Escena Golf Club

Jack Nicklaus Signature Design opened Escena Golf Club in 2005 on the former Palm Springs municipal-airport buffer land, a 7,233-yard par-72 stretched across wide desert corridors at the base of the San Jacinto Mountains. Escena is mid-century-modern themed through and through: the clubhouse is a Rat Pack-era homage with butterfly roofline, and the routing echoes the architectural era with clean, minimalist lines rather than the extravagant mounding of 90s desert design. Nicklaus routed the course with prevailing winds front-of-mind, almost every hole plays off-axis to the desert gusts, so even the shorter par-4s demand a committed shape. The 18th is a 600-yard par-5 finisher that sweeps around a tiered fairway with water short-right of the green. Peak green fees run $100-$160; evenings twilight at around $50. Fits a Palm Springs trip as the 'Tour-length Nicklaus design without PGA West pricing' round.