{"id":149,"date":"2017-03-27T01:20:21","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T01:20:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/?p=149"},"modified":"2017-03-27T15:20:05","modified_gmt":"2017-03-27T15:20:05","slug":"palm-springs-is-so-hot-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/golf\/149\/palm-springs-is-so-hot-right-now","title":{"rendered":"Palm Springs Is So Hot Right Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_151\" style=\"width: 1756px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_1741.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-151\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151\" class=\"wp-image-151 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_1741.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1741\" width=\"1746\" height=\"1028\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_1741.jpg 1746w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_1741-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_1741-768x452.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_1741-1024x603.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1746px) 100vw, 1746px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-151\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Escena Golf Club<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Palm Springs is hot. Obviously. The average July high temperature is 108. But right now, Palm Springs is hot. Everyone seems to be having their time in Palm Springs. The kids are going for the Coachella music festival in April.\u00a0 The country-western folks are going for Stagecoach, also in April. Tennis fans are going for the Indian Wells BNP Paribas tournament in early March. The LGBT crowd goes for Palm Springs Pride Weekend in early November. Golf fans go for the Career Builder Challenge (the old Bob Hope Desert Classic) in January. The Canadians are going all winter long to get away from whatever cold-ass town they come from.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the aforementioned events are not really in Palm Springs. The Indian Wells tennis facility is about a half hour drive from downtown Palm Springs. And the Coachella Music and Art Festival is about ten minutes further south in Indio. But if you\u2019re going to the Coachella Valley, Palm Springs is really the place you want to be. Why is that? Well, for one thing, the other Coachella valley cities (I\u2019m talking about you Palm Desert) seem to have the same community-planning ethos:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&gt; Construct a name-brand designed golf course. A Nicklaus or Palmer will do.<\/li>\n<li>&gt; Throw up some faux-Tuscan tract homes around the golf course.<\/li>\n<li>&gt; Build a 10\u2019 perimeter wall.<\/li>\n<li>&gt; Install a lavish security guardhouse with a fancy sign and maybe a fountain.<\/li>\n<li>&gt; Organize a \u201cTuscan Springs\u201d HOA to discourage individuality.<\/li>\n<li>&gt; Build four or six lane parkways between the walled communities.<\/li>\n<li>&gt; Develop outdoor malls with big box stores and upscale restaurant chains to finish the \u201ccommunity\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Palm Springs has thankfully few of the walled communities. Charming neighborhoods with mid century homes can be seen from the streets, without having to give your name to some rent-a-cop. There\u2019s a real downtown with small stores and charming restaurants and bars. There are the obligatory t-shirt and swimsuit stores but there is also the H2O Closet, a modern apothecary and Trina Turk, a clothing store for people much more fashionable than me. There is the Workshop restaurant with an original menu, great food and 25\u2019 tall concrete booths that make it seem like you\u2019re dining in a small church.\u00a0 There\u2019s Bootlegger Tiki, a boutique bar with about 10 seats inside and a copious inventory that really is just a wall of liquor.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_150\" style=\"width: 3274px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-150\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-150\" class=\"size-full wp-image-150\" src=\"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631.jpg\" alt=\"Some walls aren't divisive at all!\" width=\"3264\" height=\"2448\" srcset=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631.jpg 3264w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631-400x300.jpg 400w, https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_17631-175x130.jpg 175w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 3264px) 100vw, 3264px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-150\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some walls aren&#8217;t divisive at all!<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Palm Springs has that old school Rat Pack vibe while still being very hip and now. And seemingly no golf course in the area embraces the old school vibe as much as the Escena Golf Club. The Nicklaus design opened in 2005 and is definitely a must play if you\u2019re in the area. The course has fairly typical Nicklaus generous \u201cFat Jack\u201d fairways. However, difficulties arise around the greens. The par-3 eighth green has a spine right in the middle that I wish I noticed before I hit my tee shot. The kick away from the hole made the over-and-down putt much more lengthy.\u00a0 Man, it would have been nice to have a second chance to play the hole.<\/p>\n<p>The same can be said of the short par-4 seventh. I hit what I thought was a perfect drive cutting it over the fairway bunkers on the right, ending up hole-high right of the green. Unfortunately when I got to my ball, I found I was short-sided on a downhill lie, against the grain, in the rough. I had to pitch over a bunker to a skinny green with a pot bunker on the other side, which, you might have guessed, is where I ended up. Ouch. I yanked a double bogey on that hole from a 50-yard approach. The other thing I noticed was the shallow greens. They look generous from your approach but if your distance control is a bit off you may be hitting out of bunkers (if you\u2019re short) or chipping back from a downhill lie (if you\u2019re long).<\/p>\n<p>What else about the course? The greens were perfect. It made me realize I can\u2019t be blamed for putts I miss on greens that aren\u2019t as true as these greens. I felt better about myself when I realized that.\u00a0 Who knew nice greens could make me feel like I do after a couple Whiskey Sours?<\/p>\n<p>The dramatic San Jacinto mountains rise sharply to the west and loom over the course like a shadow. I got paired with three former school teachers from Alaska who loved to fish and hated Trump.\u00a0 After the round, I joined my golf mates on the large clubhouse porch for a Kolshella beer from the Coachella Valley Brewery, which I had to order because of the name but didn\u2019t really like. I also had a Whiskey Sour and as I left on the unseasonable searing March late afternoon many locals were drifting in for happy hour and dinner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Palm Springs is hot. Obviously. The average July high temperature is 108. But right now, Palm Springs is hot. Everyone&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/golf\/149\/palm-springs-is-so-hot-right-now\" title=\"ReadPalm Springs Is So Hot Right Now\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-courses-and-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/78\/2017\/03\/IMG_1741.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149\/revisions\/156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/vanfossen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}