{"id":804,"date":"2012-02-22T02:00:40","date_gmt":"2012-02-22T07:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnstrawn.com\/?p=804"},"modified":"2012-02-22T02:00:40","modified_gmt":"2012-02-22T07:00:40","slug":"golf-road-warriors-bivouac-in-palm-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/golf\/804\/golf-road-warriors-bivouac-in-palm-springs","title":{"rendered":"Golf Road Warriors Bivouac in Palm Springs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Golf's Midcentury Modern. Ted Robinson's Palms Course at the Desert Springs Resort<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

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The Clean Uncluttered Lines of Midcentury Modern<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

The Palm Springs Golf Road Warriors bivouacked at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa<\/a> tonight, resting before they launch their assault on the Coachella Valley\u2019s golf courses tomorrow.\u00a0 \u00a0Jeff Wallach and I did some early reconnaissance today at the Desert Springs Resort\u2019s Palms Course, designed by the late Ted Robinson in the mid-1980s.\u00a0\u00a0 The course has all of the characteristics of Robinson\u2019s style, most notably the hard serrated-edged lakes (in abundance, but rarely strategically placed) and side-walled fairways that invite the use of the driver by shaping slightly mishit drives back toward the center.\u00a0 The course was in wonderful condition, reflecting Robinson\u2019s preference for minimal rough and long, elegant shapes to the fairways.\u00a0\u00a0 The over-seeded ryegrass glowed in the afternoon sun.<\/p>\n

Wallach and I were joined by John Faulk, Desert Springs\u2019 Director of Golf, who oversaw a refurbishing of the Palms course last year by Ted Robinson, Jr., for a 9-hole tune-up before our comrades arrived.\u00a0\u00a0 John is a crafty lefty with a tidy game who amiably declined to offer Jeff or me any advice on our swings. \u00a0A long-time Marriott Golf pro, John worked for a time at Marriott\u2019s Camelback Resort in Scottsdale, which I believe was Marriott\u2019s first golf resort.\u00a0 \u00a0Many top club and resort golf professionals throughout the United States honed their craft at Camelback.\u00a0 Scott Mallory, who is Director of Golf at the Hills & Forrest-designed course in Temecula at the Pechanga Resort and Casino, worked with John in the 80s at Camelback.<\/p>\n

Jeff didn\u2019t need any help.\u00a0\u00a0 We had five bucks riding on our match.\u00a0 I lost 5-4, and it wasn\u2019t that close.\u00a0 Wallach hit every fairway with that new Callaway RAZR Fit driver<\/a>, and while my tee shots were nothing to sneer at, I couldn\u2019t seem to finish a swing with my irons and flared every shot off to the right, a kind of weak pseudo-fade.\u00a0 It\u2019s never a good idea to get in a back bunker on a Robinson course, either, because there is more than likely a lake lurking on the other side of the green, just waiting to welcome any thin bunker shot.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

This week, Palm Springs is celebrating Midcentury Modern <\/a>architecture in addition to the official visit of the Golf Road Warriors.\u00a0\u00a0 This architectural style \u201cwas known for its clean lines and blending of indoor and outdoor spaces,\u201d according to local writer Monica Hodge.\u00a0 Palm Springs has one of the largest concentrations of Midcentury Modern homes and buildings in the US.\u00a0\u00a0 It struck me in looking at examples of Midcentury Modern buildings that the term could equally well apply to Ted Robinson\u2019s course designs, which share its aesthetic tenets.\u00a0\u00a0 Robinson\u2019s lines, too, are clean and easy to read, and the courses blend well with their settings.\u00a0 There is an admirable restraint in their ambitions.\u00a0 \u00a0Just as the accomplishments of the Midcentury Modern architects appeal to an appreciative public worn out by the excesses of the past couple of decades, so too does the pure uncomplicated style of Ted Robinson\u2019s golf courses satisfy the needs of the vacationing golfer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Clean Uncluttered Lines of Midcentury Modern The Palm Springs Golf Road Warriors bivouacked at the JW Marriott Desert Springs… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,9,3729,39217,288270,294737,294738,299119,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf-course-architecture","category-golf","category-golf-travel","category-golf-road-warriors","category-grw-palm-springs","category-venues","category-jw-marriott-desert-springs","category-greater-palm-springs-cva","category-courses-and-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/02\/Midcentury-Modern.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804\/revisions\/807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/johnstrawn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}