Had a buddy that never played Desert golf, so we planned a overnight trip a few months back. This was course 1 of 2. Booking tee times in the Palm Spring area because of the overseeding schedule is l... Continue »

Had a buddy that never played Desert golf, so we planned a overnight trip a few months back. This was course 1 of 2. Booking tee times in the Palm Spring area because of the overseeding schedule is like playing jenga this time of the year, especially if you want to avoid the dreaded cart path only restrictions after the clubs reopen. A blessing in disguised as it opened our menu of playable courses in the area. Keep in mind, Desert Willows does not have cart path restrictions after overseeding. Our 1st course was Desert Willows - Mountain View, which because of Greenskeeper.org knew that they were not overseeding until after we played on Friday, 11/3 at 12:55 pm. Always great to patron a well run facility by a long time GK supporter. The patio was closed for a private event at 2 pm. Announcements were made regarding that and the need to order goodies before last call at 2 pm. All the staff interacted with was excellent including the proshop guys, the cart coordinator Billy, and Larry, the starter who is always a friendly ambassador. Keep in mind the course was going to close a couple days after we played for overseeding so conditions were understandable brown. We were made aware of that during our welcome e-mail from Ryan Szydlowski, the assistant pro. Ryan was out and about roaming the grounds and working hard as usual! I wanted to say hello and thank him for supporting our community, because he seemed really busy, so I respectfully let the man do his thing. If you are reading, thank you Ryan! Greens were running medium speed at 10. The fairways had great coverage and had plenty of afternoon roll. The traps and tee boxes were well maintained. As usually, conditions were superb as we come to expect from Desert Willows. POP was 4 hours 5 minutes. Post round, cart guys were great. We look forward to a return soon. I had another friend send his parents to play Desert Golf for the first time last week, and I had no hesitation recommending Desert Willows. They played FireCliff and was completely blown away. Good luck to GKer's playing the FireCliff course next month. The place should be looking spectacular!

Played 8/13/23 9:15 POP 4:05 $78. The course was in over all good to great condition. Fairways lush. Not much roll out, but ball sat perfectly. A few "Dry" areas around, but caused no issues. Greens ... Continue »

Played 8/13/23 9:15 POP 4:05 $78. The course was in over all good to great condition. Fairways lush. Not much roll out, but ball sat perfectly. A few "Dry" areas around, but caused no issues. Greens had full coverage. Receptive and putted fine, but were very slow and grainy. Putts up hill and into the grain were difficult to hit hard enough and once the ball slowed the grain of the turf would take over. Numerous putts took sharp turns right at the hole. You really had to putt with "authoritii". Traps were a little firm, but fine. Service as usual was perfect. Cool Towle at the turn and cart girl was by three times. High for the day was 106 at 4 pm. We were off the course at around 1:20 and it was just getting a little uncomfortable. If you can get out and done by noon-1 it's well worth the trip.

Played Sunday 2/5, 8am shotgun; cold morning, hot day. More forgiving than the Firecliff. Not as many bunkers and easier off the tee. Greens seemed inconsistent... front 9 they were sticky, back 9... Continue »

Played Sunday 2/5, 8am shotgun; cold morning, hot day. More forgiving than the Firecliff. Not as many bunkers and easier off the tee. Greens seemed inconsistent... front 9 they were sticky, back 9, they couldn't hold anything. Had a great time nonetheless. And course in fabulous shape otherwise. I could play here everyday.

Played here on 5/1/22 as part of the GK Event.

Facility: Large range area, good quality range balls and grass was kept up well. There is a large putting green and a separate, multi-flagged chipping... Continue »

Played here on 5/1/22 as part of the GK Event.

Facility: Large range area, good quality range balls and grass was kept up well. There is a large putting green and a separate, multi-flagged chipping area. Very nice warmup area. Putting green ran true to the green speeds that day.

Course: The course was in excellent condition. The tee boxes were lush, very little divot damage except on some of the par 3's. No sloping issues that I could tell. The fairways were pristine, well kept and pure the entire round. The rough was thin and often there were bare spots, however that comes with desert golf. Greens were hit or miss, some fast and some were slow. This day the greens were really firm, almost impossible to stop your ball even when hitting an approach from the fairway. Was hard to judge the landing area.

Pace of play was pretty slow, however that is to be expected on the weekend.

All and all, would highly recommend you check this course out.

I posted an outing recap with photos in the forums today. Thank you everyone that came out to play Sunday.

I played all 18 holes for this GK Plays and really enjoyed it but I felt bad coming in see... Continue »

I posted an outing recap with photos in the forums today. Thank you everyone that came out to play Sunday.

I played all 18 holes for this GK Plays and really enjoyed it but I felt bad coming in seeing everyone waiting around and some that needed to leave. So I posted a forum topic about a modification to how I run tee time events as opposed to shotgun events I’d appreciate if you checked out and gave me some feedback. Anyway, simply love both Desert Willow Golf Resort courses and I was totally impressed, as usual, with the conditions of the golf course to go along with the great layout. I talked with the Director of Golf prior to playing and the Superintendent Chris recently won the Kemper Sports Superintendent of the Year. Bear in mind Kemper Sports manages over 100 facilities in the USA that include Bandon Dunes, Chambers Bay and Streamsong. The super introduced a new practice to the turf management of Desert Willow Golf Resort that allows a quicker/smoother transition from overseeded rye to warm weather bermunda. Already, on May 1st, the golf course had transitioned to 70% bermunda – 30% rye. Greens were running very well for this time year and fairways, rough and tee boxes already mostly lush bermunda. There will very few dried rye greens areas. Take a look at the photos.

Everything about the Desert Willow Golf Resort experience makes it must a play (both courses). The patio is spectacular with fantastic views of holes #9 and #18 of the Firecliff Course. Service in all aspects is top notch. Practice facilities excellent. Food delicious.

Highly recommended to play or host an outing at.

Played 5-1-22 afternoon with John, Daniel, and Matt finishing in a little over 4 1/2 hours with some minor waiting. Tee boxes were mostly level with good coverage and minimal divot damage on par three... Continue »

Played 5-1-22 afternoon with John, Daniel, and Matt finishing in a little over 4 1/2 hours with some minor waiting. Tee boxes were mostly level with good coverage and minimal divot damage on par threes. Fairways for the most part were very nice, there where a few brown spots were the Bermuda hasn't takin over but nothing bad, still had mostly great lies and decent roll out. Rough was not that long and pretty easy to hit out of, a little longer than fairways and in good shape. Was in a couple of fairways bunker that had a thin layer of sand and a couple of greenside bunkers that had a good amount of nice white sand. Green were about 80/20 Bermuda to Rye and rolling mostly smooth with and occasional bump, playing firm and rolling medium/fast. Have never been disappointed in conditions of these two courses, always seem to be in pretty good shape.

5/1 GK plays on a breezy enough day to make the 95 degrees mostly tolerable. Moved along with no waiting and no pressure for an easy 415 POP. Fairways have mostly good cover with a few thinner patch... Continue »

5/1 GK plays on a breezy enough day to make the 95 degrees mostly tolerable. Moved along with no waiting and no pressure for an easy 415 POP. Fairways have mostly good cover with a few thinner patches but still had good lies. Divots mostly filled but it seemed like less so for the last few holes. Fairways are mostly generous but it can be deceptive as there are areas that slope toward bunkers, waste areas or water so what with the firmness a slightly off line shot can roll into trouble. Rough is minimal and playable. Tees level with good cover. Bunkers filled with ample rather heacy sand. Greens are firm and mostly quick and for me tough to read as there were several late breaking putts that moved the last 3-4 inches. There were some holesthat had an abundance of old cups which could be a bit bumpy. Topagraphy also was a factor but it was difficult to keep in mind the Indio factor. Green complexes were mostly elevated and usually at least 1 side was protected by a large bunker. Course overall requires more strategy and targeting than it appears from the tees. 1st drive need to be on the correct side of fairway to give a more open approach and misses need to be to the correct side. Often I was wrong on both counts and had mostly short sided recoveries often over 1 of those bunkers so getting ti 20 feet was really a good shot which I did not have that many of and definitely zero up and down. Course has some scenic holes and has a remote feel. Layout has some variety but I do not think it has the character of Firecliff but is still a quality setting.

Played in the GK Plays with Tom & Mark. We had a great time. Course was in fantastic shape. Fairways lush with only an occasional thinner spot. Greens were very firm. Difficult to create enough stoppi... Continue »

Played in the GK Plays with Tom & Mark. We had a great time. Course was in fantastic shape. Fairways lush with only an occasional thinner spot. Greens were very firm. Difficult to create enough stopping power and needed to play the roll out. Was in A LOT of sand on this day. I think I found a bunker on all but two holes on the front. They were in very good shape and were not difficult to get out of. This resort continues to be a pleasure and a great example of fantastic desert golf.

Join up with Gk'er at the even yesterday. It was a warm and sometimes windy day on the course but with all of the trees and vegetation its easy to escape the beating sun. Arrival was ok there was nobo... Continue »

Join up with Gk'er at the even yesterday. It was a warm and sometimes windy day on the course but with all of the trees and vegetation its easy to escape the beating sun. Arrival was ok there was nobody at the bag drop but I already knew where they stage the carts so no issue for me. The only employee on I interacted with all day was the cart girl who we saw once. The restaurant was already closed when we finished at 6:45 but the patio was a nice place to watch the sunset.

Course conditions were very good as is usual for desert willow. I will never turn down a round out here because I know the conditions wont let me down. Today was no exception, Fairways were lush and offered a lot of roll out so it made for a great day for my driver. Rough was just as lush with the exception of hole 3 where the rough behind the green looked to have died off no real issue for play as its a steeper hill. Sand traps were in good shape for the two that I was in and the waste bunkers were pretty soft as well. Ten there was the greens...... The were some of the firmest greens I have played in a long time. I could not for the life of me control the bounce and rollout on these greens. I would say at least 80% of my approaches would roll off the back of the green if they were not coming in high. It was a bit frustrating but they still rolled fast and smooth. I did notice a few of the greens have old cup locations having a hard time healing. They may need to do some renovations on these greens next Overseed season as it will be hard for these greens to survive the summer heat.

I enjoy playing mountain view but would prefer the Fire Cliff course any day. Besides the small issues with the greens this is still a must play when out in the desert.