It took me a while to get used to the desert when I moved to the Southland from the Midwest. Since that time I’ve had many chances to play and watch golf in the Coachella Valley and Phoenix-Scottsdale. I’m always intrigued by the eerie beauty of green grass and colorful flora growing out of sand and rocks and the 3-D effect of the mountains off in the distance.
Visiting the Palm Springs area is the focus of this month’s issue, with writer and Palm Desert resident Judd Spicer listing places to stay, play, dine and visit in the context of different price ranges. Judd also has an article on what golf course operators are dealing with when it pertains to our lingering dry conditions, in addition to how residents are adapting to the look of less turf on some layouts.
Speaking of writers, Ken Van Vechten, who penned the second edition “Insiders Guide to Palm Springs” in 2010, has written scores of stories about the desert for regional and national publications, and he estimates that he’s played 70 courses and 225-plus rounds in the Coachella Valley during visits that stir old memories.
“As a kid growing up in So Cal in the ’60s and early ’70s, the desert was not yet the type of place it is now when you think of all the getaway stuff,” Van Vechten said. “The desert then was mostly Palm Springs, and activities largely embraced the pool and martinis. But a trip to the desert was special because we’d ride the tram, hike the Indian Canyons, camp at Joshua Tree.”
Van Vechten, who moved from Riverside to Lompoc a little more than four years ago, spent his teens and 20s in Oregon but returned to the desert when possible.
“I’d come down for spring break and, at some point, my sister purchased a second home here, so enter more trips and holidays,” he said. “I finally returned to the Southland in the late ’80s, and from that point on I was down monthly, often three times a month. Now my parents live full time in La Quinta, so I’ve spent hundreds of nights in the desert. And the love affair with the region hasn’t been hurt by the fact that my wife is a desert rat too.”
I’ve teed it up with Ken at a number of places around the country but never in the Coachella Valley, an area that Van Vechten has no problems promoting.
“The desert to me is all about the outdoors,” Van Vechten said. “That might sound like a huge ‘duh’ moment, but think about it. A round of golf gives you four-plus hours out in the sun. You play tennis. You hike in the highlands come summer. You hike wherever you want the rest of the year. I’ve finally gotten back into a sport I loved in college – cycling – and between the weather and the fact that nearly every road is striped for a bike lane, spin away.”
Putting a different spin on the stereotype of the desert being mainly for retirees is something that’s gradually changing.
“These are real communities, real cities,” Van Vechten said. “There are kids and colleges and schools everywhere. People work, live, raise families and play, so regardless of age or station in life, everyone’s pretty much here because it’s gorgeous and the weather rocks.”
