Well, hello there! It certainly has been awhile hasn’t it? The last time I posted a Course Review on the web site was October… of 2016! Nice job, huh? To be fair, my wife and I have been a little busy (no pun intended). We had our first child in July of 2017 and just welcomed our second in September of last year.
I’ve been a little busy at work too. I plowed through my PGA Class A Certification and was elected to Membership in October. Sadly, I’m already turning into the PGA Professional I vowed never to become. Every pro I’ve ever known plays little to no golf once in the business, and now, so do I. Until now! Hopefully, this is the momentum I need to get out more than the half-dozen times I play each year… if I’m lucky. But honestly, some of that’s on me.
So how did I get from Tucson to PGA West in La Quinta, California anyway? La Quinta is in southern California’s Coachella Valley, essentially greater Palm Springs and is about a five-and-a-half hour drive from T-Town. My wife and I are HUGE tennis fans. We’ve each been to Wimbledon on our own, and together, we’ve been to the U.S. Open twice. We’ve always wanted to go to the tennis tournament at Indian Wells. It’s called the 5th Major for a reason: all the big names are in the field for the BNP Paribas Open, and this could be our last chance to see Roger Federer and Serena Williams in person before they retire due to age or injury. You never know when their next match could be their last match!
The Stadium Course at PGA West has been on my list of “courses to play” as I attempt to play all of the courses on the PGA Tour schedule. It’s also part of the Tournament Players Club (TPC) network of golf courses operated by the PGA Tour, and the Stadium Course was designed and built by famed golf course architect Pete Dye. When it opened in 1986, it was widely considered to be Dye’s west coast sequel to TPC Sawgrass.
The Stadium Course hosted the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic one year after opening in 1987 and has hosted The American Express every year since 2016. Adam Long won this year’s tournament held January 17th through the 20th. Time to pay up! The rack rate to play this time of year is $209.
PGA West Stadium Course plays 7,300 yards from the Black Tees, which I feel obligated to play as a PGA Professional, to a Par of 72, a course rating of 75.8, and a slope of 148. Here are some of the highlights of the round:
Holes Worth Writing Home About
While half of the holes on the course have water, my favorite hole on the front nine was one that was completely dry: the Par 3 4th hole called Sand Pit. Each hole on the card has a different name, which I love. The hole gets its name from the large bunker that sits between the tee boxes and the landing area leading up to the green, and there are native grasses growing throughout. The miss here is short left, long left, or long right. Short right is no good. And the sand is very unforgiving.
The front side started to get away from me right after that. Not knowing exactly where to hit it, I stupidly put balls in the water on each of the next few holes. Holes 5, 6, and 7 are good holes too. The 5th (Double Trouble) is a 535-yard Par 5, the 6th (Amen) is a 255-yard Par 3, and the 7th (Black Hole) is a 346-yard Par 4. Other than the Par 3, those holes shouldn’t present any great difficulty. And to make me feel even better about myself, the only hole on the course without a bunker (and the hole with the biggest green) is hole No. 6. The front nine reminded me a lot of ASU Karsten Golf Course in Tempe, another Pete Dye design.
But once my wife and I made the turn, I started to re-gain my form. The 10th and 11th holes, appropriately named Quarry and, at a course-long 617 yards, Eternity, featured a lot of the rock you see in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains overlooking the course. They reminded me of South Mountain or Phoenix Mountain Preserve: a lot of rock but not a lot of greenery.
My favorite hole on the back nine was the short Par 4 12th called Moat. The hole derives its name from the crescent-shaped bunker that surround the green on three sides from the front right to the back right. The tip on this hole is don’t go long! While we caught the course on a very benign day, the only wind of the round seemed to pick up right as I readied to hit my approach shot into this green, and I paid the price by going long and right.
There are two pretty famous and memorable holes on the back side. The first is No. 16: San Andreas Fault. From just off the left side of the green, you’ll find an 18-foot nearly vertical drop down to the bunker below. Don’t hit it there, unless you’re Phil Mickelson. Earlier this year and despite being almost two stories below the green, Mickelson spun a wedge to within nine feet and just narrowly missed the birdie putt. If you get to play the Stadium Course, throw a ball down there just for fun. It’s a ridiculous shot! The 2nd most famous hole on the back nine is No. 17: Alcatraz. More on that hole in a moment.
Quiet Please…
The driving range at the Stadium Course is shared with the adjoining Nicklaus Tournament Course next door. While there are a myriad of practice putting greens as well as a chipping green adjacent to the range, don’t be fooled! After you warm-up, hop back in your cart and make the short drive up the hill towards Stadium’s No. 1 tee box. That’s where you’ll find a massive practice putting green, short game area, and bunker. Hit a couple of shots out of that bunker just to get a feel for the sand.
As I approached the practice green to roll a few putts, my heart sank. Oh no, sand! How could this be? The course looked to be in great shape thanks to the ryegrass overseed on the fairways, laser-leveled tees, and undulating greens. I found out later that the greens had been hit that morning, but even though they were freshly sanded, I still thought they rolled true and maintained their speed.
The starter perched underneath the red umbrella had a bunch of cliches for us including the classic, “what you see is what you get” line about what we were in for off the tee. As he handed us our score cards, he also added, “You’ll get to use all the irons in your bag you don’t normally get to use, and you have to hit your spots.” He wasn’t wrong. This is target golf… Pete Dye at his best. Like Harbour Town Golf Links, Stadium showcase’s Dye’s love of diabolically deep bunkering and the railroad ties that have become two of Dye’s calling cards.
One other thing the starter told my wife pre-round was that from the ladies tees, most of the trouble was behind her. Uh, not! After playing the course, I strongly disagree, and I think my wife would too! There’s still a ton of trouble out there from the ladies tees, and it’s not hard to find.
Oh, and bring your own range finder or handheld GPS with you when you play. You’re gonna need it. The GPS monitors provided on the Yamaha carts are terrible! Not only were the displays slow to refresh, the touchscreens were almost unresponsive, and the unit picked up the Nicklaus Tournament Course next door. It took us a couple of holes to realize we weren’t getting the proper yardages.
Give yourself a few minutes either before or after your round to visit one of the most spacious and well-appointed Golf Shops in which you’ll ever set foot. And then don’t forget to look down and peruse the names of all the tournament winners dating back to the tournament’s inception in 1960 on the tile-floored entryway on your way back out to your car. The Shop features just about every brand you can imagine, all emblazoned with the PGA West logo.
Fore!
The second most famous hole on the back nine is No. 17: Alcatraz. The 168-yard Par 3 is the hole Jason Dufner made famous on his way to victory at PGA West in 2016. In a shot simply known as Dufner’s “Escape From Alcatraz,” Duff got it up and down for par from the large rocks just behind the green. How his tee ball didn’t end up in the water, I’ll never know. It’s an island green reminiscent of the 17th at TPC Sawgrass, but instead of railroad ties, this green is surrounded by rocks.
Dufner’s shot was so good it hit the pin. If you watch the video on YouTube, even he couldn’t help but mouth the word, “Wow!” after nearly holing it out. There is now a plaque memorializing the shot as you enter the walkway to the green.
My shot of the day came when I got it up and down from long and right of the green, over the water, and then dropped a nice little downhill 15-footer for a memorable three. I wonder if I’ll get a plaque?
While We’re Young
Before we started, we were told to expect a four hour and 20-minute pace. But even though our 9:09 tee time got pushed back a full nine minutes, we still flew around in 4:27. Not once did I check the time. We were having too much fun! My wife and I played with two guys from Boise, one of whom was still using persimmon woods.