PGA West Stadium Course, La Quinta, CA (Pete Dye) Pics

[Peter Ferlicca]

PGA West Stadium is in La Quinta, CA.  It is located inside the massive PGA West residential complex.  There are six golf courses that are all surrounded by homes.  The Stadium course is designed by Pete Dye, and was designed with the mindset to make a course that would be extremely hard for tour pros.    I don’t know the exact history, but I know the pros complained about how hard it was right off the bat, and then they stopped going there.  There are humps, bumps, and moguls ALL OVER THE PLACE here. This place has to be a maintenance nightmare for the superintendent.  You would have to use a flymow or weed wacker for pretty much all the rough.  Just driving around in a golf cart you practically need a 4x4 vehicle.  With all that being said there are a lot of very good designed golf holes out there.   The distances are from the tournament tees at 7,300 yards.

Hole 1 Par 4   445 yards  The first three holes are sort of right in front of you and pretty average, just hit it in the fairway and you are ok.




Hole 2 Par 4   371 yards




Hole 3 Par 4   471 yards




Hole 4 Par 3   192 yards





Hole 5 Par 5   535 yards   Double Trouble is the name of the hole.  Water left off the tee, and then water right on the approach. 





Hole 6 Par 3   255 yards    From the back tee many will need to hit driver just to clear the water.  You can lay up to the left and leave yourself a pitch in if need be.







Hole 7 Par 4   346 yards   Very good hole, hit it in the thin fairway with water right and trouble left, and then am left with a semi blind wedge shot into the green.






Hole 8 Par 5   559 yards





Hole 9 Par 4   452 yards   The front nine has the typical railroad ties that are usually on Pete Dye tracks.




Hole 10 Par 4   416 yards   Then all of a sudden once you get the back all the holes are with big rock boulders against the water.




Hole 11 Par 5   617 yards    This is a wild par 5, the tee shot is right in front of you but then the VERY LONG lay up shot is important.  It then becomes a split fairway with a really high up right side and then a really low left side.  If you are on the left side you are so low that you cannot even see the green. 







Hole 12 Par 4   363 yards   The moat hole.  This is my favorite of the course. You must position yourself perfectly on the right side of the fairway to have an angle into the hole, once there you must hit enough club to carry the 10 foot deep moat bunker that surrounds the green on 3 sides.






Hole 13 Par 3   214 yards   Another tough par 3 that is all over water




Hole 14 Par 4   389 yards





Hole 15 Par 4   468 yards





Hole 16 Par 5   600 yards   Ok here is the stretch of the famous 3 hole stretch.  This is an awesome par 5.  Once again the second shot is very crucial on where you should position yourself.  Once at the green you are faced with at least a 20 foot deep bunker running along the whole left side of the green and behind.






Hole 17 Par 3   168 yards   Here is the island green, much harder from the 168 range, and IMO more intimating with all the rocks around. 




Hole 18 Par 4   439 yards   The typical Pete Dye finishing hole with water left dogleg left par 4.  Hit the fairway for any chance at an easy par.

[Randy Thompson]

The climax of the architorture era! Funny though, they had a large team of young talent in the construction. Thanks for posting pictures, it was the cats meow at one time but its increidible to look back now and go HUH!

[Jay Flemma]

I really like the course a great deal.  (Except the stretch of 5-6-7 which is just to watery.)  Lots of great fwy undulations, great green contours, alternate shot requirements and a good price in summer ($50 at times).  That being said, it's almost too hot in summer, and it really feels like Sawgrass west.  I enjoyed everything about it but the heatstroke.

[Matt Kardash]

I have never played this course but it this was one of the most enjoyable photo tours I have seen in a while. There is just SO MUCH going on. What strikes me the most is that Dye put so much contour all over the place that it sometimes took me a second to even locate where the fairway was in the image! I can't say that happens very often! Tose undulations look really cool. This olf course deserves a spot in a museum!

[Tim Gavrich]

I <3 railroad ties.  I don't know what it is about them, but I like them a lot.

Thanks for the pics.  I've always hoped to see a comprehensive photo set of PGA WEST--Stadium.

[Randy Thompson]

Granted there is an appeal to wanting to play it and experience it but would you guys like to call this home and play day in and day out and if you did, don´t you think you could feel a little beat up.

[Kyle Henderson]

I've been keen to play this course for some time, but frankly these images look pretty awful. Every bit of shaping looks totally overdone. Did the TPC Sawgrass need a west coast clone?

Here's hoping I am pleasantly surprised after playing the course some day.

[Joe_Tucholski]

I played the course almost exactly a year ago to take advantage of the summer rates.  I tried to play 36 holes in the day with the first 18 at the Stadium Course and the second 18 at La Quinta Mountain Course.  I say tried because I wasn't feeling well during the second round due to the heat.  It was the second time I walked off a golf course without finishing when there was still plenty of light (the first time was at a great course in Monterey during high school to go surprise a girlfriend).

Looking at the pictures I don't remember the contours impacting play nearly as much as it appears and my recollection was the course was flat.  I’m not sure if it is because most of the contours are out usual playing areas or if it is because I have a terrible memory (I do have a terrible memory).  I agree that 12 is a one of the better holes.  I think it would have liked it more if it played longer.  I didn’t really fear the moat or coming up short with a wedge in hand.  I played from the blue tees and not the black tees so that may make a difference and 1 of the gentlemen I was paired with ended up in the bunker and couldn’t get out so he picked up so it probably is good as is and will come into play for quite a few.  I thought 16 was the hole I liked most on the course.  Playing from the blue tees this is probably a very different hole than at the full 600 yards.  At the 520ish from the Blues it was a reachable par 5 with a scary bunker on the left on your approach.  I like reachable par 5s (who doesn't like birdies) and this one has plenty of room right to avoid the bunker and even provide a helpful kick.

I was disappointed by the island 17th.  Personally I didn’t like the large boulders that were used throughout the course and on 17 I really didn’t like them.  To me it felt like they threw a bunch of rocks down and put a green on top (I guess that is what they did).  It was my first island green so it was unique but I much prefer the only other island green I’ve played at Coeur d’Alene (there are probably people that will quickly judge me on my second post for saying that).



Randy if I had to live in Palm Desert I would be happy to have it as my home course, especially given the other PGA West courses that would therefore also be home.  I will add that I didn't love the place and if I had payed winter rates I would have been disapointed with the experience (I can't separate price from my experience yet) but given the summer prices I'll play them again (only 18 a day and during the morning).

[Sean_A]

Jeepers, I feel seasick just looking at the pix.  I too struggled to locate some fairways.  There is far too much going on for my taste, but I must applaud the bold vision of the design.  In a way (but this is far more uniform than I imagine), it sort of looks like a course that I would love to see built; one where the land is blown to smithereens then a course built over over it. 

Is the course firm enough to support the ground game with all those mounds or do they act as blinders and for awkward stances?

Ciao

[Doug Wright]

I heard that PGA West is a clone of TPC Sawgrass. I've played PGA West but not TPC Sawgrass; were the courses ever more similar with Sawgrass being reworked extensively to change that or is there just a similarity in the finishing three holes and some others?

I think the mounding depicted looks much worse than it is on the ground. I thought the course was pretty flat except that there were mounds used to obscure greens and mounds quite a bit off the playing areas. This is probably one of the most manufactured courses I've ever played. Unlike most courses that  strive to conceal the hand of man, the hand of man (Pete) is clear and present on every hole and every shot.

You need the right mind-set to play a course like PGA West. I came to PGA West prepared to be challenged and in some cases beat up. I wasn't disappointed. It's a thrill ride for sure. When I hit shots that came off well, I got a sense of satisfaction that I was able to execute in the face of danger or disaster. That made PGA West a worthwhile round of golf for me.

[Jerry Kluger]

I liked much of the course except the water - first of all you are in the desert and water looks totally out of place and secondly, the wind was really blowing which made the water even more difficult to tolerate. 

[Matt Waterbury]

Playing West from the tips in a 40mph dust storm was the craziest round of golf I have ever had. Have pictures of me walking up the fairway leaning at a 45* angle in to the wind.

There were no options on 6. Driver way left (the "layup" area wasn't even reachable), try to keep on land to find the green. Followed by a drive long and left of the green on 7!

The humps and bumps are more optical. It plays pretty flat.

Cheerio,
Matt

[Jay Flemma]

I heard that PGA West is a clone of TPC Sawgrass. I've played PGA West but not TPC Sawgrass; were the courses ever more similar with Sawgrass being reworked extensively to change that or is there just a similarity in the finishing three holes and some others?

I think the mounding depicted looks much worse than it is on the ground. I thought the course was pretty flat except that there were mounds used to obscure greens and mounds quite a bit off the playing areas. This is probably one of the most manufactured courses I've ever played. Unlike most courses that  strive to conceal the hand of man, the hand of man (Pete) is clear and present on every hole and every shot.

You need the right mind-set to play a course like PGA West. I came to PGA West prepared to be challenged and in some cases beat up. I wasn't disappointed. It's a thrill ride for sure. When I hit shots that came off well, I got a sense of satisfaction that I was able to execute in the face of danger or disaster. That made PGA West a worthwhile round of golf for me.

Doug, it's not quite a clone, but there are about 5-6 really really close holes like 13, 17, 11, and 18 just off the top of my head.  I really like Sawgrass, so I really like PGA West Stadium...but if you walk it in summer like I did you MUST drink a glass of ice water per hole.  There is a serious risk of heat stroke or heat poisoning in that environment.  if it's over 100 next time I go, I won't walk it, I was sick for three weeks last time.

[Matthew Petersen]

Playing West from the tips in a 40mph dust storm was the craziest round of golf I have ever had. Have pictures of me walking up the fairway leaning at a 45* angle in to the wind.

There were no options on 6. Driver way left (the "layup" area wasn't even reachable), try to keep on land to find the green. Followed by a drive long and left of the green on 7!

The humps and bumps are more optical. It plays pretty flat.

Cheerio,
Matt

That's my memory as well. When i played (nearly a decade ago now) I was having a great ball striking day and hit almost every fairway and most of the greens. You are not very likely to find a wildly uneven lie in the fairway or too many crazy putts. Get off line, of course, and it's a whole different story.