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It's a mid-July weekend. The sound of live bagpipe music fills the air and European style sausages fill the hot-dog buns. Ninety amateur golfers prepare to tee it up in competition over a Robert Trent Jones Jr. links-style course. The British Open? No, but it's as close as you're going to get here in the Coachella Valley. It's the fifth annual "British Open Days" at Desert Dunes Country Club.
When Bobby Jones saw the rolling landscape of the north valley and felt the brisk breezes so prevalent here in the spring and fall, a Scottish, links-style course leapt immediately to mind. He proceeded to build a great one. Desert Dunes CC is one of only a handful of Golf Digest Magazine four-star rated courses in the entire valley. And Desert Dunes doesn't just look like a links course, it plays like one. There are no forced carries and fairways and greens are designed to accommodate shots kept low out of the wind and run onto the greens.
"When I came here five years ago I wanted to do something special and something that fit the personality of the golf course," says Desert Dunes Director of Golf, Todd Connelly. "Conducting a tournament coinciding with British Open weekend on this style golf course seemed like a natural."
The tourney is a two day event and is strictly for amateurs. Prizes are in the form of gift certificates, some of them quite substantial, but all of which are within the limits set down by the USGA and the R&A for maintaining one's amateur status. Competitors are also awarded golf clubs and accessories in a drawing following the tournament.
The real prize, however, is the sterling silver perpetual trophy; The Robert Trent Jones Jr. Cup. A name the world famous course designer has graciously allowed both the tournament and the trophy to bear.
