I'll never forget the selection process. It was widely known that Palmer had the front runner position.
Rule one, don't go after jobs you can't get. Rule two, break rule one every so often.
Still, a nice commission, so we went ahead and put in a proposal, in conjunction with Palm Desert resident Jim Colbert. (he knew some folks, but sure didn't have the name recognition of Arnie)
I got to the interview stage, which I thought was great, until I realized that there were 16 finalists, when 3-4 would have been ample to make sure Palmer Group were really the best. We got the impression the mucky mucks just liked the attention (and maybe a few extra days where it looked like they were working on something important rather than go to the office) Really an example of how not to conduct an architectural selection.
The other thing I recall is that for some reason, our design proposal (on Colbert's suggestion, who talked to someone who thought the idea made sense and would be acceptable) for some reason had us combining two nines from either 18 in phase I. The minute I said that, a committee members blurted out "Oh, that's the last thing we would ever consider" effectively ending the interview. I wrapped up quickly, and left them to eat the donuts we had brought, effectively giving the committee another half hour of free time.
Such is the golf design biz...…And, after all of that, the word on the street was the course had some drainage problems early on and needed some attention the year it opened. Now, it is being redone again. It was expensive to start with.