The first phase of the two-year renovation to the Palm Springs, Calif., club’s 18-hole golf course includes modernizing green complexes on the front nine. The cost of the $1.7 million project is being covered entirely by donations from golf and social members.

The private Desert Horizons Country Club in Indian Wells, Calif., is engaged in a two-year renovation effort on its 18-hole golf course, the Palm Springs, Calif., Desert Sun reported.

Jesse Ayala has worked at the club for 27 years, so few people know the golf course better. And he knows the course could use a bit of an update. “It needed to be brought up to modern standards is how I would say it,” said Ayala, the golf course superintendent.

“The bones of the golf course are good,” said Clive Clark, a golf course architect and former European Tour players who lives in La Quinta. “But there are several elements that could be improved and brought into what a modern golf course can be and should be.”

For Clark, Ayala and Rick Ruppert, the 31-year head professional at Desert Horizons, the purpose of the work is simple. Many courses built in the desert in the 1970s and 1980s, most built for housing developments or resorts, were fine for their time. But in a more competitive market for both attracting and retaining golfers for public or private courses, improving and modernizing the golf courses can be a key tool, the Desert Sun reported.

“The golf courses from that era were built for the homes, not as much to be great golf courses,” Clark said. “But the competition is different now. A lot of the clubs would like to see their golf courses brought up to today’s standards.”

While the idea of renovating a golf course might not be new, how the money was raised at Desert Horizons might be unique. The cost of the project is about $1.7 million, with the costs covered completely by donations from club members, the Desert Sun reported.

“It’s pretty incredible. It’s done by donations,” Ruppert said. “It was an email from the club, and the first donation was $50,000 in 15 minutes. I think it was more about just the members believing the course needed a refresher.”

Ruppert said the donations came both from golf members at Desert Horizons as well as some social-only members, the Desert Sun reported.

Work this summer is on the front nine of the course, with the back nine scheduled for the same renovations next summer. Clark said the work is mostly about modernizing the green complexes of the course, the Desert Sun reported.

“In general, I’ve left the shapes of the greens. They were very good,” said Clark. “The bunkers needed some work. They were from the early ‘80s and they can be improved. You can’t do greenside and not do the fairway bunkers. They don’t match up. Some of the original bunkers there had some really nasty downhill lies, which doesn’t really please club golfers. All the new bunkers will be a littler flatter.”

Ruppert said those bunkers will also be easier for golfers to enter and exit, another example of how the renovations are about improving the members’ experience at the course. Other changes include adding some subtle movement on putts by adding more contour to greens. One major renovation was taking out a hill in the middle of the sixth fairway that obscured a golfer’s view of the green and a fronting lake on the 516-yard par-5, the Desert Sun reported.

But for all the subtle changes in the greens and the addition of landscaping around the putting surfaces, the biggest change for some members might be the addition of a new set of forward tees, the Desert Sun reported.

“We put in forward tees at 4,350 yards, and they are all finish graded,” Ruppert said. “They will be sodded (this week), so this week, the greens, bunkers and all the forward tees will be completely sodded in.”

The forward tees were the only project spread throughout the 18 holes of the course this summer, so members will be able to play the shorter tees when the course opens in November, the Desert Sun reported.

“There have been a lot of comments about the forward tees,” Ruppert said. “There are a lot of people excited by that. Our forward tees right now are 5,450 yards, so we can have a combination (set of tees) at 4,900 yards.”