Pete Dye Dunes Course

From my blog travel story:
This is a 4.5 star affair. The staff throughout are very friendly and helpful. They wear name badges with the city and state they are from. Every person we interacted with lived in a city where we had history (i.e. family resides there, we reside there, we used to reside there). That was somewhat surreal…
We are playing the «Pete Dye Dunes Course» when this road runner motors past us so rapidly I was barely able to capture a photo via a «slow as snails» shutter speed with my point-​and-​shoot camera. Bella has never seen one before and thought it was as cute as it was funny.
The greens on this course are seriously «Sid Vicious» with so many featuring lengthy extreme downward slopes, multilayered grade changes and more hazards than I’ve ever seen (i.e. water, vegetation, sand bunkers etc.) surrounding the greens.
A couple of holes have a few modestly sized «Grass Valleys» approximately 6 – 8 feet deep and located fairly close to the greens. These are not deemed «hazards» but are an added «pain in the corn» as you do your best to «club» your way out of it, without ending up in another one of them located nearby.
On one hole with a water hazard I use the «big dog» (driver) and hammer a ball low and hard to the point where it skips 7 – 8 times across the top of the water before finally submerging. Even funnier than that «skimmer» is that my Nike golf belt breaks (serves me right for shopping @ TJ Maxx) on the swing and I nearly «droped trou» with my shorts ending up wrapped around my ankles. Bella is video recording this drive and I may end up posting it here. We’ll see if my vanity can endure.
A serious W.T. (a.k.a. «Whiskey Tango», a.k.a. white trash) male who lives in a house on the course is having a full-​blown one-​sided shouting fest which echoes throughout the hole we are playing. I try to relax while taking my swings but the noise is so loud and disturbing due to the intense rage. At times there is a momentary pause before Whiskey Tango «tees off» again. NOTE: My guess is that this was just bad timing. And the reality is that no matter where you buy your home OR build your golf course some «T» with money can move in.
The layers and layers of mountains are stunning. On this hole I «smoke» a ball low and hard with my driver and due to the thinner than normal layer of sand in the bunker (see MIDDLE LEFT area of photo) my ball bounces seemingly forever running all the way to the end of this lengthy bunker.

This was a pretty fun track around La Quinta. I would have played the Mountain Course, but it was closed to a tournament. The dunes came as a nice surprise. I typically don’t like being pinched around residential houses on a course, but the links style of play worked well in this case. The course was very damp when I played, yet the greens were extremely fast (like most desert courses).
The links style of undulating greens and approaches was a slightly different style of play. However, in typical Pete Dye fashion, you can find yourself in big trouble if you don’t hit a precise green shot.
Good luck putting. I can’t imagine playing this course when it’s not wet.
I walked the course since I knew it was cart path only, but wasn’t aware that most of the cart paths disappear into the fairways which force the carts on the fairways anyways. Beyond that the course is very narrow so it wasn’t unnecessary to bring a push cart. That said… I wouldn’t recommend walking it. There are also a couple of gaps in between holes that are quite lengthy (10 min walks).
Reasonably priced, and you can find deals through La Quinta’s website if you book there. I found the 15 – 20 mins in a earlier tee time saved me about $ 20 or so.

Beautifully designed, links-​style sans the coast but a sea of bunkers and tight fairways. Thought I was storming Normandy.
Not particularly long but paramount you’re accurate or risk taking a drop shot every time you hit in the rough, left or right. I wouldn’t even describe it as «rough,» more like African Savannah including wildlife. Even if you are big slicer or hooker it probably won’t be far enough to carry the rough on either side. Just make sure you stock up on balls.
Temperature will typically be triple digits but the course provides a cooler in each cart and a station behind the clubhouse to load up on ice, styrofoam cups, lids, straws and water.
Cart wench was a senior citizen which violates labor laws and frankly, unacceptable (on an attractive scale) for a place of this caliber. I don’t practice ageism, GILFS are acceptable.

This place was pretty fun. I definitely recommend coming and playing this challenging course.

Course is stunning and in Top notch shape… Those Pete Dye courses are VERY VERY TOUGH… minimum 5 sandtraps per hole and greens are FAST as lightening… Very expensive to play here… Service in pro shop was great, however you actually had to call for players assistance just so they could send the cart girl out… she only came one time in 4hrs 30min play… THERE is NOWHERE To stop after the 9^th hole, you have to go directly to hotel 10… so you better stock up on food and beverage before hand.

Great course for the La Quinta Resort Golf Courses. Unlike the Greg norman course this had holes with rough, but not just rough but knee length tall grass which if you hit your ball into, forget about it and just drop a ball. We always got scared walking through it that a snake was going to bite us. Thankfully only there were only about 6 holes that really affected us. This course has lots of water in play but as long as you can drive carry the ball the first 160 yards relatively straight you’ll be fine.
I did wish at the turn there was some sort of snack bar or something, but nope, after you finish the ninth hole, it goes straight into the 10^th.
GPS in the cart, plus an ice chest and water cooler.