After a relaxing time in Santa Barbara and some very exciting days in L.A. I decided to drive to Palms Springs. With more than 130 golf courses around this area I thought it was a good decision! Arriving there I was already so excited as I had arranged a tee time at PGA West at the Stadium Course! One of the best and toughest public golf courses in the US. Once a year LaQuinta is the host of PGA Farmers Insurance Open between the 16th to the 19th of January. But the tournament is played on the Palmers Course which is a private course. So not possible to play for me.

Anyway I was totally excited and again I had a really early tee time at 7.18 am. I paid my fee, 95 dollars including a cart. I drove to the first tee where I met the starter, he introduced me to my flight. Three best agers from Alabama.

With a temperature already rising to 40C° I was very thankful of my cart. Due to my bad handicap I was the last one and quite nervous. I have never had such a formal tee shot like this before. The starter, all the guys behind me and also the next two flights were waiting there. But I gave it a lush and hit it in the center of the first fairway. With my third shot I was on the green and again impressed by the speed of the greens. Just a double bogey on the first hole, a par 4 with 382 yards from the blue tees – a good way to start this amazing day.

But what a great golf course, not as pretty like the sandpiper for example, but so challenging! Every single missed fairway caused big trouble. The huge bunkers or the very dry and thick bermuda grass spoiled my score from time to time!

A nice hole was no. 5, a long par 5 with 514 yards from the blue tee. This one impressed me not only because of the difficult tee shot, but also because of the nice view back to the tee box. It was completely calm what made the lake looking like a mirror. What a panorama.

No.9, probably the most scenic one of the stadium course, was a really hard to beat par 4 with 430 yards. Just crazy! But I loved the next shot into the protected green, so pretty!

Altogether this was an amazing day of golf and the guys from Alabama where quite nice and funny as well – whenever I hit a nice drive one of them gave me this special tribute and screamed: “Boy you creamed that!”, I would say “Mashed Potatoe!”.

 After 16 holes and 3 liters of water I was so wasted, it was way too hot for golf and it was almost the first time that I looked forward to the air-condition in the car. Unimaginable but true I played my best round so far in the US. If you play golf and are about to visit California you need to do a quick side trip to Palm Springs and all those stunning golf courses.

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