Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Incredible photo ops - without a camera!

Last weekend, Ben and I spent Saturday through Monday in Palm Springs with some friends from Suncadia, Laurie and Brice Wilhite. We played at Indian Canyon on Saturday - nice, but a few sprinkles (what would you expect?). We played on Sunday at Hideaway - an exclusive, invitation only club where Laurie's dad belongs. It was lush and pampering, and god knows, if they'd known who we are, they probably wouldn't have let us on.

But the photo ops of the weekend came at the Celebrity Course at Indian Wells Country Club - a municipal club that costs only $35 to play if you live in Indian Wells, which we don't. We paid $121 each, which is a chunk of change, but worth every penny, mainly for the views. Of course, we didn't have a camera with us, so I can't share any pictures with you, and the website quite frankly doesn't begin to do the place justice.

Starting with the 13th hole, the views of the fairways back to the tee boxes are backed up by stunning, multi-layered mountain views, acres of wild and set flowers, and - in many cases - waterfalls and ponds. (Of course, there is a downside to those ponds, but you already know that.)

I had first heard of this course about four years ago when I sat on an Alaska flight next to Orrin Vincent, founder and owner of OB Sports, which managed the construction of the remodel of the two courses at Indian Wells and the spiffy new clubhouse (I can't believe the bathrooms in that place! The floors alone are worth framing!).

In our short flight to Seattle from Palm Springs, he tried to convince me that it would be worth the 16ish-mile drive down to Indian Wells to play the courses, which takes quite a bit of convincing, as Ben and I rarely drive more than five miles in any direction to play golf. I put it in the back of mind, but never had the impetus to go. After all, there are nearly 100 courses between our home and Indian Wells - why not stop at one of those?

Too bad, because we've missed some beautiful golf over the past four years since the courses re-opened. It's almost enough to make us consider moving down to Indian Wells for the $35 greens fees.

Well, let's not go that far.

But I am going to send Orrin a note. He was right. I was wrong.