Day Three of our annual desert trip was a journey to golf heaven. The Palms Golf Club of La Quinta is everything you imagine a PGA tour quality course to be when you're stuck in a divot surrounded by ... Continue »

Day Three of our annual desert trip was a journey to golf heaven. The Palms Golf Club of La Quinta is everything you imagine a PGA tour quality course to be when you're stuck in a divot surrounded by brown and thin at Dad Miller. It's such a rare treat to experience a place like this, and, being private, taking your time to stop and gawk at the roses is not on the cards. The enforced POP here is 3:50 and deviations are not tolerated. You take it all in while moving as purposefully as possible, and of course in between all this visual distraction, you're supposed to concentrate and play golf (which I sadly did an incredibly poor job of on the worst possible day). If I'm not mistaken, this is a Freddy Couples design and he actually had a small house right next to the 15th tee box which was cool to see. Apparently he would just jump on whenever he felt the desire after riding his bike over to the clubhouse. Describing The Palms is fairly straightforward. Fairways are lined almost exclusively (save a few of the first three or four holes) with rows of perfectly coiffed palm trees that create some stunning shadow tricks. Everything at ground level is that dreamy dark green stuff that goes on forever. The course's main defense is length (we played the blue tees), but on the shorter holes there's no shortage of thick foliage mixed strategically amongst the palm trees, and of course glassy, super fast greens and a big selection of bunkers to force uncomfortable angles. Add to that a few well hidden water features to torment you on select holes, and you get the picture. The routing and finding the next hole here can be a bit of a puzzle as there are no real cart paths and no tee box markers. The members simply know where to go so it's an adventure if you're not one and used to it. There are some 'gates' that help guide the way though or it would be pretty much hit and hope at that point. But yes, all conditions were perfect and I felt incredibly lucky to be able to experience that level of quality. Fairways and quite penal rough were thick, lush and consistent on every inch of the property. Bunkers had very good sand in them that maybe could be a tad bit fluffier if there's any possible knock at all today (which there really isn't). Tee boxes immaculate. Greens running about a 12 and very tough to hit the brakes on with anything less than a perfect pitch or chip. Very subtle breaks everywhere but magnified by the speed and very easy to misread. False fronts on many holes as well. This is a golf club and that's pretty much it. You'll need to go elsewhere if you want to join a club that has swimming pools and tennis courts for the kids. The clubhouse is nice but nothing super fancy - very unassuming and unpretentious. It's all about the golf here and there's simply nothing wrong with that in the least. Even the carts are very basic - no GPS here and no frills like USB ports or speakers. No time for distraction here - get moving! I did however still sneak in pics of all 18 holes that I will upload to the site later. Staff was also incredibly nice and took amazing care of us despite not being members. My only regret is of course a horrible round of golf personally, but that memory will long be overshadowed by having the good fortune of spending a gorgeous early winter day at The Palms.