Escena Golf Club — Restaurant in Palm Springs

Play golf at Escena with a group of 12 guys. Course is not great, but good. Finish our round around 3:30 or 4:00 in the afternoon. Pull up the van and start unloading clubs. Bag boys move in and insist on doing the job. We go inside to clean up, use the facilities, etc. Come back out in 5 minutes and leave.

The next day we play at another course. Pull up to the bag drop and go inside while they load us up. I come out and my clubs are NOT there. Look in the van again – empty. Call Escena and request that they bring my clubs because they were not loaded last night. I rent some clubs and play until mine are delivered. Escena calls and says they can’t locate my clubs. They say that they must have been loaded in the wrong car, but they are working diligently to recover them. Also say they are reviewing security tape to see where the bag boys deposited my bag. They promise the mystery will be solved soon.

I play the next day with another rental set at another course. Escena says they have still not found them, but they will make it right – don’t worry. I tell them that there is over $3K worth of equipment and they assure me that they will do the right thing. They say that they are an upscale place and are shocked that this has happened.

I play golf all week with rental sets – different bag every day. Go back to Escena after the last round of the week. Meet with John Fitzpatrick, General Mgr and Kyle Adams, Director of Golf and Rich Enriquez. I ask about their “investigation” and what they have learned. They tell me that their security tape is not usable… because it is too dark at 3:30 in the afternoon (great system). They say they have called a few people, but have not located my gear. Their story and honorable stance are now changing. They now say that they don’t believe this is their fault.

We go over the chain of events again…. we tip the bag boys $60 for loading our clubs and my clubs disappear. I also tell them that the bag boys loaded 2 sets that weren’t our clubs in the van and we noticed and had them removed. It’s my fault they say because one of our guys arranged clubs in the back of the van, and we should have confirmed that 12 bags were piled in the back. They say the club does not have enough money to write me a check for that amount, but they will help me replace the equipment. That is fine with me….I don’t want money, I want clubs. They are checking with their vendors to get some kind of sweetheart deal so they can replace my gear.

A week later they tell me their “deal” to make me whole. They will sell me gear at wholesale prices, but will contribute NOTHING and are taking no responsibility in the loss.

They can say that we should have checked the van before we left, but last time I saw my clubs, they were being taken off of the cart by an Escena employee. Pile of golf clubs in back of van - hard to tell if there are 11 or 12 bags, and I trusted them to do what they said they would do and what we tipped them to do. Their employees were directly involved in misplacing or stealing my clubs. They acted like they would do the right thing and then they didn’t. The management runs this place like broke down muni course on the wrong side of the tracks.

Terrible customer service and theft…. What more could you...

A horrible experience with obnoxious people. I'm a quiet senior and rarely take the time to post reviews, but there have to be consequences to the way we were treated. It began when I arrived and was told that the rate was $90 per person for my wife and I. I said that the tee time was displayed on their webpage at $55 each (a $70 difference) and was told I should have mentioned the website when I called. I pointed out that I was "mentioning" the website right now, and the woman became belligerent and told me I had to pay the higher rate. When I clarified that I would not pay nearly twice what was advertised she relented, and stayed very angry that I was being so rude.

The starter was nice enough but seemed to care less about who went where, and sure enough the next group stacked up on us before we could get on the first green. They were so antsy I let them pass us, but immediately the next group was on top of us. This set the stage for a 4 3/4 hour round in which we waited 5-10 minutes on every tee. Every other day my wife and I finished in 3 1/2 hours on other courses.

As I drove from the 18th green to the bag drop area a young worker started yelling at me, insisting that I couldn't drive the cart into the parking lot. I ignored him and drove to the bag drop area where he finally caught me and berated me, although I never got near the parking lot. He made a comment that he owned the cart, and I responded that I was the one paying for it. He told me that I was paying summer rates, and if I wanted to have an opinion I could come back and pay full rates and then I could talk.

Our Palm Springs vacation was wonderful and we enjoyed great golf on beautiful courses, but we would never return to Escena if...

This was our first time ever playing at this course. We played on their very first day re-opening after being closed for overseeding.

Having tee times on the morning of the first day they are open should not have come with an experience of dealing with the most miserable (female) starter we have ever encountered. She was dismissive, snippy and just rude. Most clubs want you to drive up to the starter about 10 minutes before your tee time just to let them know you are in the area, etc. We drove up to her about 10 minutes before our tee time to let her know we had arrived and she didn't even say hello. Just barked at us that there was another 4-some in front of us and it was not our turn. Okay then. When we returned 10 minutes later, there was no greeting, just barking out the names of the other people we were paired up with. I accidentally stepped on the gas of the cart and we starting very slowly moving just a few feet and she snapped at us that she had not given the go ahead yet and to get back.

It's hard to imagine that on the very first day at work, someone could be that miserable on their job. Maybe later in the season, dealing with crowds of people and stacked up tee times. She needs to be given a lesson in basic customer service skills.

It was a nice course, very challenging at times. In reallyb good shape for being just reseeded. Beautiful views. But our initial experience was not good and doubt we would come back. There are too many other courses in the area. Everywhere else we played this week had friendly, happy...