The 2024 golf season in the Coachella Valley started off like it was missing some of the drama of 2023.
After all, defending champion Jon Rahm was ineligible to play in the American Express, choosing to join the LIV Tour rather than stay with the PGA Tour, disqualifying him from playing in the Desert PGA Tour event. This ongoing fight between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Tour has caused some fans to turn away from golf altogether, and Rahm’s absence from the American Express wasn’t going to help.
Turns out 2024 was a remarkable year for golf in the Coachella Valley. It started with perhaps the most surprising winner in American Express history and ended with the golf courses do not close, but reopen, with a new track and a renovated track bringing the desert to 120 golf courses in total.
Here’s a look at the five biggest stories in the desert this year:
Nick Dunlap’s superb victory
The story is a year old now, so it may have lost its luster for some. But the idea that a 20-year-old amateur playing for the University of Alabama could enter the American Express PGA Tour event on a sponsor’s exemption and beat a field that included names like Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele and Justin Thomas is not easy. the most remarkable story in the desert last year, but one of the most remarkable stories in golf in 2024.
Not only Dunlap wins the tournament – although he didn’t win silver – he did so with a brilliant third-round 60 at La Quinta Country Club and a score of 29 under par for 72 holes, which was a record for the tournament in four-day format.
Tournament officials say they are now receiving many requests from young players and fans hoping to become the next Nick Dunlap.
A confusing arrival at Galleri
The weather may not have been perfect as usual in the desert, but the competition was hot at the second annual Galleri Classic in Mission Hills.
In a close race, the event came down to Retief Goosen and Steve Alker on the 54th hole Sunday at the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. But somehow, after Goosen hit his second shot into the water around the par-5 18th green, Alker did the same thing.
Goosen was able to go up and down, while Alker couldn’t make a putt to tie, and Goosen walked away with the title. These were top players who made it all the way, but a strange ending.
Epson Tour debut
In unusually warm conditions, the Epson Tour held its Tour Championship in the Coachella Valley for the first time at the Indian Wells Golf Resort in the first week of October.
With temperatures hovering around 110 degrees, golfers played 72 holes, walking the entire time, in a bid to earn one of 15 playing cards for the LPGA Tour in 2025.
Heather Lin of Chinese Taipei won the title and earned an LPGA card. But the long-term news is that the city of Indian Wells was able to showcase its golf resort at the LPGA, with the city hoping to host a full LPGA event at the resort in the coming years.
More: World number one Scottie Scheffler and reigning champion Nick Dunlap commit to 2025 American Express
Opening of Ladera
The first golf course to open in the Coachella Valley since 2008, this ultra-exclusive course designed by Gil Hanse is owned by music and arena mogul Irving Azoff and his friend and Apple executive Eddy Cue. With limited membership, Ladera is a sprawling course on what was once a 300-acre lemon farm in Thermal.
Most desert dwellers will never have the chance to play the course, but in trying to attract a national following, the layout is already generating buzz for a potential top-100 ranking. Maybe Ladera won’t change golf in the Coachella Valley, but it could change the picture of the types of courses available in the desert.
The trilogy reopens
The story of golf courses in the the last decade has been that they close, they do not open. They are transformed into residential houses, shopping centers or business parks. That’s what makes the rebirth of Trilogy Golf Club at La Quinta a remarkable story.
Closed for two years and in disrepair before the revival began earlier this year, Trilogy is now open again to residents of the 55-and-over community as well as the public.
The homeowners association bought the course out of bankruptcy, in part to protect their property values, but also to give the community a reason to come together. The return of Trilogy shows that the growth of golf in recent years is not limited to sold-out starts.
There were other stories as well, including the deaths of World Golf Hall of Famer and three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion Susie Berning Maxwell and desert junior golf icon Dave Shackelford. These were sad events that lost some great people in the desert, but overall it was a wonderful year for golf in the Coachella Valley.
This article was originally published on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Nick Dunlap’s victory with American Express tops Palm Springs-area golf stories
