Desert Designs

There’s little more satisfying than smashing a drive from an elevated tee carved into a rocky mountainside, watching the ball linger in the air for what seems like minutes against an impossibly blue sky before landing on a slender emerald ribbon on the desert floor below. The air is warm and dry, the views are long and the penalties for wayward shots are severe.

The factors that combine to make desert golf so uniquely challenging and rewarding—the rugged and dramatic landforms, the sensational vistas, the climate—likewise test and gratify golf’s finest course designers.

The following courses illustrate the quality and variety of golf in the Southwest. They are the creations of some of golf’s great architects and the design elements and strategies used are as varied as the courses themselves. Yet they all represent the best in desert golf.

The design team of Michael Hurdzan and Dana Fry worked a bit of magic in designing the Firecliff and Mountain View courses at Desert Willow Golf Resort (desertwillow.com, 800-320-3323) in Palm Desert, Calif. Each routing brilliantly showcases unobstructed views of the San Jacinto, Santa Rosa and San Gorgonio Mountains, and the strategic (and liberal) use of water features and indigenous desert plant life ensures that you’ll enjoy a spectacular, colorful setting, no matter what time of year you’re playing. Even better, the designers have cleverly utilized elevation changes to minimize views of the groups ahead and behind—you’ll feel as though you have this desert oasis to yourself.

The design features are far more than aesthetic, however. Firecliff is a true test, with a number of forced carries from tee to fairway and no fewer than 106 bunkers on the course. It can be a visually intimidating course from the tee, despite deceptively generous landing areas. The par-5 13^th is a great example, with a forced carry off the tee (of 180 yards from the back tees) and 11 bunkers from tee to green. Play your second shot with your approach in mind and take an extra club on your third when playing to the elevated green. The 204-yard, par-3 17^th is another exceptional hole, with water down the right and a waste bunker that wraps around the green. When it plays into the wind, don’t be shy about bailing out short left.

Although Mountain View is a bit friendlier tee to green, with more turf between tees and fairways and fewer bunkers, it can be an exacting test, too, with smaller, more challenging greens. Waterfalls and babbling brooks also soften the experience of Mountain View—it is clearly the better choice for the beginner or higher handicapper.