Few clubs in the desert carry the historical weight of Eldorado Country Club. This is where Dwight D. Eisenhower spent his post-presidential winters, maintaining a home on the grounds and playing the course so regularly that the club became synonymous with his retirement years. That presidential connection gives Eldorado a place in American cultural history that goes well beyond golf.
The course sits in Indian Wells, one of the more refined addresses in the Coachella Valley, a desert corridor that has quietly become one of the densest concentrations of serious golf real estate in the country. The Santa Rosa Mountains frame the property to the south, and the light here — particularly in the early morning and late afternoon — has a quality that makes even a routine round feel cinematic.
As a private members' club, Eldorado is not trying to impress anyone. It plays to a par of 71, a slightly unconventional number that suggests a layout with its own logic and personality rather than a course built to a template.
