Where do Coachella Valley's public golf courses rank among California's top facilities?

The golf world of the Coachella Valley is notable because of the large number of private golf courses in the area.

While about 75% of the country’s approximate 16,000 golf courses can be accessed by the public, only about 50% of the desert’s 120 golf courses have public access as resort, daily fee or municipal courses.

That doesn’t mean that the Coachella Valley is short on great public golf courses. In fact, Golfweek magazine, part of the USA Today Network, includes six desert courses in its list of the 30 best public-access courses in California.

The highest ranking for a desert course in the Golfweek list is the Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West in La Quinta which came in 10th overall. One of nine golf courses operated by PGA West, including three at the La Quinta Resort, the Stadium Course is best known as the host course of the PGA Tour’s The American Express tournament, the original desert home of the Skins Game in the 1980s and 1990s and as a course that caused a commotion among pros when it debuted in The American Express (then the Bob Hope Classic) in 1986.

It lasted just one year in that tournament at the time, coming back in 2016 with its deep bunkers, large lakes, forced carries and its famed island green on the par-3 17th hole.

Classic Club in Palm Desert, a former host course of The American Express, is next on the list from the desert at 17th. Located on the north side of Interstate 10, Classic Club is an Arnold Palmer design that features wide fairways and an instantly identifiable clubhouse from the freeway. It was host of the American Express for three years starting in 2006.

Another current The American Express course, the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West, comes in at 19th in the state rankings. One of two courses designed for PGA West by Nicklaus, the Nicklaus Tournament Course shows the dramatic design features prominent in the 1980s, with deep bunkers, large lakes and even its own island green on the par-5 15th hole. The Nicklaus Tournament Course joined The American Express rotation in 2016.

The only course in the desert directly adjacent to a casino resort, Eagle Falls Golf Club at Fantasy Springs Resort in Indio is 23rd on the list. Designed by La Quinta resident and former Ryder Cup golfer Clive Clark, Eagle Falls’ most notable feature may be the drivable par-4 11th that requires a drive avoiding a stone wall and two large bunkers in front of the green. The course also features wide fairways and sloping greens.

The only municipally owned course in the desert on the Golfweek list is the Firecliff Course at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, ranked 26th. Firecliff is one of two courses at Desert Willow designed by Dana Frye with consultation from PGA Tour member John Cook. Wide fairways are made a bit tighter by native desert areas and plenty of formal bunkers. A pair of par-3s, the eighth and the 17th holes, play side by side and require precision to avoid lakes and bunkers.

The final Coachella Valley course on the Golfweek list is Marriott’s Shadow Ridge Resort in Palm Desert, ranked 29th. The only design in the desert by Nick Faldo, Shadow Ridge features fascinating green complexes that often resemble the sand belt of Australia, with native grasses and plenty of runoffs to collection areas off many sides of the putting surfaces.

Not surprisingly, the Golfweek list of top public courses in California is dominated by the courses in and around the Monterey Peninsula. That includes the No. 1 course, Pebble Beach Golf Link, home of the PGA Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and considered one of the top golf courses in the country. Spyglass, also part of the Pebble Beach Resort and the AT&T Pebble Beach event, is ranked third, with the Links at Spanish Bay, another Pebble Beach Resort course, slotting in at seventh. Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach is ranked 12th and Quail Lodge and Golf Course in Carmel is 16th.

Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego, home of the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open, has both of its courses in the top 30, with the South Course – host of two U.S. Opens – ranked fourth and the North Course ranked 11th.

Golfweek ranks courses on 10 criteria, each with a 1 to 10 scale, 10 being best. Criteria are routing, integrity of design and shaping, overall land plan, green surrounds, variety and memorability of par-3s, then par-4s, then par-5s, tree and landscape management, condition and ecology, and what Golfweek called the “Walk in the park” test, measuring if a course is somewhere a golfer would want to spend four hours.

1. Pebble Beach Resorts (Pebble Beach Golf Links)Pebble Beach

2. PasatiempoSanta Cruz

3. Pebble Beach Resorts (Spyglass Hill)Pebble Beach

4. Torrey Pines (South)San Diego

5. Rustic CanyonMoorpark

6. Yocha Dehe at Cache Creek CasinoBrooks

T7. Pebble Beach Resorts (Links at Spanish Bay)Pebble Beach

T7. CordeValleSan Martin (m)

T7. Rams HillBorrego Springs

10. PGA West (Stadium)La Quinta

11. Torrey Pines (North)San Diego

12. Poppy HillsPebble Beach

13. Pelican Hill (Ocean South)Newport Coast

14. Pelican Hill (Ocean North)Newport Coast

15. BayonetSeaside

16. Quail Lodge and Golf ClubCarmel

17. Classic ClubPalm Desert

18. Trump National Los AngelesRancho Palos Verdes

19. PGA West (Nicklaus)La Quinta

T20. TPC Harding ParkSan Francisco

T20. MaderasPoway

22. Fairmont Grand Del Mar (The Grand)San Diego

T23. Fantasy Springs (Eagle Falls)Indio

T23. Soule ParkOjai

25. Oak QuarryRiverside

26. Desert Willow (Firecliff)Palm Desert

27. Park Hyatt AviaraCarlsbad

28. La PurismaLompoc

29. Shadow RidgePalm Desert

30. Silverado Resort & Spa (North)Napa Valley