Played 5-20-18. This is the 5th time playing this curse. It always seems to keep me on my toes. The greens didn't look very good but played wonderfully! Good speed and smooth, and they held well. Bun... Continue »

Played 5-20-18. This is the 5th time playing this curse. It always seems to keep me on my toes. The greens didn't look very good but played wonderfully! Good speed and smooth, and they held well. Bunkers were OK but mot as soft as I would like. The tee boxes were a bit rough. Many bumpy areas and some torn up but very playable. Fairways were nice and the rough was not as penalizing as some. Overall a very nice course that does not loose its challenge no matter how many times you play!

Overview: The Mountain Course at La Quinta Resort & Club was built in 1980 at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains by the legendary golf architect ... Pete Dye. The course is known for its small undu... Continue »

Overview: The Mountain Course at La Quinta Resort & Club was built in 1980 at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains by the legendary golf architect ... Pete Dye. The course is known for its small undulating greens, pot bunkers, large waste areas and beautiful mountain views. The course's signature hole ... the par 3 16th hole sits high above the green and allows golfers a spectacular view. The course is known for the "mountain" holes of #13 - #17, but also for the very under rated stretch of holes #4 - #6. Clubhouse: Greeted promptly at the bag drop by an outside player's assistant and directed to the pro shop. Went inside the pro shop and was greeted by the staff and told about the sale going on. Went down to the carts and was told where the range and putting greens were. Everyone welcomed us to the course and were all very friendly. Course: As all courses are this time of year in the Coachella Valley ... there is the transition between the winter rye grass and the summer bermuda. This was very evident on the greens due to the contrast in color, but the greens ran very true and smooth. As noted by others, the tee boxes on the par 3's were a little beat up, but the rest of of them were fine. Fairways were in good shape and the rough was starting to fill in with the bermuda grass. Hitting out of the rough is going to be very difficult in about 2 weeks because the ball will go right to the bottom of the grass. As mentioned earlier, I really enjoy the back nine (especially #13 - #17) because they are very scenic holes and really make the course. I also enjoy hole #2 and #4 - #6 on the front nine. Suggestion, please be aware that is was only in the mid 90's this past Sunday, but it felt much warmer because of the close proximity of the mountains. Make sure that you use plenty of sunscreen and drink as much water as possible. Final Thoughts: John, as always, it was much appreciated that you were able to set up another enjoyable GK Plays. I enjoyed playing with you, Kevin and Mike. The shotgun start was fun, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that we got around the course in about 4 hours and 15 minutes ... it was a great pace of play. Enjoyed talking to a lot of people after the round, and really like all the prizes that you give away. Look forward to attending another #gkplays in the future!

Played 5/20/18 in the GK plays. Really enjoy playing this track. A nice mixture of hole designs. Mostly on the short side. There are plenty of somewhat daunting tee shots with trouble lurking.
Holes ... Continue »

Played 5/20/18 in the GK plays. Really enjoy playing this track. A nice mixture of hole designs. Mostly on the short side. There are plenty of somewhat daunting tee shots with trouble lurking.
Holes along the mountain are some of the best in the valley. Small greens with some having strong undulations. Course was in really good shape. Fairway's great. Green & lush. Summer bermuda was about half grown in on the greens. They didn't look all that great. But, they ran true and smooth at a little over medium speed. Firm, balls would check if you got enough spin on them. As mentioned, there were a few Tee boxes that were pretty chewed up. Over all in great shape.

What a fun GK Plays outing! Thanks everyone for coming out! Please post a review.

I’ll be doing a recap of the outing in the forums later. In the meantime here’s my review…

From an organizers pe... Continue »

What a fun GK Plays outing! Thanks everyone for coming out! Please post a review.

I’ll be doing a recap of the outing in the forums later. In the meantime here’s my review…

From an organizers perspective you can’t wrong a full service place like La Quinta Resort. The staging area is set up perfect with easy visible access to the practice facilities and central location of the clubhouse. Staff is there at your disposal and helping in a professional manner. After golf in the dining area we were well treated by the bar staff and clubhouse. On the golf course I saw their tournament director making sure things were going well and refreshment service 4 times. Sending off the shotgun the tournament director helped with announcements and getting us ready to roll.

As far as the golf course, I knew in late May it would be in “transition” phase to summer turf and was impressed with the condition despite that. Entire golf course was green with exception to some thin dry/dead small areas of winter rye. Greens were mostly bermunda grass with some rye grass holding but rolled smooth. The grass blend combined with already challenging undulating greens made for some very difficult distance control on the putting surfaces. The greens were firm but fun to play. The fairways were in great shape, mostly bermunda grass, my ball was sitting up all day. The rough was in very good shape as the it was not overseeded so now the pure bermunda is back, not super thick (yet!) and about 3 inches. Made for some challenging pitching around the greens. Sand traps, I was only in a waist area bunker on hole 15 which was in good shape, I watched my playing partners hit some greenside bunker shots and the sand looked a little firm but in good condition. Tee boxes were in transition from rye to bermunda so this at the time mostly thin, level with moderate divot damage on the par 3’s. Overall the golf course was in very good shape.

The layout, well, it’s a bucklist layout as far as I am concerned. It is my favorite layout of all the PGA WEST/La Quinta Resort golf courses. Stunning to play along the mountain side, every hole is different and interesting. Ample room to hit driver but big consequences if you are spaying it round. The stretch of 13 – 17 makes it one of my favorite back nines anywhere. Well guarded with most greens elevated. Its easy to shortside yourself on approach and to three putt the undulating greens. Enjoy the risk/reward par 5’s and of course the challenging par 3’s. Highly recommended.

Had a good time at the GK Plays yesterday. Will never turn down an excuse to play the Mountain Course, though I think this was only my third time playing it. Great group of GK'ers (including a lot of ... Continue »

Had a good time at the GK Plays yesterday. Will never turn down an excuse to play the Mountain Course, though I think this was only my third time playing it. Great group of GK'ers (including a lot of new faces) and fantastic job by the course staff of getting us out on the course in a mini-shotgun start. The pace of play was very good for the group and we finished in less than 4.5 hours.

The course was in very good shape overall. I agree with Nick's assessment of the tee boxes. Some excellent, some (especially the par-3s) a bit beat up. Fairways for the most part were excellent with fluffy lies all day. Some thin spots here and there. Primary rough cut down, but grabbier than it looked with the summer bermuda coming in. Then, there are plenty of native areas where the grass is very deep and you are not likely to find your ball. Even if you do, you may just want to take a drop. I learned the hard way trying to hack one ball out of it!

I loved the fairway bunkers and waste areas with a nice firm surface that made it easy to pick the ball clean. Unfortunately, the couple of greenside bunkers I found were kind of on the thin side as well and that was not as great. The greens were in very nice shape, rolling at medium speeds. Lots of grain right now and the slopes here can be hard to read along the mountains, so uphill putts tended to be super slow while downhillers could be fairly quick.

Overall it was a fun day on a fun and challenging course. Thanks to Johnny, LinkSoul and the La Quinta Resort golf staff for a great day!

Played the Black/White combo tees (6477/71.7/131) with Tom, Dennis and Collin in slightly over 4H. The weather was clear and calm around 95. Pete Dye design with numerous mounds, massive waste bunke... Continue »

Played the Black/White combo tees (6477/71.7/131) with Tom, Dennis and Collin in slightly over 4H. The weather was clear and calm around 95. Pete Dye design with numerous mounds, massive waste bunkers and many raised greens. Holes 13-17 are as good a consecutive 5 hole stretch as you will find on almost any course. The tees were a hodgepodge. Many were lush and near immaculate. However, a few were in mediocre condition. The par 3's had a decent amount of divot damage. The fairways were mostly lush and nice to play from. The rough around the greens that they over seed was lush and thick. The Bermuda primary rough had good coverage and was mowed down, you could easily find your ball. However, you hope the primary rough catches any offline shots, because the native rough here is an almost sure lost ball, calf to knee deep. The traps were nicely maintained with fine sand. Other than large waste bunkers, most of the sand traps here are relatively small but there are a lot of them. The small Bermuda greens were medium fast speed, firm and smooth with few ball marks. The customer service was excellent from all encountered. Cart gal around numerous times. This is a challenging layout and the conditions were very good overall. Recommended.

The GK family played this great Pete Dye layout on Sunday the 20th of May. Course is in great shape. Greens fast or slow depending which way you were putting but not receptive, fairways were nice and ... Continue »

The GK family played this great Pete Dye layout on Sunday the 20th of May. Course is in great shape. Greens fast or slow depending which way you were putting but not receptive, fairways were nice and green, good sand throughout the course. Outstanding Customer Service in and outside the Course. I have but just one thought... on the Par 3 holes #2 and the signature hole # 16 there should be a sign (on the tee box) indicating that there is a Drop Area available below for poor tee shots instead of having to re-tee again from tee box and finding out later after you had re-teed that there is a drop area available down below...just saying, other than that Outstanding day, Thanks Johnny for a well put outing.

Played LQM on 5/8/18.

I'll admit, I only play the LQ & PGA West courses in the off-season, but this time LQM was in the best conditions I have ever seen. Greens were outstanding. Green, well covere... Continue »

Played LQM on 5/8/18.

I'll admit, I only play the LQ & PGA West courses in the off-season, but this time LQM was in the best conditions I have ever seen. Greens were outstanding. Green, well covered, and quite quick without being too fast. Fairways were very plush, and the ball sits up nicely. Tee boxes were in good shape, but with numerous small tee boxes - it is tough to find a divot free stance on occasion.

Thanks to Bill the starter! He warned me that I was going out as a single and would catch groups, so he suggested a relaxing pace and to play a couple of balls. Good suggestion. He even came out an hour later to see how I was doing. The cold wet towels are appreciated on a hot day.

I've been a bit skeptical of LQM in the past. This was definitely my best experience here.

Played January 8th with fellow GK'ers George E, Ron C and David H. First off the tee at 7:09 am, overcast morning but fairly warm actually. First time playing the course for 3 of us. The contrast be... Continue »

Played January 8th with fellow GK'ers George E, Ron C and David H. First off the tee at 7:09 am, overcast morning but fairly warm actually. First time playing the course for 3 of us. The contrast between the dormant grass (rough) and the fairways/greens is always nice looking to me. For the most part the course is laid out in front of you, what you see is what you get. There are exceptions more particularly on the back nine. The front 9 is fairly wide open, lots of (dormant) rough and water does and will come into play on several holes. The fairways aren't necessarily all the wide so your t-shot has to fairly accurate, however the rough (as mentioned dormant when we played) is fairly easy to play out of, your ball may sit down a bit in the rough but certainly playable. The back 9 has some pretty tight looking holes and there are a few holes on the back nine where houses line the fairways. I think on those holes the fairways look narrower than they actually are. On the back nine the mountains will and do come into play. On some holes you have to know where to hit the fairway or you may be cut off from going for/seeing the green. There are some real picturesque holes on the back 9 especially. The greens aren't huge and there are some diabolical (front) pin placements, which makes it all the more challenging (and fun?). The course conditions were excellent, the greens weren't all the fast as we were playing early and it was "humid" at least for the PSP area, but ran true and would hold a shot. Fairways were great, not necessarily a lot of roll out (dampness again). Tee boxes were very good too, there are several sets of tees, so to enjoy your round pick the best one for your abilities. Starter and the staff were all helpful and very accommodating. As always it's great to play with fellow GK'ers and today was no different. Had a lot of fun, good guys to play with. Thanks to La Quinta and to Johnny for arranging a great track.