PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — 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.
There are many people instrumental to the history of golf in the Coachella Valley.
This is a top-10 list followed by another 10 names that make up the honorable mention.
Thomas O’Donnell
One of the richest oilmen in California, O’Donnell decided to craft his own golf course in Palm Springs. That course was the major golf site in the Coachella Valley for two decades, and it still exists in downtown Palm Springs today as the desert’s oldest course.
Johnny Dawson
A talented and accomplished amateur golfer, Dawson was the developer behind Thunderbird Country Club in 1951. Dawson would go on to develop other desert courses including Marrakesh and Seven Lakes country clubs in the golden age of course development.
Dwight Eisenhower
The popular Eisenhower became the first president to play golf in the desert in 1954, and later lived in a house on the 11th fairway at Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells.
General Dwight Eisenhower playing golf at St. Andrews in Scotland in 1946. (Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Eisenhower’s love of the game – he was a member at Augusta National in Georgia – and his friendship with two other golfers – amateur Bob Hope and pro Arnold Palmer – helped to popularize the game in the 1950s.
Bob Hope
A desert resident since the 1940s, Hope carried the message of his love of the game around the world. In 1965, the actor and comedian agreed to put his name on the Palm Springs Golf Classic, turning that event into the Bob Hope Desert Classic, one of the PGA Tour’s most popular events. Hope died in 2003 at the age of 100.
Arnold Palmer
By 1959, when Palmer won the last Thunderbird Invitational, he was already pro golf’s most popular figure. Palmer then won five Bob Hope Desert Classics from 1960 through 1973, cementing his place as an icon in the sport and in one of his adopted homes. Palmer would later design numerous courses in the Coachella Valley, including a course that hosted the Hope tournament for years at PGA West in La Quinta.
Dinah Shore
Shore knew little about golf in 1972, when she became the host of an LPGA tournament at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. She quickly embraced the game and the players on the LPGA, becoming a…
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