La Quinta/Palm Springs Buddies Golf Trip: Escena Golf Course

Escena is a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course that is right by the Palm Springs International Airport. I would not call this golf course a hit and giggle, but it makes a great starter course for your journey into Palm Springs. Its location means that if you strategically schedule a tee time you can be golfing within an hour of landing at PSP. 

Escena was built in 2005, yet the whole complex has a throwback feel to the 50’s. As the course starts to unwind in front of you, you begin to realize this is exactly what you believe golf in Palm Springs should look like. Lush fairways, water features, lots of palm trees set strategically in front of spectacular Mountain Views in multiple directions. 

Be sure to calibrate your putter well on the practice greens as the greens here seem to have a very different feel than the rest of the golf in Palm Springs and can lead to many dropped shots if you are not careful. They don’t break as much as they look and they tend to be slower than other courses. 

The course comes across as the ultimate resort course, a lot of fun to play with many great views. In general the trouble on this golf course is obvious, except for the first hole. It’s not without its quirks though, which you will notice on the second green. The cart path is about as far away from the green as you can imagine and there is no discernible way to get to the green except walking through the desert wash. This long walk to the greens and tee boxes seems to be a common theme with this golf club.

The clubhouse is a cool retro feel. The golf shop is small but relatively well stocked. You don’t really need an “Escena” golf shirt in your collection so unless your luggage is lost, you can stay out of there. The restaurant food is good, but service is inconsistent. We had to send back Latee which came ice cold. If you play on a Sunday the patio will be packed with locals.

RANKING

• Bucket list rank (from 1 to 5 buckets): 0  No, this is definitely not a bucket list golf course. On a scale from 0-4 buckets this gets 0 buckets
• Location: 7
• Spectacle/ visual: 7
• History: 2
• New/ancient: Modern
• Playability : 6
• Memorability : 5/6
• Buddy-a-bility : 6
• Service/etc: 8
• Value: 7 (compared to some of the over priced golf in Palm Springs it’s a steal)
• Shopping: 5  The pro shop is nothing to write home about, but you can live without an Escena golf shirt in your closet. 
• Warm up facilities/Range: Decent
• Food & Drink: 7 Very helpful and attentive cart girls with a good selection of snacks and comprehensive selection of alcohol. The restaurant was relatively good, but had some hiccups and the service was not great