More rounds of golf because of the game’s surge means higher green fees
The surge in golf since COVID is continuing for a sixth year, but with greater demand comes higher green fees
Summer is nearly here in the Coachella Valley, and that generally means three things for golfers: more available tee times, less expensive greens fees and some courses closing for renovations.
The tee times and the green fees will take care of themselves as the calendar moves deeper into the summer. But the renovations of some desert courses are well underway, with a variety of completion dates.
Summer renovation makes sense for Coachella Valley golf courses because the summer is traditionally the time when courses see the least amount of traffic from players and when golf courses make hardly any money. So why not close the course down and do some capital improvements, either major or minor?
Here is a list of some — but certainly not all — of the work being done on desert golf courses this summer:
Ironwood Country Club
The 36-hole Palm Desert club did some work on four holes of its North Course last summer, and this summer the rest of that course will be renovated. That will include major renovations on all of the bunkers on the course, with new sand being added and bunkers being redesigned.
Before work began on the course last summer, designer John Fought, in charge of the project, said the idea was to make the North Course a fun alternative to the longer and tougher south Course.
“Around the greens, we are going to get in there and we are going to change the whole bunker style,” Fought said at the time. “We are going to go with a more classic grass-faced bunker style. It is going to be different.”
In addition, some tees might be moved and at least one lake could be eliminated from the course on the back nine.
SilverRock Resort
In 2025, SilverRock began a two-year process of changing out all of the grass on its 18-hole course, swapping out the original TifSport grass with a newer grass. The 2025 work was done on the front nine of the Arnold Palmer-designed course in La Quinta that was once part of The American Express PGA Tour event rotation. This summer will see the back nine closed for the same transformation.
“It turned out great, by the way,” said Randy Duncan, general manager at SilverRock. “We planted all the tees, fairways, approaches with Latitude 36, a really good Bermuda grass. We are beyond thrilled with how it turned out. And we did MiniVerde greens. We also took the opportunity to really improve that access areas in the bunkers, the fingers and things like that.”
While the same work on the back nine is beginning this week, Duncan said he hopes to do the same things the facility did last summer, which is to re-open the renovated nine hole course in late August or early November. That would provide a full 18 holes to golfers for about one month before the traditional overseed in October.
Shadow Hills Golf Club
Another summer-long project is taking place at Shadow Hills in north Indio, part of the Sun City Shadow Hills 55-and-over community. This time all 18 holes on the course will be shut down for the summer — the North Course on the property will remain open — for significant renovations.
While much of the work will focus on reducing the total amount of bunkers on the course, either getting rid of bunkers or changing the size of bunkers, other work will be important as well. That includes new liners and new sand in the bunkers, shoring up some areas of irrigation and drainage, taking the 22-year-old greens back to their original size and working on turf problems on some areas of the course.
The Lights at Indio
It seems like it has been a long time in the making, but a new 5,000-square-foot clubhouse should open at the municipal course in the coming weeks. The old clubhouse was torn down in July 2024, and the course and the U.S. Post Office that shares the property have been working out of temporary facilities ever since. The construction caused some changes to the par-3 lighted course as well, with the ninth and the 18th holes near the construction shortened.
Coral Mountain Desert Club
This isn’t a renovation but in fact the construction of new golf course in south La Quinta at the base of Coral Mountain. Scottish architect David McLay Kidd is the designer, his first courses in the Coachella Valley.
Some construction has already begun on the property, with work on the course beginning in earnest by mid-summer. Kidd said he wants the course to be the premier facility of golf courses that are played along the ground, a more links-style course compared to the desert golf courses built in the last 30 years that put a premium on target golf, big hazards and demanding greens.
The plans are for the golf courses, which will be part of an outdoor lifestyle focus at Coral Mountain Desert Club, to open in late 2027 or early 2028.
