Following our GK Plays Rams Hill outing is now our traditional GK Guru Monday. It started off early in the morning at Indian Wells Golf Resort Celebrity Course. What a treat as always. We had a 20 min... Continue »

Following our GK Plays Rams Hill outing is now our traditional GK Guru Monday. It started off early in the morning at Indian Wells Golf Resort Celebrity Course. What a treat as always. We had a 20 minute frost delay turning into what shaped up to be a postcard December day in Palm Springs. Prior to teeing off and even after your round I can’t recommend more strongly their food truck. The food is fantastic and appropriately prices. I had the breakfast burrito to start the day that came with coffee or water. Delicious. Its open at dawn, before anything in town is open. Makes planning a morning round there very easy.

We were the first out and finished in under 4 hours. The place was of course immaculate. Beautifully overseeded and lush everywhere. Smooth medium pace firm greens. Lush well-groomed fairways and rough. Excellent well-kept beautiful high quality sand bunkers. Level lush well-groomed tee boxes. An incredible golf course. One of my very favorites. Add to that exceptional service and outstanding modern clubhouse … it does not get much better than Indian Wells Golf Resort in the desert.

I snapped a bunch of photos just posted that do more than I can to describe the experience. Don’t ever second guess playing here. Highly Recommended!

I played the Celebrity course yesterday for the first time. I was a little late getting a spot with the GK'er group so I booked a tee time on GolfNow for the group right behind the two GK'er groups.
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I played the Celebrity course yesterday for the first time. I was a little late getting a spot with the GK'er group so I booked a tee time on GolfNow for the group right behind the two GK'er groups.

I made the 1:10 drive from Riverside and arrived about 40 minutes before my tee time. Check in was a breeze and I was informed that they were about 10-20 minutes behind due to a frost delay.

Range balls were made available with my tee time. I hit a few balls and a few putts on the practice green and I was off to the first tee. The starter was excellent and took the time to speak with me for quite some time before I teed off. He gave me some tips and talked to me about some differences about this course and the Players Course (which I had played previously). He paired me with a couple of gentlemen from Los Angeles. Both were very nice and fun to play with.

As for the course:

Tee Boxes: All were excellent. They all had good coverage and were flat. There is nothing to complain about here.

Fairways: Excellent. I have not been playing much lately due to an injury but these fairways were ridiculous (in a good way) compared to what I have been playing lately. To me, they were like carpet. There were no bad lies to be had here. Very well done.


Rough: The rough was in very good shape as well. There were a few thin areas but they were pretty few and far between. Not very difficult to hit out of.

Greens: Common theme here with my review - Excellent. The greens had very few ball marks and rolled very smooth. I am used to putting on Bermuda greens in this area since I usually only play in the summer time. The greens were medium/fast in my opinion. I missed putt on these greens were "user error" rather than a miss due to course conditions.

COVID: Masks are required around and inside the clubhouse. They are also required in the first tee area. I was given a single cart but my playing partners shared a chart and their cart had a plastic divider between them.

Overall, a great experience at the Celebrity course. The layout is a lot of fun. The holes around the drainage canal get very narrow (#8, 9, 10, 11) but are very playable. As others have said, the back 9 is a treat. The views of the mountains in the distance against this immaculate course is quite a sight. A must play if you are in the area. Well worth the hour plus drive for me! I will be back!

12/14 guru outing comfortable 420 POP caused by just enough wayward shots to slow us down as the group ahead was all fairways and greens. Conditions are very good with fairways mostly like carpet and... Continue »

12/14 guru outing comfortable 420 POP caused by just enough wayward shots to slow us down as the group ahead was all fairways and greens. Conditions are very good with fairways mostly like carpet and the rough equally healthy.
Tees lush with some divot damage on the 2 par 3s. Bunkers have quality well groomed sand and with an early start most were virgin territory and with rakes available on the cart they have a better than 50 % chance of remaining that way by days end.
Greens are also well conditioned rolling smoothly at medium fast speed with a little grain to deal with.
Top notch customer care.

No trip to the Palm Springs area is complete without a stop at Indian Wells. I always play one or both courses while here. Being that Celebrity is the wife's favorite course I may just "have" to pla... Continue »

No trip to the Palm Springs area is complete without a stop at Indian Wells. I always play one or both courses while here. Being that Celebrity is the wife's favorite course I may just "have" to play this one twice. Celebrity course is just flat out beautiful. Pure and simple. Course is always in very good to excellent condition and this time was no exception. The front nine starts out with just a few spectacular holes. By that I mean, holes with water features and flower gardens. It gives you a good chance to actually play golf with minimal distractions from the true beauty of the course to come.

Once you make the turn you have a couple of straight forward par 4's that run between the hotel and the run off below. Then comes Hole 12 and beyond.... You won't know what to grab first, your camera/phone or a golf club!! Just spectacular. As many times as I've played here I still can't help but snap a dozen pictures!

Customer service is always top natch at Indian Wells. We usually stay at on site at the Hyatt and the staff from check in to bag drop/pickup at the golf shop is just fantastic.

Oh and one more major bonus about Indian Wells ... They have the best pro shop with a great selection of men's and women's clothes and are stocked with all sizes. No wonder I have so many IW shirts!!

Rode the Blues (6642/72.3/133) with GK Guru's Vince, Marvin and Gary early morning in slightly more than 4H. Fun group to play with! The weather was calm and sunny. Cold when we started a little late ... Continue »

Rode the Blues (6642/72.3/133) with GK Guru's Vince, Marvin and Gary early morning in slightly more than 4H. Fun group to play with! The weather was calm and sunny. Cold when we started a little late after a frost delay, but had warmed nicely into the 60's by the time we finished a little before noon. Thanks to John for setting up and to Indian Wells for having the guru group out. Tees lush with few divots. No challenges getting level lies. Fairways lush and provided excellent lies. Rough lush and not overly penal. Sand traps nicely maintained with good quality sand. Greens good, but not great. They looked quicker than they were. They putted medium slow early morning and were up to medium speed by the end of the round. Not as smooth as previous visits here. Firm and lots of unfixed ball marks. Beautiful with lots of water features and flowers. Tougher than average layout. Constantly up/down hills and the large green complexes are challenging. Fourteen par 4's with only two par 5's and two par 3's, par 72. Good mix of par 4's. This course would be a beast to walk as numerous holes are a long way from the last green. Customer service exceptional as always here. Complementary range balls on an all grass range is always a plus. Cart person around numerous times. Excellent GPS on the carts. Large clubhouse, restaurant and pro shop, highly recommended.

Played the celebrity course on a brisk Monday morning with the GK Guru's Nick, Gary & Vince and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Check in was very simple, they loaded our bags and pointed to the ... Continue »

Played the celebrity course on a brisk Monday morning with the GK Guru's Nick, Gary & Vince and it turned out to be a beautiful day. Check in was very simple, they loaded our bags and pointed to the range and off we went. There was a small frost delay (10 min) but it was fine. I played the yellow tee's and we started off with a relatively easy first hole, which was good because it was still cold. I noticed a few carts had rakes on them which was great. Sand was very soft and playable, fairways were green and had very few divots and most I saw were sanded in. The greens I felt were a little on the slow side, but maybe that was just me. Overall I had a great time and wanted to thank Johnny for letting me take part in such a fun time. I just want to say a shout out to Alex, nice meeting you and talking cycling... if you are in the area this course highly recommended..

Played on 09/23/20 Course is in great shape for the end of summer. I saw a post from Apreggi about a recommendation out in the Palm Springs area. I saw Johnny had recommended Indian Wells and notice... Continue »

Played on 09/23/20 Course is in great shape for the end of summer. I saw a post from Apreggi about a recommendation out in the Palm Springs area. I saw Johnny had recommended Indian Wells and noticed I had not played there in two years. The tee boxes, fairways and greens are all lush except they all need a haircut. The grass is just a little long everywhere. The bunkers had plenty of sand in them and the sand was soft and not hard packed. I played the white tees at 6000 yards which is perfect for me now, but I did notice almost all the white and yellow markers were together, so I might have played several yellow tees. They have water/ice stations throughout the course and saw the beverage cart gal several times.
Covid 19 precautions are in effect. Cart attendants do not handle your bag and there is a plastic divider in every cart. They do have sand bottles in them. There was a food truck outside serving food but I did not use. The carts have GPS in them and I did notice they have speakers in them.

Played on Monday, 12/9, with the GK gurus. This was my second time here, but the 1st was over 5 years ago and I could only remember the great service. Service was again outstanding, even the parking l... Continue »

Played on Monday, 12/9, with the GK gurus. This was my second time here, but the 1st was over 5 years ago and I could only remember the great service. Service was again outstanding, even the parking lot construction crew who moved their heavy equipment after I unknowingly parked in the middle of their work area.

Course was in phenomenal condition. Just lush and green everywhere. Course was pretty wet, but no pooling in the low area or bunkers. The bunkers had nice heavy white sand, which I'm definitely not used to but everyone else was fine with it. Rough was gnarly. Greens ran smooth but a lot slower than they looked due to the early morning wetness.

Celebrity could easily have been designed for Instagram, 50 years before the Gram was even thought of. Just tall trees, lush green grass, bright flower beds, and incredible water features everywhere. The course looks quirky before playing, when you notice 1 par 3 and 1 par 5 on each 9, but there is a great variety in the par 4s to keep it interesting. And those par 3s and par 5s are some of the most spectacularly photogenic holes on the course. One thing overlooked in the winter is the amount of ice/water machines on the course to make the summer play a bit easier.

Celebrity is a must play in an area with a ton of great courses.

Played 12-9-19 with John, Gary, and Pedro teeing of around 7:10 and finishing in about 4 hours. Tee boxes were lush and level. Fairways were in great shape with minimal roll out with great lies. Rough... Continue »

Played 12-9-19 with John, Gary, and Pedro teeing of around 7:10 and finishing in about 4 hours. Tee boxes were lush and level. Fairways were in great shape with minimal roll out with great lies. Rough very lush and thick, around 2 inches. Bunkers had very nice heavy white sand. Greens were rolling a little slow but true and in great condition. Overall great conditions. Very scenic course with nice views of the surrounding mountains, minor elevation changes with several water hazards that come into play. Customer service always great here. Thanks to IWGR for having us out and John for setting it up.