Played the Orange Tees (6538/71.6/130) with GK Guru's Kevin, Brian and Keith in 4.5 H twilight. The weather was clear and fairly calm in the mid 80's. Almost perfect golf weather, and the course condi... Continue »

Played the Orange Tees (6538/71.6/130) with GK Guru's Kevin, Brian and Keith in 4.5 H twilight. The weather was clear and fairly calm in the mid 80's. Almost perfect golf weather, and the course conditions were as good as the weather. Challenging layout with a good mixture of flat and rolling hills. Many holes with fairways that are either narrower or require turning the ball to get in prime positions. Large challenging green complexes. This course would be challenging to walk since there are numerous tees hundreds of yards from the last green. The customer service matched the playing conditions, superb! Cart gal was around numerous times. Complementary range ball on an all grass range is always a plus. The tees were lush and nicely maintained with few divots. The Bermuda fairways were lush and VERY nice to play from. The Bermuda rough was lush and excellent to play from as well. Really nice to chip from, the rough here is better than almost all other courses fairways. The traps were immaculately maintained with nice fine sand. The Bermuda greens putted medium fast and were firm with few ball marks. These large greens have few straight putts with many subtle undulations. Beautiful layout (37-35) with 7 sets of well spaced tees. I especially like how basically all their tees except the tips are combo tees. Makes it easier for people to play different tees since you are playing 9 tees from the color in front of you on most tee sets. Everything was outstanding, I like this course better with each visit. Definitely recommended.

Enjoyed a fun round with the GK Gurus this afternoon (Nickesquire, dangerousbri and kg1791). Our tee time was for 1:20, but they called us up at 1:10 and we teed off a few minutes early. Took us awhil... Continue »

Enjoyed a fun round with the GK Gurus this afternoon (Nickesquire, dangerousbri and kg1791). Our tee time was for 1:20, but they called us up at 1:10 and we teed off a few minutes early. Took us awhile to catch anyone in front of us, and then we never pushed them much after that. The group(s) behind never pushed us much either, so it was a relaxed pace of 4.5 hours.

The course, as expected, is in very nice condition. The tee boxes were excellent, the fairways were fantastic and the rough was well-kept. I'm used to great conditions here, so it was no surprise in early April. The greens were receptive and rolling pretty smooth at medium speeds. The green on the 6th hole had a very noticeable damaged/diseased section in the middle, but it didn't affect much with the front pin placement today. Not sure what happened there. I was in my share of bunkers and they were all nice.

Always enjoy any excuse to play either Indian Wells Resort course, and today was no exception. Friendly staff, good course and good conditions can be expected on most every visit. Afterwards, we enjoyed a $10 Wednesday happy hour deal for a burger, fries and drink. The food was good, albeit way too salty for my taste. Thanks to the course for having us out today and GK for setting up such a killer deal.

Golf in Indian Wells during the winter time is Fantastic.
It could not have been any better than at the Indian Wells Golf Resort - Players Course, where the Player's Play. They overseeded the golf c... Continue »

Golf in Indian Wells during the winter time is Fantastic.
It could not have been any better than at the Indian Wells Golf Resort - Players Course, where the Player's Play. They overseeded the golf course in September so, it was in great shape.
On December 20, the fairways were in fantastic shape, the tee boxes were lush. The rough was fair, an extra 1 inch thick when compared to fairway. The greens were nice and rolled true. The golf guru's could not have asked for better scoring conditions, as true Players.
I highly recommend that you check out the Indian Wells Golf Resort courses for your next golf outing. You just can't go wrong.

Played on Dec. 16th, had a 10 am tee time, but there were so many cancellations because of the weather forecast, we went out at 0930. It was a beautiful day, no one in front of us that we could see a... Continue »

Played on Dec. 16th, had a 10 am tee time, but there were so many cancellations because of the weather forecast, we went out at 0930. It was a beautiful day, no one in front of us that we could see at all, and a group was 3+ holes behind us. We were a 3some and played in 3 1/2 hours. Greens were excellent, smooth and fast. There are some very subtle breaks on these greens. They were running pretty fast today. The rest of the course was in great shape, much much better than SilverRock which I played the day before, and these I.W. courses get lots of play. I don't know what the rack rate was but I have a friend who is a resident so they and their guests get a great rate. I've always thought the Players course is more difficult than the Celb. course, but not according to the ratings. Good track to play. If you have trouble getting tee times, wait until 2 days before you are playing as the course gets tee times back from the 2 hotels on property, so there may be (better) times available or times you want.

Second round of GK Review Guru Monday in Palm Springs, fantastic time with good company and a tremendous golf course. Right out of the gate I was impressed with how much overseed and how lush it was. ... Continue »

Second round of GK Review Guru Monday in Palm Springs, fantastic time with good company and a tremendous golf course. Right out of the gate I was impressed with how much overseed and how lush it was. There was next to no thin or bare area on the golf course. Anywhere. Mind you this is December, not January/February when the rye grass has had at a lot of time to fill in. I was also very impressed with the condition of the greens. I was expecting slow greens, as is mostly the case in December in the desert and I got moderately fast and smooth greens. This course was actually in better condition than the Celebrity Course that had finished overseeding before it. While I like the Celebrity layout better, I love both these tracks. The bunkers were meticulously groomed with high quality sand. Tee boxes in great shape. This course was immaculate.

The layout of the Players Course is tough. You got to be accurate off the tee and you better bring your sand game. Once on the putting greens there will be good opportunities to drain some. Very fair surfaces. But the question is getting to the green in a reasonable number of strokes. There is a reason its called the “Players” course.

The service was outstanding throughout the day as it always is with every golf experience I have ever had at Indian Wells Golf Resort. I snapped a bunch of photos. Get ready to drool and start planning on playing there.

Played 12-12-16 with Keith, Kelvin, and Steve for our second round of a GK guru outing. Tee boxes were in great shape, cut tight, level and lush. Fairways were very nice, lush and green with some roll... Continue »

Played 12-12-16 with Keith, Kelvin, and Steve for our second round of a GK guru outing. Tee boxes were in great shape, cut tight, level and lush. Fairways were very nice, lush and green with some roll out and great lies. Rough is not to long and pretty easy to hit from. Bunkers were well groomed with soft white sand. Greens were very smooth semi-soft and rolling medium speed. Overall course is in great shape, with top notch costumer service.

Played DW Firecliff and IW Players with the GK Review Gurus on 12/12. My first outing with the GK group, and what a great day!

Somehow, I had never played the resort side at Indian Wells before th... Continue »

Played DW Firecliff and IW Players with the GK Review Gurus on 12/12. My first outing with the GK group, and what a great day!

Somehow, I had never played the resort side at Indian Wells before this fall. Having played the Players course twice this fall now, I must say this is one outstanding facility. Nice practice areas. The range by the parking lot is cramped, but the range in the riverbed has a ton of room if it is open. The staff was super nice all around.

The course itself is a treat. Being "resort" focused, the course is a little more forgiving than an average desert course, but it is not an easy course by any means - you will pay if you go off line. Conditions are near perfect.

Several of the GK Guru's tell me that the Celebrity course is equally good, with a bit more creativity in the shorter & easier layout. Sounds like a great 36 hole resort to me.

played here earlier this week as the second round of a 36 hole guru day. course is in excellent shape and weather was great. customer service was good, my bag was picked up and placed in a cart, tak... Continue »

played here earlier this week as the second round of a 36 hole guru day. course is in excellent shape and weather was great. customer service was good, my bag was picked up and placed in a cart, taken to the range/putting green area. the there was a putting course for practice and a smallish range area. i only hit irons because the range area seemed somewhat short, and there was a large creek to the left side. the turf there was also very hard packed and tight, which was very different from the course.

starter was very friendly, and we were met on the 1st tee by the head pro and the superintendent. course is in very good condition, the teeboxes were all level and lush. some minor divot damage on par 3s but nothing to detract from the experience. fairways were all lush green grass with minimal divots. rough was just long enough to make hitting out of them tough and keep your mind to hitting the fairway.

unfortunately for me, i couldn't get off the teebox all afternoon and found myself all over the course, perhaps i'm getting too old to drive all the way out to palm springs and do 36 any more haha. luckily, the water here is crystal clear as opposed to some other courses, and my fellow gurus were able to help me locate my ball in the shallow water several times. bunkers were in excellent condition with good fluffy sand in them and greens are smooth and running true. they were medium speed and putts held their line well. pop was solid at about 4 hours.

the course is in beautiful condition and definitely worth heading out for a round and maybe even a 36 players/celebrity combo. wish i had time to stay a bit longer to have some food, that burger they advertise on the back of the cart looked good. will hope to be back here soon when i've got the timing back in my swing.

Overview: The day after the tremendous GK plays event out at Rams Hill Golf Course, JohnnyGK was able to set up 2 GK Review Guru Tee Times out at Indian Wells Golf Resort - Players Course. JohnnyGK, ... Continue »

Overview: The day after the tremendous GK plays event out at Rams Hill Golf Course, JohnnyGK was able to set up 2 GK Review Guru Tee Times out at Indian Wells Golf Resort - Players Course. JohnnyGK, allan_grant and myself went off in the first group. The three of us had a great time and really enjoyed each others company during the round. I played the Celebrity Course about 5 years ago, but have not had the opportunity to play the Players Course. So, need less to say, I was very excited to play the Players Course. Indian Wells calls both their courses "the Beauty and the Beast" and I can tell you the beast was an amazing experience.

Clubhouse and Pro Shop: Very nice experience driving up to the bag drop. The player assistant was right there when I pulled up and took my bag, promptly told me about the parking options, where the pro shop was and where my bag would be. I walked into the pro shop and was really impressed with the their quantity and quality of their merchandise. Having worked in the retail world for almost 25 years, I can tell you that merchandise presentation is what drives sales and this pro shop was probably one of the best presented pro shops that I have ever seen. Big thumbs up to Troon Golf, the merchandise manager and all the staff that work in the pro shop. After the round, I went back into the pro shop and bought a Club Glove golf towel and a ball marker.

Practice Area: One of the opportunities for the resort is the practice area. Turf was torn up a little and quite thin, and for a resort of this level there is not enough space allocated for golfers to warm up. It was very easy to warm up on Monday because not a lot of people were playing both courses, but if there was a tournament or both tee sheets were full, golfers would probably have to wait to warm up. Another opportunity was length of the practice area. It seems that if you were a big hitter (280 + off the tee), the range would not be long enough for you to hit driver during your warm up. Loved the lighted 9 hole putting course and I thought the practice putting greens up by the tee box was very good.

First Tee: As we drove up to the first tee box, The Head Golf Professional, Tom Burly and the Golf Course Superintendent, James Crews were waiting for us. They both came over, introduced themselves, welcomed us and hoped that we had a good day on the course. This was a very nice touch. It was greatly appreciated and it showed that they really care about the GK community.

Golf Course: Just like Rams Hill, it was wall to wall lush, green grass. The course was in great condition and the I thought the fairways were even better than Rams Hill because the fairways were definitely cut a little tighter. The sand traps were deep and were filled with quality and consistent sand ... very impressed with the bunkers. Greens were over seeded with rye and putted very nicely. They probably rolled at about a 9.5 - 10 on the stimpmeter. I enjoyed the layout of the course and thought that this was a nice pairing with the Celebrity Course. Both courses have their own unique character and I will definitely bring people back to Indian Wells Golf Resort in the future.

Final Thoughts: Thank you JohnnyGK for setting up such a great time at Indian Wells Golf Resort. The GK Review Guru Tee Times are a great addition to the playing options that you provide for the GK Community, and I definitely plan on playing in more of them in the future. Also, thank you Troon Golf for putting together a tremendous 36 hole facility in Indian Wells. Happy Holidays to all the GK'ers! #gkreviewguru #knowbeforeyougo