Boom Continues for Clubs in Palm Springs (Calif.) Region

(Pictured: Andalusia CC)

A survey by Palm Springs Life of 13 high-end country clubs in the Coachella Valley found across-the-board growth when comparing membership numbers from March 2019 to January 2020 with the same period a year later, reflecting a migration from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County and the Pacific Northwest. “[Clubs] have become a haven to those who want to escape the cities and have a place where they can enjoy an outdoor lifestyle,” said Julie Bloom of the Sunrise Company, which operates the Toscana and Andalusia country clubs. “In many ways, our club has become more important in our members’ lives,” added Brett Draper, General Manager of Thunderbird Country Club.

The pandemic seen golf’s natural social distancing turn days of lemon into lemonade, Palm Springs (Calif.) Life reported. As city dwellers have swarmed to the Coachella Valley to look for elbow room, the spike in the number of golf rounds being played reflects the surge in new club memberships. Desert residents only need to swivel their collared shirts to see new golf members flocking largely from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange County, and the Pacific Northwest.

Palm Springs Life reported in the fall of 2020 that the first seven months of the pandemic saw single-family home sales in the Coachella Valley rise 56 percent over the same period a year earlier. And end-of-year statistics from the California Desert Association of Realtors showed that all of the valley’s nine cities had year-over-year increases in home sales.

“The Coachella Valley has become a haven to those who want to escape the cities and have a place where they can enjoy an outdoor lifestyle,” Julie Bloom, Senior Vice President of operations for the Sunrise Company, which operates the Toscana and Andalusia country clubs, told Palm Springs Life. “In addition, since travel is not as easy, people want to have a place to go that feels like a resort and where they can gather their families together.”

With the spike in sales and memberships has come a rush of new residents and golfers, Palm Springs Life reported. The publication’s survey of 13 luxury country clubs in the region that was conducted earlier in 2021 revealed uniform growth when comparing March 2019 to January 2020 with the same period a year later.

In La Quinta, Calif. the 36 hole-property at The Hideaway Golf Club experienced a 103-percent rise in new members, Palm Springs Life reported, with a spike from June to December 2020, fueling a record-breaking year in terms of home and membership sales.

At the Tradition Golf Club in La Quinta, a 150-percent rise in club tours resulted in a record number of new members, and golf membership sales doubled, Palm Springs Life reported. “Approximately 80 percent of our new member spouses are beginner golfers,” said Tesha Vann, the club’s Membership Director. “Our short course is getting more use than ever, as it’s the perfect venue to learn the game.”

At nearby Rancho La Quinta, the two-course spread saw a 30 percent increase in golf memberships, with home sales jumping 60 percent, Palm Springs Life reported. And Andalusia Country Club had an 87 percent increase in golf memberships, with a jaw-dropping 300-percent increase in home sales.

In Indian Wells, Calif. The Vintage Club experienced a 145-percent increase in home sales and 100-percent gain in new golf memberships, Palm Springs Life reported. Toscana Country Club gained 34 percent in home sales and its 36 holes drew a 77 percent rise in golf memberships.

At The Reserve Club in Indian Wells, Todd Hewlin and Lo-Ping Yeh were among 24 new golf members representing a 120-percent increase in home sales, Palm Springs Life reported.

“The trend is more couples,” said Denise Adams, The Reserve Club’s Membership Director. “Both the member and spouse, or significant other, play golf, as do their high school- and college-age children.”

Hewlin and Yeh, who moved to The Reserve Club from the Bay Area and run a tech consulting firm, reflects a growing demographic of desert resident that’s more youthful and working from wherever they want, Palm Springs Life reported. And they are evidence of the payoff from efforts that clubs in the region started to make even before the pandemic began, to try to appeal to younger buyers by renovating clubhouses, retooling tennis courts for pickleball, and introducing an extensive variety of programming to keep members engaged on and off the golf course.

(C+RB featured The Reserve Club’s clubhouse renovation as the cover story of its February 2019 issue: https://clubandresortbusiness.com/redesigned-clubhouse-puts-new-muscle-the-reserve-club/)

As they moved into The Reserve in fall 2020, Hewlin and Yeh’s new neighbors changed the couple’s idea of who exactly lives in the desert, Palm Springs Life reported. “When we first came here, to be honest, Todd said he thought the area might be too old for us,” Yeh said, smiling toward her husband. (Hewlin and Yeh are 55 and 57, respectively, and active in couples golf.)

“I was completely wrong,” Hewlin replied. “Maybe I had that perception from movies or how the area has been written about by people who don’t live here. But after getting to know people at The Reserve, I started feeling like this is the valley of Benjamin Button: People get all that Vitamin D, are active, physically fit, they eat better. People come here and get younger.”

At the Bighorn Golf Club in Palm Desert, Calif., the two-course club had a 44-percent increase in new golf memberships and a 28-percent increase in home sales, Palm Springs Life reported. “We’re seeing quite a few of our current golf members’ spouses taking up the game through lessons, afternoon play as a couple, and our 9-holer group,” said Kirstin Fossey of Bighorn Properties told Palm Springs Life.

Palm Desert’s Stone Eagle Golf Club reported a 62-percent increase in memberships, Palm Springs Life reported.

In Rancho Mirage, Calif. the three-course property at Mission Hills Country Club has seen an 8-percent uptick in new golf memberships and a 60-percent increase in home sales, Palm Springs Life reported. And Tamarisk Country Club, also in Rancho Mirage, reported that a 9-percent boost in golf members contributed to a 12-percent rise in overall memberships.

“In many ways, our club has become more important in our members’ lives,” Brett Draper, General Manager of Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, told Palm Springs Life. During the pandemic, Draper added, “activity around the club, namely golf, is up to levels we have not seen in the past 15 years.”