Golden Horseshoe #55
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#56 PGA West Stadium Course
This course is the 4th hardest in the US, 9th in the world. It is host to the tournament formerly known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic. It wasn't until I got close to the clubhouse, and things were looking familiar, that I realized I had played it before. Lee Trevino made a hole-in-one in the Skins Game here in 1987. It's much more Dye-abolical than the La Quinta Mountain course. Railroad ties, bunkers, and mounds abound. Some are the spectator mounds that gave rise to the "stadium" name, but there are plenty inside the ropes as well. In 2015 as a 14 handicap I played from the "combo" tees, and shot 92 with 3 GIR. This year I'm an 11, played the white tees (300 yards shorter), and had 92 with 2 GIR (1 birdie, 26 putts, and 9 shots into or from water hazards). Pictures from this year and 2015 .
#13 Pasatiempo
Designed in 1929 by Alister MacKenzie, who wrote the book on golf course design. Yes, he literally wrote the book. He sure liked sand traps. And false fronts. They claim Juli Inkster as their home touring pro, with pictures of her next to pictures of Dr. MacKenzie in the clubhouse. I failed to recognize the difficulty of the course until I started to play it. 6125 yards is well within my capabilities for a par 72 layout. This one is par 70. Rare is the course with a course rating from my tees higher than par, but this is one: 70.8. Those more subtle indications notwithstanding, the slope of 135 should have been a dead giveaway. I didn't look. On the first two par 3's I hit driver, and didn't get to pin high. There is local knowledge required, too. Some shots that seemed well planned and well-struck rolled to some very bad places. The greens are reasonably fast, not as fast as many top modern cou...
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