Desert Willow Firecliff (CA) - several dozen pictures

[Jim Johnson]

In early May my wife and I traveled to California and had the pleasure of golfing at Pacific Grove, Pasatiempo, San Juan Oaks, Monarch Dunes, Sandpiper, Oak Quarry, Desert Willow-Firecliff, and LaQuinta Mountain.

Desert Willow: Firecliff was the 7th course played on our trip. The course opened in 1997 and was designed by Hurdzan-Fry with input from PGA golfer John Cook.

Yardages are 5,079/5,642/6,173/6,676/7,056. All yardages posted here are from the 7,056 tees.

On to the course ...


Opening tee shot, 535 yard par-5


Fairway on first hole


Hole #2, par-4 410 yards


2nd fairway


Par-3 3rd hole, 194 yards


#4, par-4 446 yards


Tee shot on hole #5, 429 yards par-4


Side view of the 5th green


Tee shot on #6, short par-4 of 331 yards doglegging to the right


Approach on #6 to peninsula green


Looking back on hole 6


Tee shot on #7, par-5 of 569 yards


Par-3 8th hole, 155 yards


Tee shot on hole 9, 455 yards par-4


From right edge of 9th fairway


Middle of 9th fairway


Looks like this guy had a rough night, bloodshot eyes...


Clubhouse overlooking the 9th and 18th greens


Overall, my wife and I thought this course fit somewhere in the middle of the 8 played on our trip. It was in excellent condition, albeit played on a scorching hot day, 41 degrees Celsius. With 100 bunkers on the course, not to mention the ever-present desert sands, it got to the point where there just didn't seem to be a whole lot of strategy involved, especially off the tee. Hit it down the middle became the norm, at least in theory. Reality was another concept!

Anyway, the back 9 will follow in a day or two.

Cheers,
Jim

[Jim Johnson]

10th hole, par-4 435 yards


Spectators. I love the guy 2nd from the bottom, all spread out on the grass. Reminds me of our dog in the backyard on a hot summer day.


Approach on 10


Looking back on 10


Outnumbered, on the 11th tee, par-4 452 yards


12th hole, 427 yards par-4


Approach on 12


Tee shot on 13, par-5 550 yards


13th fairway


Interesting place to put a bunker rake



Par-3 14th, 176 yards


15th hole, par-4 332 yards


16th tee, 420 yards par-4


Par-3 17th, 204 yards


18th tee, par-5 536 yards


18th fairway


Looking back on the 18th


The next day, the last of our trip, we golfed at LaQuinta Mountain (Pete Dye). I'll post pictures later this week.

Cheers,
Jim

[Scott Weersing]

You played a good choice of courses. What happened to playing at Rustic Canyon?

What did you think of Monarch Dunes? I thought it was a great course that set itself apart from the other courses in the area.

[Jim Johnson]

I was trying to set up a game for us with Tommy N and Geoff Shack for the Friday morning that we drove into L.A. (after staying in Santa Barbara overnight after golfing Sandpiper), but Tommy told me a couple of weeks beforehand that he and Geoff were headed up to the Bay Area for that weekend, leaving that morning, so we decided not to bother golfing there this trip. We golfed it a year ago with Geoff's dad Lynn and David Moriarty and really enjoyed the course, but if we'd played it that Friday morning we would have faced a long/slow drive down to our next motel, in Laguna Beach, that afternoon, so we opted not to. We'll just enjoy it that much more next time we play it!

Scott, we both really enjoyed Monarch Dunes. It definitely had a manufactured look in certain places, but the outcome was pretty neat and the real estate component wasn't overly prominent which was good. I was curious about their choice of velvet for the greens and wanted to see what that was like. Man, what a smooth surface to putt on. They are struggling with poa encroachment though.

When I play a course, and I can remember all of the holes clearly, or almost all of the holes, that to me is one sign of a good course. Those 18 holes are perhaps the ones which stick out the most from our trip. Sitting here now, I can recall more of that course than any of the other 7. Not saying those other 7 were "worse". But we liked the look of the course, we liked the width and the corresponding angles into the greens, we liked the green complexes, and the bunkering, but we weren't crazy about the water on the course, it would have been nice to have had less. You said that you thought the course set itself apart from others in the area. It certainly seemed to set itself apart from the other courses we played on that trip.

Cheers,
Jim

[David_Elvins]

Thanks for the photo tour, Jim.

I really don't like the look of the course with all that containment mounding with bunkers cut into them. 

But I have not seen a lot of Hurdzan and Fry's work so it was good to see a bit of what they do. 

[Jim Johnson]

David, we weren't hugely impressed with Firecliff, although it was certainly enjoyable and we had a good day there. This was our first trip to Palm Desert, and for some strange reason, I got the distinct impression that the course was a good example of all of the other courses in the area. 

Firecliff was our first experience of a Hurdzan-Fry course. Interesting to see that one of their courses, Devil's Paintbrush in Ontario, is now the #1 (modern) course here in Canada, ahead of the highly regarded National GC. Sagebrush is a close 3rd. I know the boys will have a great time at Sagebrush for KP, it's a great track and a fun time. Dick Zokol should be very proud (hi Dick, if you're lurking, hope things are going well for you at Predator Ridge) ... not to mention Whit, Jeff Mingay, and all the others.

Jim