The most difficult golf courses in the Coachella Valley
Desert Sun reporter Larry Bohannan talks about some of the most difficult golf courses in the Coachella Valley
Thanksgiving might mean turkey and the family gathered around either the dinner table or the television to watch NFL games, but in the Coachella Valley the national holiday also means plenty of people playing golf.
“Last year we had two courses open and we played a total of 274 rounds and we closed at 1:30 p.m.,” said Joe Williams, director of golf at the Indian Wells Golf Resort of the 2024 holiday. “So 75 percent utilized on one course and 92 percent on the other. We were busy.”
Williams and others across the Coachella Valley expect traffic on the first tee to be just as busy this week as golfers and vacationers use the day off work to play. Unlike Christmas Day, when there is low traffic on golf courses, Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday are traditionally big days at local courses.
“Thanksgiving is always a good day for golf and dinner at Ironwood,” said Mike Oberlander, director of golf at Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert. “Thanksgiving day itself, between the two courses (the North and South courses), we have a couple of hundred rounds every year. We have families in town enjoying it and we also the do several hundred for the dinner.”
Coachella Valley residents and club members are part of the reason golf courses are busy on Thanksgiving, but the desert also has people travel to the area to play, both Williams and Oberlander said. Williams said many of the golfers at the Indian Wells Golf Resort are vacationers who are in the desert for the long weekend and are staying at one of the nearby hotels. Oberlander said Ironwood sees plenty of families visiting members in Palm Desert.
“It is a great time for families to come to town. The weather is always good, golf courses are always good,” Oberlander said. “But Friday (after Thanksgiving) is always one of our busier days. We do well in the shop, Black Friday and shopping. We do really good on the range, demo days, fitting days, things like that.”
At Mission Lakes Country Club in Desert Hot Springs, where there is both a membership and public play, Simon Letts says Thanksgiving day is busy, at least to a point.
“Obviously it is all busy in the morning,” said Letts, the director of golf at Mission Lakes. “Once the morning is done, it tends to quiet down around 1 p.m. We have talked about doing a shotgun (start) in the morning so we can get everyone out and get them off. They all want to go eat, right? But they do want to play and they want to bring family.”
Letts agreed that the entire long weekend for Thanksgiving produces busy golf days.
“In fact it probably starts Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. That’s when we will really start to get busy,” Letts said.
Another multi-course facility, the resort courses at PGA West in La Quinta, should also be close to if not completely sold out for the day, said Chris Caballero, the director of golf for the resort courses.
“I would say that the member play might be down just a little bit, but that’s backfilled by resort play for sure,” Caballero said. “We actually have to cut times at 2 p.m., so that way we can give some of our team members a holiday. They appreciate that, but the also know they work in the golf business and we work in the service industry and people are on vacation.”
Caballero said that eight days before Thanksgiving, the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West already had 175 rounds booked for Thanksgiving, leaving only 30 possible reservations left for the day.
As busy as Thanksgiving is, Christmas can be just the opposite, Oberlander said.
“We still have some golf, but if let’s say on Thanksgiving day we do a couple of hundred rounds between the two courses, we’ll do maybe a hundred rounds on Christmas day,” Oberlander said. “That Christmas week is more like traveling. Our Ironwood membership is generally at their other home for Christmas.”
Williams said on Christmas 2024, his two courses did just 150 total rounds, with a noon closing time. The only difference in the Thanksgiving golf traffic for Williams and the Indian Wells Golf Resort this year is that in 2024 both the Players and Celebrity courses were open, but only the Celebrity Course is open this Thanksgiving as the Players Course won’t reopen from major renovations until the week after Thanksgiving. Still, even a week before Thanksgiving, Williams said his lone course had 133 rounds booked even with a 2:30 p.m. closing time.
“I would guess for sure that we will be full up,” he said.
