Mission Hills North - Gary Player Signature Course — Local services in Rancho Mirage

The first and only Gary Player course in the desert, the Mission Hills Gary Player Signature Course is designed for golfers of all levels. It preserves and enhances the natural beauty of the desert environment. The course features 20 acres of lakes, four waterfalls and beautiful landscaping.

The longer of the two championship golf courses, the Gary Player course plays to 7,062 yards at a par 72. GOLF Magazine praises this remarkable course as being “difficult, well-designed and joyful” and adds that it “may be the best golf course in the Palm Springs area.” This course is well suited for golfers of all skill levels and is the only Gary Player course in Palm Springs. This 7,062-yard, par 72 course is renowned for its environmentally careful integration with the desert landscape.

The Mission Hills Gary Player Signature Course has proved to be a popular one with both public and resort golfers. It is used as an alternative to the Pete Dye Course and is generally easier for the average golfer to play. Player’s design makes extensive use of water, with lakes coming into play on 10 holes. On the par-5 11th, water is reachable on all three shots before reaching the green. Three of the course’s par-4s – the fifth, eighth and 12th – all feature water in some way. The 11th is the toughest of the par-5s, though a golfer must also be careful on the third hole – which also has a lake in the fairway – and the 17th, with a lake near the green. Both nines end with demanding par-4s with water. The 18th requires a good drive over a lake to a fairway that doglegs...

Hands down, our favorite course to play over and over again in the desert. While we have the opportunity to play many courses, private and public, in the Coachella Valley, the experience at Mission Hills North is top notch in so many ways. While the course, is in great shape (more later on this), the service from the outside staff to the inside staff to the management is second to none in the desert. As regulars, we are treated well, but if you observe...every guest is treated special...it'd be great to mention by name the staff that is exceptional, but that would require naming each person, as the consistency of customer service being exceptional is pervasive! The course, which has always been great to play, in the last couple of years has been in even better shape. Under new ownership, there has been a few ongoing projects, like tree removal and sand trap repair; the greens and fairways remain in as good a shape as we've seen them in the more than dozen years we've played here regularly. Often, we bring guests, many of them repeat, because if they come once, they want to return; many of our private course friends comment that it is one of the few, if only, public course they will return to, again and again. With the challenges every industry has faced in the last couple of years, we applaud Mission Hills North for their consistency of service and quality, and the dedication particularly of the staff, who also went through a change in management and ownership, all while keeping the customer...

Played this course on a Thursday morning and the course was in great shape. Tee boxes level and in great shape, fairways firm and fast so the ball rolls forever, and the greens rolled true and pretty fast. Overall a pretty straightforward layout that defends itself with water for errant tee shots and interesting green complexes. The greens are small-ish with little break but the runoff/catchment areas can leave challenging up and downs if you miss in the wrong spot. Nothing crazy challenging but still fun and the scenery was awesome. Pace on the front 9 was fantastic at exactly 1.5hrs, but terrible on the back 9 at just over 2.5hrs with no Marshall in sight. They were sending us off the back so I’m guessing some of the older guests got confused and went off 1 instead. We waited zero times on our first 9 but waited at every hole on our second 9. A couple of the groups in front didn’t look like they were in front of us for our first 9 holes.

I’d definitely play again. Oh yeah, they have a nice practice...