On a visit to the Palm Springs area this month, we spent a couple of nights at the Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort and Spa and arranged a round of golf on the resort’s “Pete Dye” course. The resort really checks all the boxes when it comes to a golf resort destination and includes all the amenities you would hope for when planning a golfing weekend with friends, a romantic weekend with a loved one or bringing the whole family out to the desert for a vacation.
This resort used to own 2 golf courses, a Pete Dye and a Gary Player course, and while the Gary Player course isn’t owned by the resort anymore, it’s easy enough to book a tee time if you plan ahead. As a resort guest you can book tee times on the Pete Dye course 30 days out, and it’s a wonderful course for players of all levels, with generous fairways, challenging greens, and water on several holes, including a spectacular finishing hole with a substantial water hazard around the green. As with most courses in the Palm Springs area, the fairways are over-seeded and greens punched in the fall, so it’s a good idea to speak with the pro-shop when making reservations to evaluate current conditions. On this trip the fairways were in great shape, and while the greens were a little fuzzy and probably slower than normal from fall work, they were in good shape and rolled true. The golf shop and driving range is behind the resort and the course provides a convenient shuttle stop from the parking lot. We found the service from the shuttle and pro-shop staff to be exceptional, and in addition to golf instruction, morning clinics are also available for guests at a minimal fee.
The other facilities at the resort are extensive with a very robust tennis and pickle ball facility, spa, two pool areas including an adults only pool and bar, as well as a larger family pool area with multiple water slides. As with most resorts there are several dining options including a more upscale but casual Italian restaurant called “Pinzimini” which we enjoyed, and a great coffee shop with sandwiches and bakery options in a wonderful outdoor courtyard full of fire pits and cozy seating.
The Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa is a larger and mature resort, and while they keep doing regular improvements to modernize the resort and rooms, there were a couple of things that made our stay less than spectacular. First, the hotel was sold out the weekend we were there, and while the staff clearly was trying their best to make the experience exceptional, you could tell they were not staffed up enough to handle the capacity. The front desk staff was very friendly and accommodating, and worked to get us a golf course view upgrade through Marriott’s reward program, but house keeping was experiencing delays and we weren’t able to get in to our room until 4:30pm, which is always a let down and a big inconvenience when juggling golf or other activities. Upon check-in, a primary issue we had is due to the age of the resort, the room was very warm and wouldn’t cool down, and after calling and waiting for maintenance we found out that they have to manually change the heating and air conditioning system in each room to allow either heating or cooling, but not both at the same time. Heating only might have been fine this time of year, but for some reason there are no screens on the sliding glass doors to cool the room at times or just to enjoy the outside air. The rooms were nice, but other issues were that the room’s patio and outdoor furniture were not cleaned and picked up, and the bathroom fixtures needed a little refreshing.
Our overall experience was good and would consider it comparable to other Westin resort properties we’ve stayed at, at similar price points. There was definitely some room for improvement. However, we really enjoyed the golf experience and would probably stay at the Westin Rancho Mirage again.