New Bighorn Course Opens in Palm Desert

Developers of the Canyons at Bighorn in Palm Desert are seeing green--a $34-million golf course that opens today.

The 224-acre course at the base of the Santa Rosa Mountains is part of an addition to the Mountains at Bighorn, which has been the site of the Skins Game (1992-95) and the Senior Professional Golfers’ Assn. Senior Match Play Challenge.

The two courses, separated by California 74, are connected by an underground tunnel that homeowners and club members travel by golf cart.

The Canyons is designed to give golfers the feeling of playing in a canyon. It took more than a year to build, including excavation of more than 3.2 million cubic yards of sand and rock, according to Warren W. Smith, vice president and general manager at Bighorn. The 3,400-square-foot clubhouse is under construction.

Tom Fazio designed the par-72 championship course, which is bordered by desert flora, waterfalls and streams. The site boasts nearly 4,000 trees and 56,000 shrubs and native plants. Developers spent $6.5 million on landscaping alone, Smith said.

The $34-million price tag is the highest of any course built in the desert resort area.

Fazio also designed the $15-million Quarry course in La Quinta.

Home sites--18,000 square feet to more than an acre--will range in price from $600,000 to over $1 million.

Bighorn is owned and operated by a group of homeowners.