The front nine plays open with lakes and streams that challenge errant shot making. The undulating back nine plays tight with wayward shots sternly punished by fall offs and dense woodland.

Unlike the nearby desert courses in Palm Springs, where gentle nature has been overlaid on a harsh wasteland, at Lake Arrowhead Country Club the golfer feels he is one with nature, a privileged visitor, passing through a very special natural place. A place where hawks and eagles glide through fairways shouldered by towering sugar pines and incense cedars dating back hundreds of years.

And most important, if you stop and just listen, you hear the cool wind in the trees, the lapping of clear water, the superb silence of serenity.