Larry Bohannan interviews golf course architect Cary Bickler
Golf course architect Cary Bickler and writer Larry Bohannan talk about proposed renovations of The Springs’ in Rancho Mirage on March 31, 2025.
Cary Bickler understands that Desmond Muirhead was more than just a nuts-and-bolts golf course architect who was only focused on yardages and par and course ratings.
“He was very free with his artistic expression. He had a lot of fun ideas for the game with the way he would put a roll here and a roll there,” Bickler said. “Just the shape of the greens and the shape of the bunkers, very artistic. He was an artist.”
Artistic himself, including spending time teaching art at San Diego State, Bickler feels a kinship with his old friend and fellow golf architect Muirhead, who died in 2002 at 79. That’s one reason Bickler was asked to contribute to a $16 million renovation of one of Muirhead’s designs in the Coachella Valley, The Springs in Rancho Mirage.
Bickler’s contributions to the 6,637-yard, par-72 private layout at The Springs is only part of the work that is closing down the 50-year-old golf course this month through the summer. New greens and new irrigation are also part of the project.
“We are redoing the complete irrigation system with HDPE pipe, which is a fused pipe that is actually cheaper than PVC now,” said J.T. Pogue, head superintendent of the course for the last 20 years. “It doesn’t leak, it lasts 100 years. We have a 50-year-old irrigation system, so it is long overdue.”
While the new irrigation system will allow Pogue and his crew to cut down on water use, even allowing for control of individual sprinkler heads, Pogue says the new system is also needed to accommodate the course hooking up to non-potable water sometime in 2026.
The irrigation is part of a master plan Bickler put together for the course. In addition to his friendship and collaboration with Muirhead at Green River Golf Course in Corona, Bickler has designed courses in Southern California such as Encinitas Ranch, San Diego Country Club and The Country Club at Soboba Springs in San Jacinto.
Muirhead’s courses in the desert include perhaps his most famous design, the original course at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, now known as the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. Muirhead also designed the original course at Ironwood Country Club, considered perhaps one of the tougher courses in the Coachella Valley until it was washed out by flooding in the 1970s.
At The Springs, Bickler wants to bring Muirhead’s philosophies back to a course that has changed since it opened in 1975.
“Things don’t stay static with a golf course, as we know. The wear and the tear and all the maintenance, things change,” Bickler said. “As time goes by, a few people come by who aren’t professionals who fiddle with things.”
At The Springs, where the multi-million dollar project was approved by the homeowners association that took over the course in 2020, Bickler says the changes were often in front of the greens.
“Over time there were 13 bunkers that were added to the green complexes that protect the front of the greens, and the golf course became an aerial golf course,” Bickler said. “So the high handicappers and the less-skilled players were faced with not being able to bump the ball, roll the ball onto the green, feed the ball into the greens and play the ground game.”
Bickler’s plans start with taking out those 13 bunkers Muirhead didn’t include in his design.
“The greens that are surrounded by bunkers are without areas to chip from, collection areas,” Bickler said. “So I created several collection areas throughout the golf course, where if you lose it left or lose it right, you have chipping challenges, instead of always hitting out of sand. So just make it more fun, more variety.”
Bickler will return a few fairway bunkers that were removed and take out a few that were added over the last five decades. The playability of the course will also include a new set of forward tees from about 4,500 yards.
But all of the above-ground work will depend on the rebuilding of all 18 greens on the course as well as three practice greens. That involves removing 16 inches of material from each green, putting in new drainage pipes and gravel and adding 12 inches of organic mix for what the USGA calls the roots zone. When rebuilt, the greens will have less slope, opening up more pin placements on each green, Bickler said.
The Springs was one of the last courses in the desert still using bentgrass greens, a beautiful and smooth putting surface but difficult to keep alive in the summer heat of the desert without large circulation fans constantly running to move air around the greens. The new putting surfaces will be TifTuf, a Bermuda hybrid that will extend 40 yards out from the greens themselves.
“We need to get all the greens planted by July 15. That’s the big deal,” Bickler said. “The rest of it will follow in place, but that is the key, to get all 21 greens rebuilt and planted by July 15. It’s a fast pace. There will be a lot of bodies out here to get that done. Integrity Golf (based in Fallbrook) is doing the work.”
The renovations aren’t all about the golf course, Pogue said. Members of the HOA will also see a benefit whether they play golf or not.
“We are redoing all of the back yards. There are 817 homes here,” Pogue said. “So the irrigation systems are going to go all the way to the rear of the houses. All the way to the back of the homes. The front of the homes will be in phases at a different date.”
