item of note / scorn, call it what one may.

It's not just the silly wind gusts that blow through the gap in the I-10 corridor but the holes are not really especially noteworthy. How the layout won the 'best new" for its categoy years ago still astounds me.

The wind strength at the course has a clear impact on total shot distortion -- but my comments on the course go beyond just that. The turf conditions are generally average and minus a few holes in which the qualities do rise -- the rise comes from such mundane holes either before or after the holes of note.

Public golf has clearly risen in the Palm Springs area -- if I had to recommend a layout of note I'd rather play the Firecliff 18 at Desert Willow in Palm Desert. Light years beyond what you find at Desert Dunes.

[Richard Boult]

posted at http://delicious.com/golfclubatlas

[Eric Smith]

Slightly OT, but I once interviewed for a retirement  community course out west and proposed to name it Desert Prunes.  For some reason, I didn't get the job......

 

LOL -Thanks for that Jeff !! 

[Doug Wright]

Firsrt off -- this is one of the worst courses I have played. I agree w Damon on this one.

The tree inclusion is truly silly -- to name just one item of note / scorn, call it what one may.

It's not just the silly wind gusts that blow through the gap in the I-10 corridor but the holes are not really especially noteworthy. How the layout won the 'best new" for its categoy years ago still astounds me.

The wind strength at the course has a clear impact on total shot distortion -- but my comments on the course go beyond just that. The turf conditions are generally average and minus a few holes in which the qualities do rise -- the rise comes from such mundane holes either before or after the holes of note.

Public golf has clearly risen in the Palm Springs area -- if I had to recommend a layout of note I'd rather play the Firecliff 18 at Desert Willow in Palm Desert. Light years beyond what you find at Desert Dunes.

I concur in part with and dissent in part from the learned Mr. Ward.  I concur that this course could be better. There are some blah holes, and IMO the archtect didn't really use the dunes that are there to great effect--the holes basically play through them as valleys. The course could use more width in some places particularly since it's so consistently windy there. The heavily treed holes that start the back nine are odd but I suppose they were there and the architect had to do the best he could. All in all yes it could be better routed and more interesting. It would be interesting to see what other routings could be possible on the land provided. However, Matt, if this is "one of the worst courses I have played" then you haven't played many bad courses. You can't blame the architect or the course for the wind. It's a challenging course to play in the heavy wind, yes, but there are enough decent holes to give the course some redeeming value.

PS I do agree that Desert Willow Firecliff and many other courses in the area are better.

[Jon Spaulding]

I fall on the Wardian/Groves side of the ledger on this one.

Not one of my worst ever, but it's a certainly a "drive-by" if headed out to the desert. The only redeeming values of the place are the price and some interesting shots due to the wind. There seems to be a misapplication of what I presume are natural contours and the creation of faux contours.

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