How golf became a defining part of life in the Coachella Valley desert

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — It was one simple sentence in the Nov. 13, 1924, edition of the Banning Record newspaper in a column devoted to Palm Springs news.

“The Desert Inn golf course is being surrounded by a substantial stone wall, making a beautiful effect against the hillside.”

That small nugget buried among dozens of other items on desert life is one of the earliest known references to the nine-hole golf course at the famed Desert Inn in Palm Springs. Located on the main road of the growing village of Palm Springs, the Desert Inn today is commemorated with a historical marker on Belardo Road in the downtown park across from the Palm Springs Art Museum.

That golf course, later known as the Mashie Course, disappeared in the 1960s, but is acknowledged as the first golf course in what is now regarded, 100 years later, as one of the golf capitals in the world, with more than 120 courses spread across more than 50 miles from Desert Hot Springs to Thermal in the Southern California desert.

The seventh green of the Desert Inn Golf Course, also known as the Mashie Course, complete with a tree in the putting surface, in Palm Springs in 1924. (Palm Springs Historical Society)

“I didn’t realize. I had heard about Palm Springs, of course, but never been down here for anything,” said Al Geiberger, an 11-time winner on the PGA Tour and long-time valley resident originally from Northern California. Geiberger first came to the desert to play golf in 1958. “We played this little nine-hole course (O’Donnell Golf Club) where you played two sets of tees. And it was so nice, the weather, the mountains, the other courses. And it was a good time of the year, in the spring.”

During the last 100 years, golf and the Coachella Valley have become practically synonymous. From celebrities to professional golfers to part-time residents to visitors, golf has been and remains a large part of the fabric of desert life.

“By the time I was 10, I had gone from pushing balls into the sprinkler heads in the front yard to playing golf and playing junior tournaments,” said LPGA and World Golf Hall of Famer Amy Alcott, a three-time winner of the LPGA major tournament in the desert. Alcott’s family often visited the Coachella Valley from the Los Angeles area.

“We were in the car and we would drive by the old Canyon Hotel and it was like first class,” Alcott said. “That was really happening. It was a classy place. (My father) took me in and went into the golf shop…