Westin Mission Hills: Pete Dye Course

Pete Dye's 1988 Westin Mission Hills Resort course runs to a relatively modest par-70 6,706 yards, but the scorecard undersells how much strategic trouble Dye layered into this Rancho Mirage routing. Railway-sleeper bulkheading, pot bunkering with steep retaining walls, and water hazards that crowd the landing zones on more than half the holes, the Pete Dye signatures in miniature. The par-3 8th is the hole that photographs everywhere: a downhill carry to a peninsula green framed in sleepers, bailout areas that leave impossible angles. Fairways run through mature tamarisk and native desert scrub rather than palm-lined resort corridors, which keeps the feel honest to Dye's strategic intent. Peak green fee $52-$151 depending on season, cheaper on weekdays and mid-summer. Pair with Gary Player's adjacent course at the resort for a 36-hole day that covers two of the game's most distinctive modern architects.