In 1887, twenty-five dollars bought a round-trip ticket on an excursion train from San Francisco to Palm Springs, “the only spot in California where frost, fog and windstorms are absolutely unknown,” according to a real estate advertisement of the day. Mule-drawn buckboards carried passengers from the train station to the Palm Springs Hotel, where they played bridge and drank beer under the palms, soaked in hot mineral pools inside a rickety wooden bathhouse, and picnicked in the Indian Canyons.

In the glamorous Hollywood heyday of the 1920s and 1930s, Errol Flynn, Ginger Rogers and their movie star cohorts routinely made the 100-mile trek over the mountains to Palm Springs in unairconditioned cars to relax at the tiny, Spanish-style La Quinta Hotel. They basked in dry, warm air and played on the nine-hole golf course, the first in the valley, for the green fee of a dollar.

Today, over a hundred years and 120 golf courses later, take a look down as you fly into the Coachella Valley, where celebrities and “snowbirds” still flock south for sunny days of golf, tennis, and lazing around more than 30,000 swimming pools. Greens fees are higher by a hundred-fold or more, and beneath a perpetually unclouded blue sky, golf is surreal in its perfection. Desert weather is best during the high of season of November through April; temperatures are in the 70s and 80s, January through March.

The valley is home to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Diners Club Matches, PGA Grand Slam and the PGA Skins Game among other competitions. LPGA pros compete in the Samsung World Championship at Bighorn Golf Club; along with PGA players at the Merrill Lynch Skins Game at Trilogy at La Quinta, and at the Kraft Nabisco Championship at Mission Hills Country Club, an event that fills the valley with golf fans. (The 1995 Bob Hope Pro-Am at Indian Wells Country Club was one for the history books, when three presidents—Bush, Ford and Clinton—teamed up with then 92-year-old Bob Hope, Palm Springs’ most beloved permanent resident. The First Players’ scores: Clinton 95, Bush 93, Ford 103.)

The Golf Oasis of La Quinta
KSL Properties owns and operates PGA West and the legendary La Quinta Resort and Club, today a sprawling, low-rise complex in lush tropical gardens below the jagged ridges of the Santa Rosa Mountains. The original twenty casitas at La Quinta are now nearly 800 guest rooms, suites and villas in a complex that includes 23 tennis courts, 42 swimming pools (yes, it’s true), 52 whirlpools, and seven restaurants. The look is of old California: adobe walls, red tile roofs, palms, fruit trees, garden or mountain views, and wood-burning fireplaces (some units have fireplaces in both bedroom and bath and private patios with whirlpools). Oceans of magenta bougainvillea cascade over the walls of private patios, and you can pick oranges and lemons every month of the year. Seclusion, the spa experience and golf remain the order of the day (http://www.laquintaresort.com).

California cuisine is on the menu in the historic Azur dining room, and at the Adobe Grill, it’s authentic Mexican food; bistro cuisine at Twenty 6; and Spanish-style afternoon tea in the art- and antique-filled lobby.

The $5 million Spa La Quinta is a true retreat, with courtyard fountains, vivid talavera tile decoration and deep archways. A sign of welcome, red pepper ristras—braided strings of bright peppers—hang on every door. Many treatment rooms have patios with close-up views of the sheer, rock-faced mountains. The spa has 40 treatment rooms, most with mountain views; inhalation rooms, steam, a full-service salon and a charming outdoor relaxation garden with a fireplace and a cooling mist system. Open to the sky are the Celestial Showers, desert versions of invigorating traditional Swiss showers.

Also at the spa is the new Cosgrove WellMax Clinic, where you can get diagnostic services and preventive body and skin treatments, from MRI to colonoscopy, CT scans and personal evaluations (http://www.wellmax.com).

No other resort property in the West offers 90 holes of truly world-class golf, including the Mountain and Dunes resort courses, and three PGA West courses, the Jack Nicklaus Tournament Course, the Greg Norman Course, and the notoriously scary Stadium Golf Course; plus, a Jim McLean Golf School.

Lots of mounding and sharp angled edges on the fairways characterize the Nicklaus Course, along with his signature well-protected greens. A Scottish links layout, the Dunes rolls like a stormy green sea across the desert floor, scattered with large bunkers and abundant water on eight holes. Rimmed by a treacherous lake along the entire left side and copious sand traps at the curve of a dogleg, with a severely sloping green, the par-four 17th was rated by the PGA as one of the toughest holes in the United States.

Rivers of stone, prickly shrubs and native grasses stream across the Mountain course. On the 6th hole, rocky foothills descend to the edge of the fairway and the two-level green, which is ferociously guarded by sand and grass bunkers. A deep ravine and a wilderness of desert border the 14th fairway, leading an elevated green menaced by yet another ravine and waves of sand. On the 16th, you get turf on the tee and the green, and 167 yards of rocks between.

Pete Dye intended the PGA West Stadium Course to be “the hardest damn golf course in the world” and many PGA Tour players believe it, considering his eighty-two monster bunkers—one is twenty feet deep—and water hazards as too difficult. 200-yard forced carries, lots of water, and Dye’s dicey bunkering, and of course, railroad ties, contribute to the 75.9 rating and 150 slope. From the back tees, it’s 7,261 yards; fortunately for mere mortals, there are five tees, shortening the length to 5,087 yards.

Renovation in 2005 made the Greg Norman Course at PGA West more playable, widening fairways and removing some ball-eating vegetation. This is a stunning track, colorful with native grasses, riots of wildflowers, and indigenous mesquite, paloverde and acacia trees in a spectacular, rugged low desert setting surrounded by mountains. You will not see here the palm trees and exotic water features typical of Coachella Valley courses. Distinguishing the design are 122 “Great White Shark” bunkers filled with brilliant white crushed marble sand. Replacing traditional grass rough is tan-colored decomposed granite—tough on the golf clubs and requiring a deft touch to pluck the ball off the crunchy surface. Five sets of tees make it playable for everyone. You can walk the course—a privilege usually unavailable in the valley, or hire a caddie. In the new stone and copper, Australian-style clubhouse, golfers take a breather and take a chance with the signature cocktail, the “Sharkarita”.

Presidents Play Indian Wells
In a stunning setting against the Santa Rosa Mountains, the Golf Resort at Indian Wells has for nearly 20 years been famous for Ted Robinson’s East and West courses, the sites of countless PGA and Senior PGA tournaments (http://www.golfresortatindianwells.com). A complete renovation of the courses is taking place, to the tune of $45 million. Former European PGA Tour, Clive Clark, has updated, rerouted and lengthened the West course, now named the Celebrity Course, adding gorgeous lakes, streams and waterfalls on nearly every hole. And, John Fought is working on the East track, to be reopened in late 2007. Add to this a new Callaway Performance Center and the resort’s renowned teaching academy, and expanded practice venues. A massive new clubhouse is underway, too, to be completed at the end of 2007.

Tee times at Indian Wells are not easy to obtain during the high winter season. Your best bet is to book a golf package at the adjacent mega-resorts, the Renaissance Esmeralda or the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort.

White columns and archways, and garden courtyards with fountains and rushing streams are luxuriant with rose gardens and citrus trees at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort and Spa. Guest rooms and suites have with private terraces, and some have sunken sitting rooms with mountain views. Separate villas each have a Jacuzzi spa and a private courtyard. For a resort complex with over three hundred rooms, this Hyatt is surprisingly serene, with cool, pale Carrara marble floors and numerous leafy nooks and crannies where guests can hide away. A parade of tall palms flutter in the desert breezes over four outdoor swimming pools, and those inclined to hit the fuzzy ball head for twelve grass, clay and hard surface tennis courts (http://www.grandchampions.hyatt.com). Staying On:

A good choice for a longer stay is Marriott’s Shadow Ridge Resort (a Marriott Vacation Club Resort), a condo-style property with one- and two-bedroom, two-bath villas with master suites, soaking tubs, living and dining areas, fireplaces, and full kitchens. Hotel-type guest rooms are also available. http://marriott.com

The new Shadow Ridge golf course is Nick Faldo’s only West Coast design. Said to be inspired by the “sand belt” tracks of Australia, notably, Kingston Heath and Royal Melbourne, it features high native grass rough, pot bunkers, sandy waste areas and pronounced doglegs on ten holes. A new Faldo Golf Institute is located at the resort, too.

Water Everywhere at the Marriott
If you haven’t been to the Desert Springs JW Marriott Resort and Spa in Palm Desert lately, you won’t recognize the spiffed up entrance and atrium lobby (http://www.desertspringsresort.com). Stone columns frame a dramatic fire cauldron and waterfalls, introducing the theme of the resorts, which is water, water, everywhere. In an exotic hanging garden setting, complete with running streams and chattering birds, and a huge saltwater aquarium, the eight-story atrium lobby at the 4-star Marriott overlooks a large lake and a gondola dock, from which visitors and guests set off to cruise a labyrinth of canals. Spread out in tropical oasis-like grounds are nearly 900 rooms and suites, including 900 square-foot and 3,150 square-foot hospitality suites.

Windows, skylights and glass doors in the spa open to the views of the Santa Rosa Mountain range, creating a wide-open-spaces effect. Recently expanded, the spa now offers suites with showers, fireplaces, and outdoor whirlpools; a VIP suite with a butler, and private treatment courtyards. With saunas, steam, hamman steam, a colossal fitness center, a yoga studio and a full-service salon, you’ve got one of the largest and most multi-faceted spas in the West. The new spa cafe has a nice view of a swimming pool and the mountains. You may want to stay all day, enjoying the adults-only spa swimming pool, hot and cold plunge pools, and private, clothing-optional sun decks. With iced spritzer water bottles to cool your body, and iced compresses to refresh and protect your eyes while in the lounge position, “taking the waters” takes on entirely new meaning.

Ted Robinson has struck again at the Marriott, liberally watering his Palm and Valley golf courses with lakes, ponds and falls, and adding 5000 trees—mostly palms—for good measure. On the 3rd hole of the 6,381-yard Palm, which wraps completely around the hotel, it’s waterfalls to your left, islands in a stream on your right, a line-up of palms and a giant bunker backing the deep green. Gondolas full of resort guests cruise around the four finishing holes of the Valley course. The 160-yard 17th tees off above cascading falls over a pool where a flock of pink flamingos pose, to a small island green encircled with palms; the palm barrier comes in handy when ball seems destined for a watery demise. Back across the footbridge go the players, to be greeted on the 18th by five giant bunkers on each side of a narrow fairway, hitting dizzily down to a landscaped lake inhabited by pink flamingoes and the inevitable waterfalls that guard two sides of a three-tiered green backed by a platoon of palms, a scene reminiscent of a 1940s Busby Berkeley movie set.

“The Greens” is a fanciful Ted Robinson creation, a 350-yard, 18-hole pitching and putting course with rolling fairways, doglegs upon doglegs, nasty bits of beautifully landscaped rough and—you guessed it—plenty of water.

Tennis players head for 15 hard surface, 3 clay and 2 grass tennis courts, while families and lounge lizards retire to three swimming pools and a bevy of whirlpools. You can rent an electric bike, play basketball and shop in 17 boutique shops. Starbucks has a unique café here with a picturesque outdoor seating patio warmed at night by fire pits. Dine in a half dozen restaurants, listen to live calypso music in the bar (no shirt, no shoes, no problem), and dance until almost dawn to dance bands and DJs in the nightclub.

Dye and Player at the Westin
In Rancho Mirage, the Westin Mission Hills Resort and Spa is a tile-roofed, North African-look complex whose garden terraces are graced by water channels, fountains and pools, with views of the San Jacinto Mountains and the Pete Dye resort course (http://www.starwoodhotels.com/westin). The patios and balconies from the more than 500 rooms and suites are perfect vantage points from which to watch pink and golden dawns streak across the mountains. At sunset, the sun drops behind the ridges, turning them into a serrated black wall against a fading curtain of sky. At the heart of the resort, the Las Brisas pool was built to mimic the nearby Indian Canyons with a 60-foot, S-curve water slide that spills into a lagoon-style pool surrounded by explosions of bougainvillea, bird of paradise and hibiscus flowers.

Managed by the excellent Troon Golf company, the golf courses at Mission Hills are among the top rated in the Palm Springs area. In true Dye fashion, railroad ties are ubiquitous on the Pete Dye Resort Course, along with long lakes, waterfalls, rolling fairways and deep pot bunkers; elevated tees and obscure pin placements, and hundreds of trees—olive, eucalyptus and California pepper trees, date palms and fan palms.

The Gary Player Signature Course reflects the natural contours and flora of desert arroyos, with boulder-strewn lakes, waterscapes, falls and craggy rock formations, and wide, sloped fairways rimmed with high berms. The golfer’s task is to brave the 7,062-yard length of the course and the seasonal winds.

Practice facilities are expansive, with a driving ranges, putting greens, and chipping bunkers at both courses. You can book lessons at the Westin Golf Academy here and the 3- and 5-day Troon Golf School.