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Desert Gold: The Norman course at PGA West.
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The PGA Tour is in Palm Springs this week, contesting the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic at PGA West, the famous six-course smorgasbord in the California desert.
While the pros will be feasting on the Arnold Palmer Private Course (the leader was already minus seven at press time), you may have to settle for playing one of the facility’s other tracks on your Palm Springs golf vacation, as this one’s name would suggest.
“Settling,” however, is a poor way to describe the public options at PGA West; particularly when it comes to the Greg Norman Course, a unique layout known for its spare use of grass. On the entire course there are only 68 acres of irrigated turf, 25 acres of which are greens and fairways.
This would suggest a highly penal course, but this is not the case. The landing areas are generous and they are bordered by equally generous buffer zones of decomposed granite, abbreviated "DG" and nicknamed “desert gold” because of its color and high cost.
Beyond the DG zones are gorgeous banks of desert plants, trees and flowers, tens of thousands of which are individually drip irrigated. Another outstanding feature is the 120 bunkers with brilliant white, crushed-marble sand. In many instances, Norman encouraged the desert grasses to grow into parts of the bunkers, creating an unusual, natural and beautiful effect.
High desert mounds between the holes help keep wild shots reasonably close to where they belong and, as is typical of Norman designs, you can bump-and-run your way onto most of the greens, thanks to their shaved fringes and lack of frontal bunkers.
Water comes into play on seven holes but, where it does not, Norman makes things interesting in other ways, such as on No. 15, where he positioned house-size dunes in the fairway to protect the green. (The locals secret is to play into the 6th fairway to avoid them.)
Our only quibble is the 18th hole. It’s not bad, but it lacks the kind of sizzle you would expect on a finishing hole from someone nicknamed “The Shark” and, thus, is not one on which to close out a Palm Springs golf vacation.
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