Its many outstanding casinos have made Palm Springs Southern California's premier destination for those who want to spend hours of days flirting with Lady Luck without having to head for Las Vegas. But if you prefer testing your luck in the great outdoors to testing it at the video poker machines or roulette tables, you'll find plenty of opportunities to do just that any of the outstanding Palm Springs golf courses, either those located in Palm Springs itself, or in the surrounding Coachella Valley. Palm Springs golf is big business.

Just how big? Palm Springs and its desert environs lay claim to over three hundred golf courses of every conceivable degree of difficulty, so you will never have to worry about finding one suited to your level of expertise. But millions of people who have yet to set foot in Palm Springs are already familiar with Palm Springs golf, thanks to the PGA Tour and Saturday afternoon television. There are several legendary championship courses ideal for a Palm Springs golf vacation. Here are just three of them:

Indian Wells Resort and Golf Club

The Indian Wells Golf Resort grew form a sleepy oasis at the foot of the Santa Rosa Mountains about 16 miles southwest of Palm Springs to one of the most exclusive golfing venues in the world. Indian Wells gained stardom as one of the four courses which hosted the 1960 inaugural Palm Springs Desert Classic (now the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic), and it has repeated as a host course numerous times in the nearly fifty years since. It will also be the site of the LG Skins Game until 2011.

Indian Canyons Golf Resort

Located at the mouth of the historic Indian Canyons in Palm Springs with mountains on three sides, the Indian Canyons Golf Resort has a Casey O'Callaghan 18-hole championship course, complete with four lakes which will influence your shot decisions on at least five of the holes. The course is the site of more than five hundred Washingtonia filifera palm trees like those which shaded the ancient Agua Caliente Native Americans who were the first inhabitants of the Coachella Valley.

La Quinta

The La Qunita Resort and Club is the site of PGA West ®, through which all future PGA professional players must pass in the final stages of qualifying for the Tour. Like Indian Wells, La Quinta has been a regular host of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, as well PGA Grand Slam events. If you want to experience a Palm Springs golf school vacation, La Quinta is the place to do it!

You can keep track of the latest goings-on in Palm Springs golf through the eyes of Philip Moore, a Coachella valley resident and golf columnist at Desert Cities Guides. Mr. Moore, the author of The Mad Scientist on Golf, has played the game for four decades, and is the proprietor of a custom golf club business with locations at Riverside's Jurupa Hills Country Club and one soon to open in Cathedral City. While you're studying Mr. Moore's helpful Palm Spring golf tips at Desert Cities Guides, why not spend some time exploring their many other site features to get the latest on everything going on in Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley?