Desert Dunes is in GREAT SHAPE...better than most courses during the middle of summer in the Coachella Valley. Strong layout, smooth greens and lush fairways. Check first to make sure the wind isn't howling then come out and play this outstanding track!

Played Cielo/Vista 9's Sunday morning and had a great time. Desert Princess is in good as it usually is and the greens are perfect. My only criticism is that the rough in the Vista nine has some brown patches.

I always enjoy a round of golf at the Desert Princess. It doesn't seem to get reviewed much on Greenskeeper but I recommend it.

Played Desert Dunes Saturday as a walk on single and joined another single and twosome as the first group out. Good group of guys made me feel like I was with my regular foursome. The course is in very good shape. Fairways and rough are very lush and the traps are in good shape. The greens are decent but run medium/slow, they are a bit grainy, and have some unrepaired divots.

The Robert Trent Jones Jr. design is one of my favorites in the area. There are no homes around the course and the views of the surrounding valley and mountains are better than many Palm Springs area tracks. Temps reached low 80's by the time we finished and there was hardly a breeze...Desert Dunes is in an area that can get very windy but today was perfect. I live about 5 miles away and almost always enjoy my round at the Dunes. If the greens were faster it would have been perfect.

Played Friday morning as a single and was paired with two great guys from Canada. Escena is in excellent condition tee to green and it really is a beautiful golf course. I believe that Escena has 99 bunkers and I found about 8 of them. Those traps cost me a few strokes today but I still had an enjoyable round and will be back soon. The par 3's are generally long and difficult. Lots of variety with water coming into play on a few of the par 4 and par 5 holes. Most fairways have generous landing areas and the greens are good sized (but many have tiers and can be tricky). If I can figure out how to avoid the numerous and well placed bunkers I'd probably enjoy my rounds at Escena even more.

Played for the 1st time Friday after 11am for a twilight rate of $45 which is a great deal. The clubhouse is small and has a muni feel but the course is championship caliber. Oak Valley is long (6400 yds from whites, 7000 yds from blues) and difficult. The first few holes start you off gently and then the course starts to bare it's teeth. Most of the fairways have generous landing areas but the greens are usually well protected with multiple tiers. The greens run true and are lightning fast but they are very firm. You must make a quality approach shot to stay on the greens. And if you land on the wrong tier of the green it can be difficult to two putt because of the severe undulations.

Oak Valley has a great layout and some of the holes on the back 9 have great views of the San Gorgonio Moutains. Pace of play was very good (4 hours) and the customer service was friendly. I recommend Oak Valley but high handcaps might want to avoid.

Played East Valley (Legends) for the first time Friday morning. The cart guy met me in the parking lot and was very helpful. Nice practice facilities with large driving range, chipping/sand area and putting green (balls included w/ green fee).

I enjoyed the layout on the Legends. Lots of doglegs, some elevation changes and undulating greens which keep you thinking througout the round.

The course conditions were ok for the price. Fairways and tee boxes are thin and there are quite a few bare spots. The greens looked thin but they were fast and rolled true (loved them). Had one of my better putting days.

When my buddy and I started the round it was breezy (5-10 mph) which didn't affect play much but the back nine turned very windy (probably 20 mph). I shot even par on the front (1st time doing this) but was 8 over on the back. Overall, I enjoyed my round at East Valley.

Played Escena for the first time since they reopend. The course in perfect shape! The clubhouse looks great, the customer service is good, and the cart girl is pretty.

This Nicklaus design has a couple of long par 3's and water comes into play on a number of holes but Escena doesn't beat you up. Just an enjoyable round of golf in beautiful Palm Springs. I highly recommend Escena to locals and visitors to our Coachella Valley.

Played Dos Lagos for the first time today. I was aware of the lack of driving range and limited food service (hot dogs, beer soda, and chips) so this didn't bother me. The course is in good shape with the exception of too many unrepaired divots on the green, and thin fairways on some holes. Greens are soft but fast and they roll true. Overall, I was pleased with the condtions; especially for the price.

I really did not like the layout. Blind tee shots, narrow fairways with doglegs,and extreme elevation changes all day long is not my idea of a good time. Two of the par 3's are a gap/pitching wedge distance which is weak, and then you come across a 230 yd par 3 with mulitiple tier greens! The 614 par 5 (580 from the whites) was not only long but you can't see the green on your approach because of the extreme uphill elevation change. Maybe if I played here regularly the course might grow on me but this just wasn't a good time for me.

The cart girl was friendly and came by often and the rest of the staff did a good job but the layout is going to keep me from coming back.

Cimarron re-opened today after reseeding during the month of September...they were one of the first in the Coachella Valley to reseed.

Course is a beautiful emerald green and in good shape tee to green but fairways are still a bit thin and greens are slow. In another week or two it will fill in better.

Even though it was cart path only, pace of play was very good for a busy Saturday (4 hour round). Customer service was very good as it usually is and we enjoyed our round. To top it off the weather was perfect.

ESCENA IS BACK!! This fine course will reopen October 2009 according to an article in todays Desert Sun. Here is an excerpt....

PALM SPRINGS — It seems a fair question — in a golf marketplace hit hard by the economic downturn of the last year, why would anyone be thinking about opening a golf course?


But that's exactly what will happen in about five or six weeks when Escena Golf Club will re-open in Palm Springs after more than a year of being closed.
“It's an opportunity to set the bar, to turn the corner and realize that the golf industry is a good industry,” said Mark Tansey, president and chief executive officer of Sunrise Golf Group, the valley-based golf management firm that will manage Escena for new owners New Valley LLC.
Escena, a Nicklaus Design Group public-access course that was part of a 1,400-home planned Lennar development in Palm Springs east of Palm Springs International Airport, closed in November of 2007 as the housing development struggled to sell any homes during the start of the economic downturn.
Tansey, whose company also manages Desert Dunes Golf Club in Desert Hot Springs, said under the new management Escena will re-open in late October after a normal fall overseeding.

I live in Palm Springs and this was the longest I've ever driven to play a round of golf with a group of friends. The Poa Ana greens take some time getting used as I'm familiar with the Bermuda greens in the desert. Some unrepaired divots but overall the greens are in pretty good shape.

The layout isn't exceptional but it is solid and challenges come from doglegs, elevation changes and tree lines which can come into play if you hit an errant shot. You can hit driver on most holes because the fairways are generally wide open. We played from the blues which is supposed to be 6800 yards but most holes were 20-40 yards less than advertised. The "blues are probably closer to 6400-6500 yds. I was actually relieved because 6800 yds is more than I can comfortably handle.

Pace of play was very good for a Saturday afternoon and the Marshall stopped by quite often to offer us cold water (it was hot...even for a desert rat). The only real negative is the constant traffic noise and it seems that most of the holes run right up along the highway. It wasn't distracting but it sure wasn't a relaxing environment.

We had a good time and if I lived in the area I would play Diamond Bar again.

Our foursome played for $29 each early Sunday morning...what a great deal. The cart guy set us up with complementary water and the range balls are included in the price.

For this time of year, the course is in very good shape tee to green. We played from the blues is about 6400 yards. Most of the fairways have generous landing areas but the greens are well protected by bunkers and there is a lot of water on this course. If you don't land the fairway chances are you will have an awkward lie.

The green complexes can be tricky with many tiers and breaks. They ran true, however, and the speed was medium/fast.

The layout of this course is very good and challenging. Even though you have open fairways, most of the par 3's are very long and a few of the par 4's are well over 400 yds from the blues (one measured 455 yards). There are no easy holes but Shadow Hills plays very fair.

My only complaints are a jerk of a Marshall who kept harassing all the of the groups during the front 9 even though pace of play was good (under 4 hours on a Sunday morning) and no one was complaining. We were all grateful when he disappeared at the turn. I would have liked to see a cart girl instead, but unfortunately, she never showed.

Overall, Shadow Hills is in excellent course and a great value. I'm looking forward to playing here again soon. I just hope it is the day the cart girl is working and the Marshall has the day off.