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Written by Rick Stedman
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Friday, 01 July 2011 00:00 |
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 Famous for its intense heat and natural beauty, California’s Death Valley National Park features a unique golfing experience: Furnace Creek Golf Course. Appropriately named, Furnace Creek was included last year in Golf Digest’s list of America’s 50 toughest courses.
The beauty of playing Furnace Creek is its proximity to an RV park, which is right across the street. Furnace Creek RV Park has 136 sites and is open all year. Also nearby are Sunset Campground, with 270 campsites, and Texas Spring, with 106 sites. Both are open from mid October to mid April. (For reservations, call (877) 444-6777 or go online to recreation.gov.)
Death Valley National Park draws nearly 230,000 visitors in the summer, a season when temperatures average nearly 120 degrees. Golf groups with a penchant for extremely hot weather flock to the area. One golf group from Las Vegas stages the ominously named “Heatstroke Invitational” each July.
Since Furnace Creek has the distinction of being the world’s lowest golf course at 214 feet below sea level, locals guarantee that you will “shoot your lowest round ever.”
Measuring just 6,236 yards from the tips, the picturesque par 70 course is lined with palm and tamarisk trees. Water comes into play on nine of the 18 holes, and most of the holes feature small greens and wide-open fairways.
 “I’m very impressed with the course, its layout, and the stark beauty of the surrounding landscape,” remarked first-time visitor Danny Scott, from Phoenix. Regarding the dense air while golfing below sea level, Scott added, “On a few of the longer holes, such as the 573-yard fifth and the 571-yard tenth, I did notice that an extra club size was needed in order to hit the ball the same distance as at other courses.”
A unique offering at Furnace Creek is the 19th Hole, a snack bar that has outdoor seating and a drive-up window. Patrons drive their golf cart up to the window to order food and beverages.
Long History
The course dates back to 1927 when date palm caretakers at the Greenland Ranch set up an informal three-hole golf course. In 1931, the course was expanded to nine holes. Architect William F. Bell designed an expansion to 18 holes in 1968, and Perry Dye redesigned the entire course in 1997.
Located 120 miles from Las Vegas, the golf course is part of Furnace Creek Resort, which also includes the seasonal Inn at Furnace Creek and the Ranch at Furnace Creek, which is open year-round. The inn, which opened in 1927, is a member of the Historic Hotels of America. For more than 20 years, it has received the AAA four-diamond award. Open from mid-October through mid-May, the inn is nestled against the mountainside and offers 66 rooms and two suites. A mile away, the year-round Ranch at Furnace Creek is more family friendly and features 224 rooms, a general store, the Wrangler Steakhouse, Corkscrew Saloon, and 49er Café. Xanterra Parks & Resorts operates the Furnace Creek Resort and Borax Museum.
Unique features on the resort property include the swimming pool at the inn. Fed by a natural spring, the water stays a comfortable 82 degrees year-round. Every two days, the water is filtered through the pool, and re-used for irrigating the property, including the golf course.
Furnace Creek also boasts a one-megawatt solar facility that is the largest zero-emissions renewable energy facility in the tourism industry. It equals one-third of the resort’s annual electricity usage.
“Because Death Valley is one of the sunniest spots on the planet, the facility is 40 percent more efficient than an average solar facility,” explained Phil Dickinson, director of sales and marketing for Xanterra.
Colorful Castle
Just beyond the reaches of Furnace Creek Resort are several places worth experiencing. Scotty’s Castle, 55 miles north of the resort, is a lavish Moorish-style castle with buildings that house beautiful furnishings and feature spectacular tile work created by artisans, architects, and craftsmen from Spain, Italy and throughout the U.S. Tour guides, outfitted in clothing from the 1930s, will tell you colorful stories of Walter “Scotty” Scott, an alleged prospector and professional con artist.
Another place to visit is Devil’s Golf Course, an immense area of rock salt that was eroded by wind and rain into jagged spires, and got its name from an observation that “only the devil could play golf on such rough links.”
Hiking trails are plentiful throughout Death Valley. Zabriskie Point is surrounded by a maze of wildly eroded and vibrantly colored badlands, and is one of the park’s most famous lookout points. A hike through Golden Canyon leads through narrow passageways and features views of stunning layers of colorful strata. Dante’s View, without fail, features the most breathtaking view in the park. This mountaintop viewpoint sits at 5,475 feet above the Death Valley floor. The paved access road is open to all vehicles under 25 feet in length.
No doubt, Death Valley is a very special place. A final experience not to be missed is the incredible night sky. Without ambient light from a big city, the skies above Death Valley reveal a palette with thousands of tiny sparkling stars, like diamonds displayed on black velvet. And if those stars could share their thoughts, oh what stories they would reveal. To experience your own Death Valley story, visit www.furnacecreekresort.com.
Rick Stedman is an avid golfer, RVer and writer who lives in Yakima, Washington. Rick writes a weekly golf blog, “The 19th Hole”, which is published every Saturday at rvlife.com. He can be reached at rstedman@gmail.com.
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