played sat 3/21, 8am shotgun. 5:15 round. forecast for 105 temp. That last hour the temp went up severely. wow. Course in fabulous shape. lush throughout. greens in good shape, true, a fast 10 ... Continue »

played sat 3/21, 8am shotgun. 5:15 round. forecast for 105 temp. That last hour the temp went up severely. wow. Course in fabulous shape. lush throughout. greens in good shape, true, a fast 10 on the stimp. the more forgiving of the 2 courses... Fantastic resort, good customer service. restaurant good, 2 cart girls out and about. Both courses are in great shape and fun to play... probably a top 3 golf complex in palm springs. Had a great time.

Catching up on a fantastic GK Plays Year End Event at Desert Willow Golf Resort, Mountain View Course on 12-20-2025. Thank You everyone that came out to play and to Desert Willow Golf Resort for provi... Continue »

Catching up on a fantastic GK Plays Year End Event at Desert Willow Golf Resort, Mountain View Course on 12-20-2025. Thank You everyone that came out to play and to Desert Willow Golf Resort for providing an exceptional experience.

When the director of golf greets you and lets you know the course had it's BEST overseeding in the 18 years he has been there, that's pretty awesome. Wow, the course was lush and glowing GREEN. When you look at the photos I just posted, YES, it was that green, and that lush. Insane. Immaculate conditions, tee to green.

After play they set up our gathering on their beautiful patio terrace overlooking the Firecliff Course, which just reopened from overseeding and it too looked amazingly lush and green. Excellent food and service was provided while we did our after-golf raffle and gave out prizes. Thank you, Vivid Golf and Golf Moose, for loading us up with goodies!

I can’t recommend Desert Willow Golf Resort enough for anyone planning a round of golf in Palm Springs over the next 5 months. This overseeding will blow you away. Two super fun challenging courses. I’m already looking into booking another GK Plays there for this year!

Played in the GK final plays 12/20/2025. I found the course to be in immaculate shape. Deep green and lush everywhere. What a contrast to the SD courses at this time. All though I played from the roug... Continue »

Played in the GK final plays 12/20/2025. I found the course to be in immaculate shape. Deep green and lush everywhere. What a contrast to the SD courses at this time. All though I played from the rough more than the fairways. The fairways where perfect, with great lies. The rough was lush but manageable at around 2". The greens were firm and required really good ball striking for any stopping power, but very consistent. They ran at a solid quick pace with very good roll. Many subtle breaks that you really need to look out for. I was in a couple of traps and they were in excellent shape. A few too many foot prints left behind !!! A couple of the tees had some unevenness to them, but not too bad. Cart girls were by a few times. Pace was good. Had to wait on a few shots, but over all not bad for our group. An absolute treat to play these courses this time of year. A nice mix of hole layouts and overall design. Highly recommend.

Joined Johnny and a familiar cast of characters to resurrect (hopefully) GK Plays outings at Mountain View on Saturday morning, 12/20/25, in perfect golf weather – warm, sunny, and almost no wind, pla... Continue »

Joined Johnny and a familiar cast of characters to resurrect (hopefully) GK Plays outings at Mountain View on Saturday morning, 12/20/25, in perfect golf weather – warm, sunny, and almost no wind, playing on a course in wonderful condition. Tee times ranged from 9:30 to 10:30am and we went out on time with few groups in front of us and without anyone close enough behind the final group to cause any waiting.

Conditions were very good throughout the course, which presented as a shimmering green against the muted tones of the surrounding desert environment. Fairways had wall-to-wall coverage of firm turf that gave excellent lies. Coverage in the rough adjacent to fairways was 1-2 inches deep and somewhat wet at the start of the round, but was very playable; if you got too wide there were scraped dirt areas and scattered rock fields to navigate. I was not in any bunkers, but playing partners looked like they had good lies with sand having a fairly shallow playing layer of firm sand. Tees were well-marked and all level and provided good peg opportunities. I hit from the turf on the par-3s and had perfect lies available.

Greens were challenging from the standpoint of firmness and quickness. Most ballmarks were very small and full shots released significantly. Downhill putts had significant rollout and all greens have many subtle small breaks that surprised all of us through the day. Coverage on the greens was excellent and speeds were consistent throughout the day.

Saw the cart girl once on the front and several times on the back side. Restrooms are well-marked and clean and all have water/ice stations. Carts with good-quality GPS, comfortable with ice chest and ball/club washer. Staff was very helpful from bag drop to coordinating the start to receiving golfers after the round.

Great to see old friends again and meet new GKers. I’m hopeful that the GK Plays can take off and be well-received by the SoCal GK community. Playing fun, well-conditioned courses like Mountain View helps to enhance the experience and increase anticipation for future events. Thanks to Johnny for all he does.

Had a buddy that never played Desert golf, so we planned a overnight trip a few months back. This was course 1 of 2. Booking tee times in the Palm Spring area because of the overseeding schedule is l... Continue »

Had a buddy that never played Desert golf, so we planned a overnight trip a few months back. This was course 1 of 2. Booking tee times in the Palm Spring area because of the overseeding schedule is like playing jenga this time of the year, especially if you want to avoid the dreaded cart path only restrictions after the clubs reopen. A blessing in disguised as it opened our menu of playable courses in the area. Keep in mind, Desert Willows does not have cart path restrictions after overseeding. Our 1st course was Desert Willows - Mountain View, which because of Greenskeeper.org knew that they were not overseeding until after we played on Friday, 11/3 at 12:55 pm. Always great to patron a well run facility by a long time GK supporter. The patio was closed for a private event at 2 pm. Announcements were made regarding that and the need to order goodies before last call at 2 pm. All the staff interacted with was excellent including the proshop guys, the cart coordinator Billy, and Larry, the starter who is always a friendly ambassador. Keep in mind the course was going to close a couple days after we played for overseeding so conditions were understandable brown. We were made aware of that during our welcome e-mail from Ryan Szydlowski, the assistant pro. Ryan was out and about roaming the grounds and working hard as usual! I wanted to say hello and thank him for supporting our community, because he seemed really busy, so I respectfully let the man do his thing. If you are reading, thank you Ryan! Greens were running medium speed at 10. The fairways had great coverage and had plenty of afternoon roll. The traps and tee boxes were well maintained. As usually, conditions were superb as we come to expect from Desert Willows. POP was 4 hours 5 minutes. Post round, cart guys were great. We look forward to a return soon. I had another friend send his parents to play Desert Golf for the first time last week, and I had no hesitation recommending Desert Willows. They played FireCliff and was completely blown away. Good luck to GKer's playing the FireCliff course next month. The place should be looking spectacular!

Played 8/13/23 9:15 POP 4:05 $78. The course was in over all good to great condition. Fairways lush. Not much roll out, but ball sat perfectly. A few "Dry" areas around, but caused no issues. Greens ... Continue »

Played 8/13/23 9:15 POP 4:05 $78. The course was in over all good to great condition. Fairways lush. Not much roll out, but ball sat perfectly. A few "Dry" areas around, but caused no issues. Greens had full coverage. Receptive and putted fine, but were very slow and grainy. Putts up hill and into the grain were difficult to hit hard enough and once the ball slowed the grain of the turf would take over. Numerous putts took sharp turns right at the hole. You really had to putt with "authoritii". Traps were a little firm, but fine. Service as usual was perfect. Cool Towle at the turn and cart girl was by three times. High for the day was 106 at 4 pm. We were off the course at around 1:20 and it was just getting a little uncomfortable. If you can get out and done by noon-1 it's well worth the trip.

Played Sunday 2/5, 8am shotgun; cold morning, hot day. More forgiving than the Firecliff. Not as many bunkers and easier off the tee. Greens seemed inconsistent... front 9 they were sticky, back 9... Continue »

Played Sunday 2/5, 8am shotgun; cold morning, hot day. More forgiving than the Firecliff. Not as many bunkers and easier off the tee. Greens seemed inconsistent... front 9 they were sticky, back 9, they couldn't hold anything. Had a great time nonetheless. And course in fabulous shape otherwise. I could play here everyday.

Played here on 5/1/22 as part of the GK Event.

Facility: Large range area, good quality range balls and grass was kept up well. There is a large putting green and a separate, multi-flagged chipping... Continue »

Played here on 5/1/22 as part of the GK Event.

Facility: Large range area, good quality range balls and grass was kept up well. There is a large putting green and a separate, multi-flagged chipping area. Very nice warmup area. Putting green ran true to the green speeds that day.

Course: The course was in excellent condition. The tee boxes were lush, very little divot damage except on some of the par 3's. No sloping issues that I could tell. The fairways were pristine, well kept and pure the entire round. The rough was thin and often there were bare spots, however that comes with desert golf. Greens were hit or miss, some fast and some were slow. This day the greens were really firm, almost impossible to stop your ball even when hitting an approach from the fairway. Was hard to judge the landing area.

Pace of play was pretty slow, however that is to be expected on the weekend.

All and all, would highly recommend you check this course out.

I posted an outing recap with photos in the forums today. Thank you everyone that came out to play Sunday.

I played all 18 holes for this GK Plays and really enjoyed it but I felt bad coming in see... Continue »

I posted an outing recap with photos in the forums today. Thank you everyone that came out to play Sunday.

I played all 18 holes for this GK Plays and really enjoyed it but I felt bad coming in seeing everyone waiting around and some that needed to leave. So I posted a forum topic about a modification to how I run tee time events as opposed to shotgun events I’d appreciate if you checked out and gave me some feedback. Anyway, simply love both Desert Willow Golf Resort courses and I was totally impressed, as usual, with the conditions of the golf course to go along with the great layout. I talked with the Director of Golf prior to playing and the Superintendent Chris recently won the Kemper Sports Superintendent of the Year. Bear in mind Kemper Sports manages over 100 facilities in the USA that include Bandon Dunes, Chambers Bay and Streamsong. The super introduced a new practice to the turf management of Desert Willow Golf Resort that allows a quicker/smoother transition from overseeded rye to warm weather bermunda. Already, on May 1st, the golf course had transitioned to 70% bermunda – 30% rye. Greens were running very well for this time year and fairways, rough and tee boxes already mostly lush bermunda. There will very few dried rye greens areas. Take a look at the photos.

Everything about the Desert Willow Golf Resort experience makes it must a play (both courses). The patio is spectacular with fantastic views of holes #9 and #18 of the Firecliff Course. Service in all aspects is top notch. Practice facilities excellent. Food delicious.

Highly recommended to play or host an outing at.