The Quarry at La Quinta

Tom Fazio's 1994 desert course on three levels of an old gravel quarry in La Quinta, with about 300 feet of elevation change and conditioning Golf Digest consistently ranks among the best.

The Quarry at La Quinta opened in 1994 at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains, on the site of an old gravel quarry. Tom Fazio had already built a quarry course at Black Diamond Ranch in Florida seven years earlier. Here he used the site's three distinct levels. Seven holes and the range sit on the quarry floor, seven more play across an alluvial fan above it, and four are tucked in a mountain notch higher still, with about 300 feet of total elevation change.

Fazio worked an old mining site and a Native American trail into the routing. The round moves from heavily landscaped quarry holes to open high-desert holes with views across the Coachella Valley. Then it climbs into the quieter mountain section before returning to the quarry. The signature 10th is a 521-yard par 5 with a 70-foot waterfall feeding a stream, and a fairway bounded on one side by the quarry wall.

The Quarry stays deliberately small and private, open to members and their guests only, and is known for its conditioning. Golf Digest has ranked it among the top courses in the country for years and has consistently rated it in its top five for conditioning. It is a strong example of the polished, scenic desert golf Fazio did in the 1990s.

Holes to know

10

Par 5 · 521 yd

A 70-foot waterfall feeds a stream along this par 5, and the quarry wall lines one side of the fairway.