If Old MacDonald (Bandon) and Wolf Creek had a baby, it may look a little something like Stone Eagle. This is a course I have been dying to play for the past few years and finally made the splurge to ... Continue »

If Old MacDonald (Bandon) and Wolf Creek had a baby, it may look a little something like Stone Eagle. This is a course I have been dying to play for the past few years and finally made the splurge to sign up for today's SCGA member outing. GK'er bsparks1961 joined me and we had a great day in the desert. The price was very steep at $240 (plus forecaddie gratuity) and it's hard to say if it was worth that, but it is something quite special. By far the most unique course in the Coachella Valley with no houses on the course and just a sprawling layout cut out of the rugged desert hillside. It definitely feels more like a Mesquite/Nevada style course than anything around Palm Springs, though it's just a few minutes away from the middle of Palm Desert. It was a 9:00 shotgun start for us and we started on the tricky dogleg right, uphill par-4 6th. As is typical in these outings, the pace was slow at over 5 hours. Part of that is because of the forecaddie and all the work he has to do with four people to take care of, and part of it is this is a very tricky course with some confusing routing and insane greens. The course was in near immaculate shape throughout. The tee boxes were perfect and the fairways were like carpet. The rough was also nice and lush, but cut down and not much of a factor. The couple bunkers I found had decent sand, but it was more of a coarse style with some small pebbles mixed in. I'm sure it can get windy here, so they probably can't have anything too soft and fluffy and the more gritty sand fits with the rugged persona of the course. The greens were super firm and very fast. For those who played the Stadium outing this weekend, they were just as firm and impossible to hold, yet even quicker and slicker on putts. The greens are what make this course so tough, especially as a first-time player. They are massive and feature all sorts of subtle humps and undulations, along with some not-subtle-at-all false edges. With them being so firm and fast, chips were very difficult to judge and two putts would give you a sigh of relief. Very few one-putts in our group, but plenty of three-putts. I even had a four-jack! The fairways are very interesting here as many blend together and the grass kind of sprawls out in an amoeba-like fashion amongst the craggy desert rocks and gnarly bunkers. Take a look at the satellite view sometime and good luck trying to guess the routing! It really is a unique design approach, as you would expect from Tom Doak. It all blends together seamlessly with the natural landscape and it's very cool what he did with this layout. For the most part, the fairways are very wide open and forgiving, but the sight lines are deceptive and there are very few flat lies anywhere on the course. I don't think the course is for everyone and you'd have to play here a lot to really figure out the greens and strategies for most of the holes, but I was as impressed and intrigued as I hoped I would be. I would highly recommend it to anyone who ever gets a chance to play. Lots of pictures coming soon!