Feb. 1, 2026Updated Feb. 13, 2026, 7:02 a.m. PT
On the 104-yard, par-3, 13th hole at Seven Lakes Country Club, President Dwight Eisenhower, using a 9 iron, hit a hole-in-one, on Feb. 6, 1968. The occurrence made the news across the country and highlighted winter life in the desert. While the rest of the country was literally freezing, Palm Springs had its usual perfect weather.
The press photos pictured Eisenhower grinning, holding the charmed ball and wearing a straw fedora. He looks mighty pleased indeed. It was the first time he’d ever sunk a ball in one. At 77 years old, he called the feat “the thrill of a lifetime.”
Eisenhower first visited the desert as a sitting president. Back in February 1954, he escaped the cold of Washington, D.C. to stay with his friends Paul Helms and Paul Hoffman at Smoke Tree Ranch. They golfed at Thunderbird Country Club, filling out their foursome with Ben Hogan.
Eisenhower, not unlike several other presidents, was obsessed with golf. Despite having played hundreds of rounds at almost as many clubs, the shot at Seven Lakes was his only recorded hole-in-one.
Two weeks after the momentous occasion, Eisenhower was on the course again with the then-President Lyndon Johnson. Johnson had come to the desert to brief the former president on the status of the Vietnam War. After lunch at Eisenhower’s Eldorado home, they decamped to Seven Lakes for a round of golf.
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Post play, the two held a press conference just off the 18th green for the White House press corps. The Desert Sun commented. “Even a President beset with a multitude of never-ending problems is entitled to at least a few hours of relaxation. That Lyndon Johnson should choose golf in Palm Springs for his brief respite emphasizes again the importance of the game in our community.”
The caption on the wire photos that day read, “President Johnson lags a putt toward the hole on the 18th green of the Seven Lakes Golf and Country Club in Palm Springs, Calif., as General Dwight D. Eisenhower watches at left. The President’s tee shot on the par 3 hole landed on the green but he missed the putt for a birdie.”
The story of the development of Seven Lakes isn’t just about golf. It is one of big imagination, competing visions, fluid partnerships, Indian land leasing and money issues that devolved into lawsuits.
Those details don’t figure any more when viewing the final form of the development. Given the difficult circumstances which were overcome to create it, the development is all the more impressive.
The modern buildings were designed by Richard Harrison, the clubhouse which soon followed, by Bill Cody. The wood post-and-beam construction was simple and elegant. Large expanses of glass brought the blending the inside and outside seamlessly.
Historian Sian Winship has just completed an exhaustive evaluation and historic nomination for the entirety of Seven Lakes Golf and Country Club. She summarizes the architecture: “The roots of the style can be traced to early Modernists like Richard Neutra and Rudolph Schindler, whose local work inspired ‘second generation’ Modern architects like Gregory Ain, Craig Ellwood, Harwell Hamilton Harris, Pierre Koenig, Raphael Soriano and many more. These postwar architects developed an indigenous Modernism that was born from the International Style but matured into a fundamentally regional style, fostered in part by Arts and Architecture magazine’s pivotal Case Study Program (1945-1966). The style gained popularity because its use of standardized, prefabricated materials permitted quick and economical construction. It became the predominant architectural style in the postwar years and is represented in almost every property type, from single-family residences to commercial buildings to gas stations.”
In the desert it bred its own school of architecture. Harrison and Cody were local masters, adapting the style for the desert environment by extending rooflines for solar control, creating interesting shadow patterns with decorative block, and siting buildings for the view and the breeze.
The golf course, with its seven water hazards, was designed by Ted Robinson, known as the master of waterscapes. Winship places the development in context: “In Palm Springs, Thunderbird Country Club opened in 1951, Tamarisk Country Club in 1952, Indian Wells Country Club in 1957, Eldorado Country Club around 1958. The Palm Springs Municipal Course was also built during the same decade.”
“During the 1960s, Palm Springs courses became associated with Hollywood celebrities such as Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Danny Kaye, the Marx Brothers, and Dinah Shore who were all involved in pro-am events for major tournaments in the desert. These courses would also become associated with golfing presidents: Eisenhower, Ford, Clinton, Bush and Obama.”
“But it wasn’t just the celebrity clientele that made the Palm Springs courses unique: ‘There was always something about nature,’ remembered Amy Alcott, World Golf Hall of Famer. ‘The smell of the orange blossoms. It’s the wind coming through the pass there in the desert. It is the way the air smells. There are certain things about desert golf, Palm Springs golf, that are as much a part of it as winning.’”
“Golfer Terry Wilcox remembered how at Eldorado, you could ‘…go over and grab an orange or grapefruit or something. At that time, it was such a novelty to think you had even seen an orange tree.’”
For golfers and residents, the course wasn’t the most important reason life at Seven Lakes was gracious. The landscaping, which would truly define the complex, was the genius design of landscape architect David Hamilton and made life at Seven Lakes special.
Low-slung, mostly one-story buildings are arranged in nine clusters, preserving open space. Vehicles are restricted to the perimeter, with pedestrian and golf cart paths connect the course and interspersed green belts with swimming pools, associated ramadas and the central clubhouse. Remarkably, more than a third of the land of the development is left to greenery.
Hamilton planted the property with hundreds of mature citrus, pine, sumac, olive, and palm trees. Private patios of the garden homes were surrounded by petunias and begonias. Citrus was everywhere with its intoxicating scent.
Hamilton framed dramatic views of the extensive grass with the mountain beyond. Each home felt palatial thanks to landscaping. Even the streetscapes felt lush, as landscaped islands, extensively planted, defined major intersections. Perimeter planters encircled the development, creating sumptuous privacy, and a world unto itself.
Winship notes that unfortunately no original landscape plan has been found during her research process. Yet it is very much in evidence. Six decades later, the landscaping remains the defining feature of the development.
Tracy Conrad is president of the Palm Springs Historical Society. The Thanks for the Memories column appears Sundays in The Desert Sun. Write to her at pshstracy@gmail.com.