Day 1
PGA West, TPC StadiumScore: 86We've rented a condo in PGA West (on the Palmer course) for the past 3 years.
The Stadium course is just as I remember it from my first time last year. Many rolling, undulating fairways, hiding some of the massive bunkers. There is the one at #12 which wraps around the front, left, and back of the green. I think the green-side face of the bunker is about 15 feet high. This one is hidden by the mound in front of it, so I didn't realize it was there when I was hitting my approach from 125. Luckily, my 9 iron made it to the green. Then there's the bunker on #16 (
pictured here), which I also avoided (thank god). I think that face is almost 20 feet!
Green in reg / par on #6 (the par 3 fronted by a lake), as well as on #17 (par 3 island green).
The course was kind of beat up, mostly due to the heat of the summer. Very penal, lots of water, and tons of bunkers. Shot 86 with 2 penalties, so I was pretty happy with that.
Day 2
Golf Resort at Indian WellsScore: 81They have a West and East course. Turns out the West course is closed, due for demolition soon. They are apparently rebuilding each course from scratch, one at a time, taking 1 year to do each. The East course (where I played) will be 7000+ yards and will hopefully be hard enough to be in the Bob Hope Classic rotation in the years to come.
I didn't think the East course was as difficult as the 131 rating suggests (white/middle tees). It's definitely not only 1 slope rating point away from TPC Stadium the day before. It's a very "fair" course, with no hidden danger. Not much water, just mostly straight holes with some bunkers, and quite a few trees to either side of most fairways.
I played pretty well here. Driver was working. Although technically I only hit 4 fairways, I was only barely off the fairway on probably another 6 holes, so GIRs were up at 9.
Career longest drive was on #16. 308 yards. Too bad it was on a practice driver, after my "real" pop-up drive of 197 yards.
Bummer finish: heading into #17 par 3 over water, I knew a par, par finish would give me 79. The pin placement on 17 was tough. Up on the top tier of the green, but only like 10 yards from the back of the green, where there's water. I was between clubs, so took the shorter iron, not wanting to go over the back. So I ended up short, on the lower tier of the green, 3 putt from there (missed 5 foot par putt) for bogey. Then head to 18 (semi-short par 5 along hwy 111, with late fairway turn around water to the green). Decent drive of 247, leaving 206 to the green (according to GPS), but over water. I don't have a lot of confidence in long iron that will FLY 200 yards, and haven't mastered a 3-wood yet. Took the chicken-shit route to lay up along the side of the water, then wedge from there. 7-iron faded right, INTO the water. Nice "safe" play -- ugh. For the hell of it, I tried another shot - 3 iron from the same place. Bombed it long enough, over the water, into the bunker BEHIND the green. Anyway - with penalty, and wedge + 2 putt, bogey - finish with 81.
Course review: course itself was in pretty good shape. Some cool holes: #13 par 4 with island fairway. Over water to get to fairway, then from there, over water to the green. #17 par 3 over water, #18 finish with fairway turn to right around water to green.
GPS carts, although once again, the scoring system crapped out after the last hole, before getting to the shop. ALWAYS keep your score manually even if you're using the GPS card. I've never had one work properly to the end, including a printout from the pro shop. Service was marginal, they had me in a hurry the whole time. Driving range was barely open due to mowing in progress. No water, ice, etc. on the cart. Maybe I'll head back to Trilogy next time?
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