Rancho Las Palmas Golf Resort in Palm Springs

The golf course at Rancho Las Palmas Golf Resort has been around for 28 years, but regulars will tell you it's almost never been in better shape. With KSL taking over the namesake next-door resort, the 27 holes of Ted Robinson golf are getting more money for maintenance and a completely new attitude.

This is an old-school Palm Springs golf course, full of palm trees (1,500 of them) and water, but it also has a few tricks up its sleeve. Like the 129-yard hole with a two-tiered mini waterfall (No. 6 on the West nine). The West starts you out with the four toughest holes in the whole complex and then takes you on a ride that weaves through parts of the resort. (The West and South is the 18-hole combo you want to play; the North nine is kind of blah.) Rancho Las Palmas is the middle of a golf community, full of houses along fairways, but it's still anything but cookie cutter.