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Pete Dye Dunes Course at La Quinta Resort - Review


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Dunes Course at La Quinta Resort - Review

An Official MyGolfSpy.com Review

 

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View the entire Dunes Course and La Quinta Resort slideshow by clicking here.

 

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La Quinta Resort:

A Waldorf Astoria property, the La Quinta Resort played host to a quick two day golf trip to the Palm Springs/La Quinta area just a week before the PGA Q-School would visit the same area.

 

Arriving at La Quinta Resort, it felt similar to arriving to a resort in Mexico with the palm tree lined drive and dessert landscaping (Mexico comes to mind because this is the only place I've visited similarly adorned resorts)

 

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Checking in, the resort was warm and inviting, the staff were helpful and accommodating, and soon enough I was in my room, enjoying a warming fire (yes, it's nice to have added warmth even in the desert)

 

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The resort itself offered a solid selection of restaurants and amenities, but checking in late at 8 p.m. and relaxing just a little too long, I soon found out that the restaurants and the cigar lounge (my first two stops planned for the evening) were already closing. I rushed out of my room, purchased my cigar and then headed to the Adobe Grill with my two buddies to fill our tummies.

 

Being a California native, I'm well versed on Mexican food, and I can say that the Adobe Grill nails it. I probably could have and should have filled my pockets with their house made tortillas to go - thick and just undercooked so slightly, the flavor of these guys alone was worth the visit.

 

Oh, and their Tequila bar was top notch:

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After dinner we headed back to relax in the hot tub and smoke a cigar before our round the next morning on the Pete Dye Dunes course.

 

Overall, the La Quinta Resort is a great facility. I want to say the resort is dated, but I think it would be more correct to point out that La Quinta resort is not attempting to compete with the more hip/trendy hotels in the heart of Palm Springs. The resort is a great fit for families and older couples looking for a relaxing stay with nice amenities that do not require you to head out into the more touristy feeling parts of the desert. This is a resort, and it fulfills it's purpose, including golf just a short cart ride away.

 

The restaurants and shops close a bit early for my late night habits, and small things like the ipod radio that wouldn't work with my iPhone show a small amount of age, just barely edging the property out of a solid A rating for me.

 

Overall grade for the resort: A-

 

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Pete Dye Dunes Course:

 

Introduction:

 

Located in the city of La Quinta, near Palm Springs, the Dunes Course leads one to assume there will be sand dunes involved. This was not the case, though the course did feel like one would expect from a more typical desert course.

 

Forgiving and punishing at the right times, this course offers a fair number of challenges and rewards, as well as plenty of opportunities to get into trouble.

 

For a lower handicap player, the course might be a bit on the "easy" side, but for my game, it was plenty of challenge.

 

A break down of our couse review criteria can be found here.

 

 

Amenities:

The Dunes Course and the La Quinta Resort clubs house offers a well outfitted pro shop with less of a focus on gear, and more of a focus on attire, shirts, shorts, shoes, balls... The restaurant provided us with GREAT service prior to our round while also giving us a great view of the beautiful backdrop to the finishing holes of the Dunes course and the Mountain course.

 

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The GPS system on the carts was state-of-the-art with distances measured to the actual pin placement, and ability to request help from the pro shop, and a clock letting you know how far behind schedule you are in your pace of play. The fly-overs for each hole put my GolfShot GPS app to shame, and helping us to attempt to avoid unseen trouble on each hole.

 

Holding the amenities back from a perfect score is the lack of a half way house, just a bathroom with an ice cooler outside, and only seeing the cart girl twice during 4-and-a-half hours of play.

 

Score: 8/10

 

 

Course Conditions:

 

A part of me felt like the course did not quite deserve a 9/10 rating, but breaking it down subjectively, this course was definitely in better condition than pretty much any other public course I have played. Some balls marks and some divots left unfilled on the tee boxes, but nothing that affected my game. Sand was fluffy, but not overly so - meaning getting out of the sand was realistic. Tee boxes were consistently even.

 

Score: 9/10

 

 

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Beauty/Scenery:

 

While the starting and finishing holes of the Dunes course start out with the mountains screaming in your face with their beauty, this course quickly ducks under a public road and into a housing development, crossing streets and running parallel to a busy road at one point.

 

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My friends and I equated it to taking a walk through a pretty county park. It was nice, and there were some very beautiful scenes, but if I were to head out for a walk in nature, this course wouldn't quite fool me into thinking I was quite there.

 

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I was able to create some beautiful photos on the course, but I would say the outstanding ones came from just 5 of the holes. The 7 is close to an 8, but just not quite for the aforementioned reasons.

 

Score 7.5/10

 

 

Customer Service/Guest Experience:

 

In this specific area I was a little confused at Dunes. Pulling up, I had three sets of clubs in my car. There was no valet, and the bag check guy was no-where to be seen. No biggie, I began pulling our bags out of my car and setting them beside it. The bag check guy came back after I pulled 1 bag out, and watched me pull the next two out. I then proceeded to carry each of them to the curb with no help until it was time for him to put them into a cart, at which time one of the bags fell out of the cart.

 

Good news is, as soon as we headed inside the club house and onto the restaurant, the service was stellar. Our waiter should have been tipped 50% for his awesome service with our late breakfast and special requests. The starter was friendly and conversational (don't you hate it when it's a grumpy old man?)

 

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I'm going to give the Dunes the benefit of the doubt on this one that the bag check guy was having an OFF day.

 

Score 9/10

 

 

Practice Facilities:

 

The winter is an odd time for desert golf, over-seeding is winding down, so some things are closed - part of the practice facilities were closed, but not enough to affect our warm up. The only problem was, the driving range did not accomodate drivers - irons only. The practice green was spacious, and there was an area for chipping. Overall, the practice facilities were very well kept and provided enough space to shake your arms out without hurting anyone else.

 

Score 9/10

 

 

Accessibility to all levels:

 

With the back tees running 6,712 yards, this course might be short by some standards, but for a higher handicap player such as myself, the yardage from the whites seemed fair, maybe a little soft.

 

I think a better player might find the length of this course short, but there is still enough variety to provide challenges to those striking it from the back.

 

Score 9/10

 

 

Difficulty

 

I was a bit scared when walking into the club house I saw this:

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Pretty much the entire round I was holding my breath waiting for the 17th to see what this was all about.

 

Overall, this course does not toss a ton of difficulty at you in punishing ways. (my score card may not have reflected this, but that may have more to do with the drinks and lack of sleep the night before)

 

While there are a fair number of bunks and water coming into play throughout the course, with the GPS guiding you along the way in your cart you are kept pretty safe if you play to your ability.

 

Score 10/10

 

 

Variety:

 

Everyone wants some variety - 31 flavors knows this, but some tracks don't always seem to pick up on the idea. The Dunes course does offer variety, but it doesn't stretch very far in that offering. Setting up to some of the water hazards, the course did offer variety playing along the water, switching water from your left, to your right in one hole.

 

I would guess I picked up more variety on this course due to my missed fairways, than for the course design itself.

 

Score 8/10

 

 

Value:

 

Searching around online, it's easy enough to find prime tee times for $79 for the Dunes course. The question is, would I pay $79 to play the Dunes course again - probably not - You can find rounds at PGA WEST just down the road for $99 online if you look, and for $20 more, I think you reach a much higher caliber on each scale (PGA WEST review coming).

 

For the region, the price is probably about right for the value, but for my own value scale, it's a bit off. The catch is, I have an inkling from talking to others, that the Mountain Course at La Quinta Resort would be a solid value.

 

Score 7.5/10

 

Memorability:

 

There are some pretty memorable aspects to this track, some positive, and some negative. I think if you've never played this type of desert course before, you might find it more memorable.

 

The sunset here was extremely memorable:

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But the holes themselves, most are fleeting memories, fun, but as a whole, the course runs on average, with a few views that put this at a 7.5 instead of a 7, but still not quite an 8. I think the biggest thing is, some of the views were great, but for those views, it didn't really matter that there was a golf course there, it wasn't what really made the view.

 

Score 7.5/10

 

Conclusion:

 

I didn't dislike this course at all, but the problem is, the Palm Springs region offers soooo many GREAT courses, the Dunes course just has a hard time standing out. In nearly any other region this course would be a solid play and probably score higher in my mind for a course I would play again.

 

If you are headed to Palm Springs and can get a round at the Dunes for a fair price, I think you would be happy playing here, but if you are headed out for a guys trip and ready to spend some money, I might look at other nearby courses.

 

The La Quinta Resort is also connected with PGA WEST - and I think the caliber of PGA WEST is a better fit for the resort.

 

Score 84.5/100

 

Don't forget:

View the entire Dunes Course and La Quinta Resort slideshow by clicking here.

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