How many desert courses made Golf Digest’s top-100 list?

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How many desert courses made Golf Digest’s top-100 list?

All lists that rank anything, including sports, are designed to cause debate. Was Willie Mays better than Hank Aaron? Is Tom Brady better than Joe Montana? Are the Beatles better than the Rolling Stones?

So it is with the famous Golf Digest list of the top 100 courses in the country. Some relish the list’s release ever two years as a way to see how iconic layouts like Pebble Beach and Augusta National rank. Some want to see which new courses make the list and others want to criticize the list for trying to do the impossible of comparing golf courses while bending too often to what is new over what is older but still great.

In the Coachella Valley, home to some of the most famous and legendary golf courses in the state and even the country, the list of the top 100 courses includes just one course. That is the Quarry at La Quinta, which has now been on the list for 22 consecutive years. Peaking at 44th in 2009, the Quarry is now ranked 85th, one spot higher than it was two years ago.

Pretty much everyone who has ever played the Tom Fazio design which winds up from the remains of a sand and rock quarry into the hills of southern La Quinta and then down again agrees that the course is a top-100 course.

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The Coachella Valley is better represented in the second 100 list, with two courses continuing to knock on the door of the top 100. Making a big move up the list is Madison Club in La Quinta, another Fazio course. Ranked 120th two years ago, Madison has moved up to 108th overall. With residents like World Golf Hall of Famer Phil Mickelson and various members of the Kardashian clan, the golf course itself lives up to the fame of its homeowners.

Just a few spots back, at 115th, is Stone Eagle, the Tom Doak design in the hills of south Palm Desert off of Highway 74. A remarkable piece of engineering to even get a golf course built on the rocky slopes, the golf course has some of the best views in the desert and challenges golfers with shots up and down and along the hills. Stone Eagle was ranked 111th in 2019.

A long-time favorite remains on the list

The only other desert course on the list is a familiar course designed by a familiar name. The Mountain Course at The Vintage Club in Indian Wells is 196th, down from 190th two years ago. Once the home of one of the earliest and best PGA Tour Champions tournaments, the Mountain Course has continued to be ranked as one of the best courses in the desert for four decades. Again, the designer is Tom Fazio, with credit also going to his uncle George Fazio.

But those four are the only Coachella Valley golf courses in the top 200 for Golf Digest at the moment. Any desert golfer can tell you that there are other courses in the valley that at least merit consideration. The Pete Dye Stadium Course at PGA West was once a staple on the top 100 list, despite so many people believing the course was too difficult. It is still the host course of The American Express and certainly among the most famous layouts by Dye.

And there is the Dinah Shore Tournament Course at Mission Hills Country Club, a jewel on the LPGA Tour and a genius design by Desmond Muirhead that can challenge golfers of any skill level from the proper set of tees. It was also once a top-100 course.

There are other desert courses that have been on the top-100 or the second 100 list over the last few decades, put those courses eventually drift down the list because new courses have opened up or perhaps the powers at the courses just are not interested in being part of the chase for a top-100 ranking anymore.

For now, as has been true for several years, the desert has just one top-100 course in the deserving Quarry at La Quinta. Madison Club and Stone Eagle remain contenders for that honor, while the Mountain Course at The Vintage Club remains a terrific course from the early 1980s. Other courses in the desert will have to be happy with being top layouts that just aren’t on the list at the moment.

But that’s a pretty good basis for the start of a debate.

 Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan. Support local journalism: Subscribe to the Desert Sun.