I live in Palm Desert, CA and decided to do the drive out to Borrego Springs, CA because I was fortunate enough to play in the afternoon. For those of you that don't know the California desert, that is a 1 1/2 hr drive to the middle of nothing. Tom Fazio recently came in 2007 and completely redesigned the course. It opened to rave reviews, but like I said, it is in the middle of nowhere. I thought the golf course was very nice; the bunkers were the new fazio style which is quite nice; the greens had nice undulation and were very quick, every tee shot was interesting with some kind of shot to be played, and the approaches were good looking with nice elevation changes.
Hole 1Par 4 (439 yards) Tough uphill starter into the wind, asks for a draw off the tee.
A lot of the greens on this course were crowned with one side being short grass and the otherside a bunker.
Hole 2 Par 5 (543 yards) All the par 5's are reachable if you don't drive your ball in the fairway bunkers. The bunkers here were very deep.
Here is a photo of how there was no rough, everything was mowed a fairway height, so the ball has a great chance on rolling into the bunkers making the fairways play smaller
Hole 3 Par 4 (472 yards) A really good looking hole, hit your drive just to the left of the right hand side fairway bunker
Then approach the green that is raised into the hill
Hole 4 Par 4 (368 yards) A uphill dogleg left
Hole 5 Par 3 (206 yards) A hard uphill par 3 that has a deep green
Hole 6 Par 5 (519 yards) A very interesting tee shot, you either play out left and make it a three shotter, hit it exactly right in between the bunkers, or try to bomb it over the right side fairway bunkers.
The green is right over the bunker on the left, if land your shot right over that bunker it will bounce right on down to the green
Hole 7 Par 4 (370 yards) Try and bomb your ball right down the slot and you will be left will a little pitch in
The green is raised and has a big bunker right in the front
Hole 8 Par 4 (498 yards) A good hard hole, you must hit a draw off the fairway bunker
Then hit a good long iron shot into the green
Hole 9 Par 3 (151 yards) A fine par 3 with plenty of pin positions available
Hole 10 Par 3 (213 yards) A tough par 3 that had a real hard pin position right over the water
Hole 11 Par 5 (556 yards) A nice par 5, a real tight driving hole, with that big fairway bunker on right sloping down into the creek on the left with all low cut fairway grass make it a real small target
Hole 12 Par 4 (333 yards) A short par 4 uphill that has big bunkers
Then a sloping green
Hole 13 Par 4 (455 yards) A good uphill hole that requires two well struck shots
Hole 14 Par 4 (473 yards) A fun dowhill hole that if you take the risky line on the right hand side elimates A LOT of distance in by catching a big hill
Then the approach is dowhill also
Hole 15 Par 4 (508 yards) This hole was by far the hardest and you will see why, the drive wasn't that hard just try and get it out there as far as possible
Oh now let me hit a 200 yard snap hook into the pin position, the sucker is really tucked back there
Hole 16 Par 3 (220 yards) A pretty boring par 3, with one greenside bunker
Hole 17 Par 4 (346 yards) A great short par 4 with a two tiered green
Hole 18 Par 5 (577 yards) The typical Fazio finishing hole with a big waterfall down the right
The approach is quite uphill to a small green
I liked the course a lot and thought it was worth the drive. If it was public in the Palm Desert area, it would be the best public option. I have only played Bighorn Caynons for a comparision for Fazio, and I think that the land is better at Bighorn, but the golf holes are much better at Montesoro. I haven't played Madison Club, the Quarry, or either of the Vintage courses to be able to compare.