Mission Hills Country Club: Championship Golf, Tradition & Desert Lifestyle

Few country clubs in Greater Palm Springs are as closely connected to the history of professional golf as Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage. Established in 1971, Mission Hills grew into far more than a private residential club. Its fairways became an international stage for women's professional golf, its name became familiar to generations of players and spectators, and the community surrounding those courses developed into one of Rancho Mirage's most established country club environments.

Today, Mission Hills combines that competitive legacy with an expansive residential setting, three championship golf courses, extensive racquet facilities, fitness and wellness amenities, dining, social activities, and homes and condominiums woven throughout a landscape of mature trees, lakes, fairways and mountain views.

A Defining Chapter in Women's Professional Golf

The story of Mission Hills changed almost immediately after the club opened. In 1972, entertainer Dinah Shore and Colgate-Palmolive chairman David Foster helped launch the Colgate-Dinah Shore Winner's Circle, with Jane Blalock winning the inaugural event. What began as an unusually prominent women's professional tournament eventually became one of the LPGA Tour's major championships and remained at Mission Hills for more than half a century.

The tournament evolved through several names — the Nabisco Dinah Shore, Kraft Nabisco Championship, ANA Inspiration and finally The Chevron Championship — but Mission Hills remained its desert home through 2022. The event became a defining part of the Coachella Valley's sporting identity, while the finishing hole and Poppie's Pond produced one of women's golf's most recognizable victory traditions.

The Dinah Shore Tournament Course itself was designed by Desmond Muirhead. The par-72 layout stretches to 7,250 yards from its longest tees, and its closing 18th hole became inseparable from the championship history created there. Mission Hills today describes the course as the 50-year host of an LPGA major championship.

That history has a personal connection for me as well. In August 2014, I caddied for my niece at Mission Hills while she competed in LPGA Qualifying School. Carrying her bag through the same environment that had tested generations of elite women golfers gave me an entirely different perspective on Mission Hills — not simply as a country club or residential community, but as a genuine competitive golf venue. It was also August in the desert, and with temperatures reaching 119 degrees one day, I gained a particularly vivid appreciation for what it means to walk a golf course under tournament conditions.

Three Courses, Three Distinct Golf Experiences

Mission Hills' golf identity extends well beyond the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. Members have access to 54 holes across three championship courses: the Dinah Shore Tournament Course, Arnold Palmer Signature Course and Pete Dye Challenge Course. Each brings a different design character and playing experience to the club.

That breadth is an important part of Mission Hills' appeal. Rather than building the club around a single signature course, Mission Hills offers three distinct championship layouts within one private-club environment, supported by practice facilities, instruction and golf programming. For serious golfers, that variety creates a depth of play relatively few desert communities can duplicate.

Residential Life at Mission Hills

Mission Hills is equally significant as a residential community. Homes and condominiums extend throughout an established landscape of fairways, lakes, mature trees and greenbelts, creating neighborhoods that feel integrated with the club rather than simply positioned beside it.

My experience with Mission Hills extends well beyond its golf courses. Over my 26 years in Greater Palm Springs real estate, I have participated in more than 20 home and condominium transactions within the community, representing clients across different periods of its residential evolution. That history has given me the opportunity to see not only the variety of Mission Hills real estate, but also how many of its residences have been thoughtfully updated and reimagined over time.

One example is the renovated condominium photographed here, which I sold to repeat Canadian buyer clients. Its transformation illustrates an important part of the Mission Hills residential story: established desert architecture can provide the foundation for a thoroughly contemporary interior while retaining the mature landscaping, golf setting and sense of place that drew residents to the community in the first place.

That combination creates a residential character distinctly different from a newly constructed master-planned community. Mission Hills has history. Its trees have matured, its neighborhoods have evolved, and individual residences reflect decades of ownership, renovation and architectural interpretation.

Beyond Golf

The scale of Mission Hills becomes even more apparent away from the fairways. The club currently features 49 tennis courts across grass, clay and hard surfaces, along with 20 dedicated pickleball courts. Croquet, fitness and spa facilities further expand the recreational offering, while dining, clubs, social activities and member groups create opportunities to participate in club life without ever picking up a golf club.

That breadth matters because Mission Hills has never depended upon a single amenity for its identity. Championship golf may have given the club international recognition, but the larger community developed around multiple forms of recreation, social connection and residential life.

A Rancho Mirage Community With a Legacy of Its Own

More than five decades after Mission Hills opened, its distinction comes from the layers accumulated over time. There is the championship history of the Dinah Shore Tournament Course. There are three very different golf experiences within one club. There is an unusually extensive racquet program. And surrounding it all is an established residential community whose homes, condominiums, lakes, fairways and mature landscaping have become part of the Rancho Mirage landscape.

For me, Mission Hills also represents something more personal: a community where I have spent decades representing real estate clients and where, for several unforgettable days in 2014, I experienced its golf legacy from inside the ropes with my niece's bag over my shoulder.

Those two perspectives — professional golf and residential life — are usually discussed separately. At Mission Hills, they are part of the same story.

And that may be the clearest way to understand what has made Mission Hills endure: it did not simply build a country club around a golf course. Over more than half a century, it built a community around a legacy.