My Deep Dive: Hidden PS Golf Course

Have you ever, on multiple occasions, driven by something somewhere and then one day, out of nowhere, you see IT? That's what happened to us regarding this very historic golf course, hidden right in the middle of Palm Springs.

Thomas A. O’Donnell’s Desert Golf Course, known today as the
O’Donnell Golf Club was the creation of oil tycoon Thomas O’Donnell, who began construction in 1926, finishing the first iteration of his private 9-hole course the following year. This is oldest existing golf course in the Coachella Valley.
The historic designed landscape, golf course, and contributing structures are important as the “front yard” of O’Donnell’s private estate, Ojo del Desierto (Eye of the Desert), which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The O’Donnell Golf Club has significance in several areas; first, as a historic golf course, whose configuration has survived largely unchanged since the 1930s; also as an important historic designed landscape; and finally, it has significance for contributing structures designed by architectural designer William Charles Tanner. These significant elements remain remarkably intact and exhibit numerous stylistic features which place them within the historic context of the period “Palm Springs between the Wars (1919- 1941)”. This period was when wealthy and influential people were building second homes in the growing and increasingly well-known resort Village. Though contemporary in function, most of these homes and gardens were typically built in Mediterranean-Revival styles meant to evoke a feeling of Old California—which is true of the landscape and structures at the O’Donnell Golf Club.
Like most ardent golfers without a golf course (at that time in history) on which to play, O'Donnell yearned for his daily game. What O’Donnell really wanted was a private course so that he and his friends might better enjoy the sunshine and desert surroundings, while keeping their golf games up to par. To design the configuration of the nine holes, O’Donnell called upon his good friend and fellow oilman, Captain J. F. Lucey (1874-1947). Lucey was equally enamored of golf—both men had played the finest courses around the world, so they were well-suited to design O’Donnell’s private course. The two men designed the course basing the distance between holes simply by how far each man could hit a ball.
Lucky for us, the gate into this private oasis was opened. The first awesome thing spotted was this, the Carriage House and Chauffeur's apartment, designed by William Charles Tanner at the time he was designing the first of two residences (1925).

By the middle 1930s, O’Donnell’s health began to fail, and he found it difficult to navigate the two-story Ojo del Desierto. In 1936, he once again called on architectural designer William Charles Tanner to design a one-story home right on his golf course, which the O’Donnells named Golf House. Because they were spending more time in the desert, the new home would be completely air-conditioned, one of the first homes so equipped in Palm Springs.


Part of why this property is historic is its landscaping. The landscape of the O’Donnell Golf Club featured a limited palette of drought-tolerant trees, appropriate to the Sonoran Desert, as a means of defining the fairways, tees, greens, and holes of the golf course. Long rows of a single species—Mexican fan palm (Washingtonia robusta), native California fan palm (Washingtonia filifera), and Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica)— lined fairways, and framed views and vistas. The two lines of tall, narrow palm trees were interplanted with fuller trees and shrubs to screen out adjacent fairways. Between each Mexican fan palm along O’Donnell’s long driveway, red and white oleander were planted, offering a dazzling display of flowering color. The line of native California fan palms had a single Arizona cypress specimen planted between each slender tree, the shrubby, conical form contrasting with the tall palms.
When the city acquired the O’Donnell Golf House in 1969 (Mr. O'Donnell passed away in 1945), it was leased back to the Golf Club, who adaptively reused the building to serve as its clubhouse.

Based on all the vintage postcards, for being a private club, it was very popular! According to a gentleman who inquired about us being there, there are 280 members with a long waiting list. It's a good thing I don't like to golf.

“I regard golf as an expensive way
of playing marbles.”
-G.K. Chesterton

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