Palm Springs

The Coachella Valley runs roughly 40 miles from Palm Springs in the west to Indio in the east, with Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, and La Quinta filling the space between. More than 100 golf courses occupy this corridor. The concentration is difficult to overstate: from almost any hotel in the valley, a dozen courses sit within a 20-minute drive. The San Jacinto and Santa Rosa ranges frame the valley on two sides, rising abruptly from the desert floor to elevations above 10,000 feet. Every course plays against this backdrop. On a clear January morning, when the peaks carry snow and the fairways sit in low-angle desert light, the visual effect is singular.

Golf arrived in the 1950s alongside the Hollywood money that built the first private clubs, and PGA West opened its Pete Dye Stadium Course in 1986. By the 1990s, the valley had matured into the winter golf destination for Southern California and much of western Canada. Snowbirds arrive by November and stay through April, filling condominiums and tee sheets for six straight months. The American Express, a PGA Tour event, rotates among valley courses each January.