Book Review: “Palm Springs Golf”, by Larry Bohannan – Local history book with widespread appeal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Local histories are often charming, well-written – and only of interest to residents of the local area about which they are written. But when the local area being written about is a world-renowned golf destination, not to mention a well-known playground of stars from the worlds of entertainment and politics, and the book is authored by a longtime area newsman possessed of a deep knowledge of the game of golf and a keen interest in local history, the book takes on a wider appeal.

The 2015 release Palm Springs Golf – A History of Coachella Valley Legends and Fairways is just such a book. Authored by Larry Bohannan, the award-winning golf writer and columnist for the Coachella Valley region’s Desert Sun newspaper, Palm Springs Golf is a complete history of the evolution of the Palm Springs, California, region from sleepy desert hideaway to dynamic vacation destination – all through the power of the game of golf.

Bohannan’s prose, fashioned by a writer who has been honing his craft since 1982, brings the history of the Coachella Valley alive for the reader. From the first chapter, in which the reader will learn a bit of the earliest history of the Coachella Valley; to the last, in which the state of the region’s world-famous golf resorts and renowned professional tournaments, in the present day and beyond, is detailed, the author faithfully chronicles the people, places, and events that made the region what it is today.

It is the presence of high-quality resort golf and top-level professional and amateur golf competition which has, in large part, forged the region’s identity as a wintertime resort destination. Television coverage of golf competitions being played under sunny skies in shirt-sleeve conditions while much of the rest of the country is shivering in frigid temperatures and shoveling snow off the doorstep has for decades been some of the best advertisement the business and development communities in the Palm Springs area could hope for. 

Even before the advent of televised sports coverage, the ability to play golf in sunny conditions in wintertime was a draw the Coachella Valley business leaders exploited. From nine-hole courses associated with the early resorts such as the Hotel La Quinta and the Desert Inn of the 1920s, to the full 18-hole courses of the 1950s built at the Thunderbird  Country Club (the first in the area, in 1951), Tamarisk, Indian Wells, and many, many others, golf and the beautiful winter weather brought everyone from movie stars to presidents to the desert.

Golf competitions are a big part of the Palm Springs story which Bohannan relates in the book. Early amateur competitions were draws for top golfers (and enthusiastic vacationing golf fans) and professional competitions followed. The Coachella Valley’s best-known pro tournament was for years the star-studded Bob Hope Desert Classic (known by different names over the years as sponsorship changed) and it was joined by a variety of smaller, shorter-lived made-for-TV events such as the CBS Matchplay Classic and The Skins Game.

And not only was golf good for the desert, the desert was good for golf—two visits to the Palm Springs area by the international Ryder Cup competition, in 1955 and 1959, were instrumental in raising the profile of that event from that of an obscure USA vs GBI trophy event to the important position in the international sporting calendar which it now enjoys.

Women’s golf has long been a part of the desert scene, and author Bohannan gives the distaff game its fair share of attention in the book. The Colgate Dinah Shore Classic, played at Mission Hills Country Club, became a major event on the LPGA schedule, and remains so to this day in its current incarnation as the ANA Inspiration.

From early settlers and quaint, practically home-made courses built alongside the early resort hotels to the present day’s numerous resort and country club courses carpeting the valley floor; from everyday folks looking for a respite from the crowding of the Los Angeles Basin or the frigid wintertime conditions of the East and Midwest to the movie stars and political figures (including presidents from Eisenhower to Obama) who added a tinge of glamour to Palm Springs, the story of the Coachella Valley golf scene is more than just a local success story. Larry Bohannan’s book lays out the fascinating history of this world-famous golf destination in a diligently researched, well-written account that every golf fan who has ever visited the area (or dreamed of it while shivering through a frigid East Coast winter) will want to read.

Palm Springs Golf is available online at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions; at Barnes & Noble, also in paperback and an electronic ‘Nook’ edition; from your local independent bookseller (of course…)—and if you are lucky enough to be visiting the region already, at pro shops in the area.

Another book about Arnold Palmer? (Yes, and it’s worth a look.) ★★★★☆

Books by and about Arnold Palmer are something of a mini-industry within the world of golf publishing. Even a quick search for “Arnold Palmer” on the Amazon website yields a couple dozen titles within the first few pages of search results—the man who was golf’s greatest ambassador was easily the most written-about figure in the game. In the great library of the game of golf, only Ben Hogan comes close to this level of attention, and most of those books are volumes purporting to reveal the “secret” of his phenomenal golf game.

Chris Rodell, a golf writer who was Arnold Palmer’s neighbor for 24 years, has compiled an entertaining collection of reminiscences about golf’s greatest ambassador.

The latest volume about Arnold Palmer, entitled Arnold Palmer: Homespun Stories of The King, by Chris Rodell, is a delightful read that is sure to be appreciated by fans of the man who will always be remembered as one of America’s greatest sports figures.

Arnold and golf on television came into the American consciousness at about the same time, and the American viewing audience fell in love with the ruggedly handsome young man who played golf with a swashbuckling, go-for-broke style that endeared him to viewers all over the country, and eventually the world. It was Palmer who almost singlehandedly transformed the game of golf—in the eyes of Americans, at least—from the pastime of the white-collar denizens of stuffy, exclusive country clubs to the status of the everyman (and -woman’s) game that it has always enjoyed in its birthplace—Scotland.

Palmer’s love for the game, and for the fans who adored him, translated into commercial success that kept him among the top earners in the game years after his playing days were over, and a large part of that mutual love stemmed from the hometown appeal that he exuded.

A man like Arnold Palmer could have lived virtually anywhere he wanted, and though he had homes in Orlando, Florida and La Quinta, California, in the Palm Springs area, his birthplace of Latrobe, Pennsylvania was his true home until the end of his life. As hinted at by the title, the anecdotes that make up this book are largely hometown stories told to the author by the townsfolk who knew Palmer as Deacon’s boy, the guy who stopped in at the Youngstown Grille for breakfast or the Tin Lizzy tavern for a drink, and who played much of his golf at Latrobe Country Club.

From the way he treated people, and the way that people responded to him, you might never know that Arnold Palmer was a man who had literally dined with presidents, kings, and queens; who could, and had, played golf at the most renowned and exclusive golf courses in the world (and was a part-owner of one of the best, Pebble Beach Golf Links), or that a street, the local airport, and a few other things around town in Latrobe were named after him.

Author Chris Rodell brings considerable hometown cred to the table in writing this book of reminiscences. Rodell has himself lived in Latrobe since 1992, within walking distance of Palmer’s own home. He came to know golf’s greatest legend after first meeting him in 2001, and in 2005 was hired to go through more than a dozen legal-sized boxes of magazine and newspaper clippings detailing Mr Palmer’s life as told in publications the world over, for the purpose of compiling a timeline of the great man’s career. Throughout the process, if he had a question, all he had to do was go ask Mr Palmer—not bad, huh?

It was a level of access that is unique among the dozens, if not hundreds, of journalist and writers who have interviewed Arnold Palmer over the years, and gives this book a level of authenticity that is virtually unmatched in the canon of Palmer bio’s. If you are a golfer (or even if you are not), and a fan of Arnold Palmer, you will enjoy this book. Arnold Palmer: Homespun Stories of The King is available from Amazon and Barnes and Noble, and if they know what’s good for them, at your local golf shop.