This round was a warmup for the GK Plays at PGA West – thanks to GKer abbacat for the invite to join her, colmcd, and wsbell57 at 9:04 am Sunday on a cool, occasionally sunny morning with light breeze... Continue »

This round was a warmup for the GK Plays at PGA West – thanks to GKer abbacat for the invite to join her, colmcd, and wsbell57 at 9:04 am Sunday on a cool, occasionally sunny morning with light breezes. She had some Underpar vouchers so the round with cart was only $20. My first time here – the Pebble course is an 18-hole par-3 track (with one short par-4) adjacent to the longer Boulder course. Conditioning was generally the same quality as most other courses in the PS area, with large level tees, lots of grass leading up to greens that gave good lies, and fairly small slopy greens. No real rough, no trees, and water only on #18. There are no bunkers on the course other than around hole #18 (the most interesting and championship-like hole), with other sandy waste areas wide of some fairways, and the routing crosses the Whitewater River channel a couple times. Being adjacent to the river basin means the course is generally pretty flat, with any changes in elevation mainly from pushing up tee and green pads.

Everything was green and in good condition. Greens were pretty firm and barely showed a ballmark, so you had to play for release. They rolled nicely at medium-fast speed. Since it’s a par-3 course, there’s lots of need for divot mix on the tees, but we quickly ran short after the first few holes, and there were no refills available, and no ranger. No cart girl this morning, and hole #9 doesn’t return to the clubhouse. Water was available, but it wouldn’t be enough during the hot summer months. There’s a simple Proshot GPS that gives a few distances only.

We played deliberately in about 3 hours, with a couple twosomes playing through. This is a good course for working on mid-irons and wedges, and getting the feel of the “every putt breaks toward the Salton Sea” of golf in Palm Springs. Thanks to my partners for an enjoyable round.