Coral Mountain Desert Club is a new 400 acre private golf and residential development in La Quinta, California, located in the Coachella Valley near the Santa Rosa Mountains. The project is being developed by Meriwether Companies and will feature an 18-hole championship golf course designed by David McLay Kidd. The property is located near Avenue 58 and Madison Street in the southern portion of La Quinta. Development plans include residential homes, club facilities, recreational amenities including a surf camp.
David McLay Kidd has been selected to design the golf course, his first original golf design project in Southern California and his first in the Coachella Valley. Kidd is known for his design of Bandon Dunes in Oregon, the Castle Course at St Andrews, and Gamble Sands in Washington. His proposed Coral Mountain routing is intended to take advantage of the natural desert topography, long-range mountain views and dramatic lighting conditions.
The new 18-hole golf course is targeting a desert-style links within the Southern California landscape. The club is scheduled to open in 2028.
In April 2026, Meriwether Companies announced the official groundbreaking for Coral Mountain Desert Club. The project received important municipal approvals in 2025, including a tentative tract map and site development permits for the golf course, perimeter landscaping and sales center. The City of La Quinta's December 2025 environmental filing describes a subdivision of approximately 384 acres into 204 residential lots, golf course parcels and supporting infrastructure. Site grading and earthwork were visible by October 2026.
The clubhouse will be designed by Hart Howerton. Club amenities are planned to include dining, fitness and wellness facilities, tennis, pickleball and padel courts, a recreational lake, pools and walking and cycling trails. A partnership with Thermal Beach Club will provide members access to a 48-chamber pneumatic surf lagoon located less than ten minutes from Coral Mountain. The surf facility is a separate property rather than a wave pool within the golf development.
The golf course is part of a broader master-planned community with a collection of custom residential homesites, estate homesites and club cottages. Coral Mountain is positioned as one of the first major new private club developments in the Coachella Valley in more than two decades. The combination of championship golf, desert recreation and private surfing facilities is intended to appeal to families seeking a broader range of activities than a traditional private golf club.
The California Environmental Quality Act filing confirms the golf course and residential subdivision approvals. The project is being built in a hot, arid desert climate where summer temperatures routinely exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit and water availability is an important consideration in golf course construction and maintenance. Specific details regarding Coral Mountain's irrigation water supply, turfgrass varieties, golf construction contractor and shaping team have not yet been publicly disclosed.
David McLay Kidd has several other projects underway in 2026. In Texas Loraloma at Thomas Ranch is an 18-hole private golf course developed on the Pedernales River in the Texas Hill Country west of Austin which opened in 2026. In Nebraska, GrayBull is a private Dormie Network course constructed on natural sand dunes near North Platte. On the Washington coast, Westport Golf Links is a proposed coastal golf development featuring a Kidd design on land near Westport Light State Park. Kidd's history of golf course design includes Bandon Dunes, Gamble Sands, Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley, Nanea, and the Castle Course at St Andrews.
| Active | Proposed | Closed | 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | Tim Yeo's ONLY FRIENDS YOU HAVEN’T YET MET |
|---|