Aging Hollywood stars are not the only icons in Southern California that undergo cosmetic tweaks, tugs and pulls in an effort to resurrect their careers. Linked to some of the biggest names in Hollywood of yesteryear, 70-year-old Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, is getting its first facelift in 40 years as members hope to reclaim some of its past glory.
Architect Tripp Davis has been brought aboard to restore, not reinvent, Thunderbird, which was designed in 1951 by Lawrence Hughes. Originally a mostly flat layout, Thunderbird was last was renovated - minus a few bobs and tucks here and there - in 1980 by Ted Robinson.
The $6.5 million project, which is scheduled to be finished in fall of 2022, will include at least some work on all 18 holes, including reshaping some contouring, rebuilding several greens and bunkers and regrassing with newer Bermudagrass varieties. The idea behind the project, members told the Desert Sun newspaper, is to reclaim some of the club's past glory while also keeping an eye on the future as the club looks to grow membership.
But there is no denying Thunderbird's past.
The club is home to many firsts. It is the oldest 18-hole golf course in the Coachella Valley, and is the birthplace of the desert's PGA Tour event - now known as The American Express and played at PGA West.
The club was the site of the Thunderbird Invitational that eventually grew into the Palm Springs Classic and later the Bob Hope Desert Classic. Arnold Palmer won the last Thunderbird Invitational in 1959. The first three editions of the Palm Springs Classic were held at Thunderbird from 1960 to 1962 before going off on a nomadic tour that includes several iterations and name changes.
In its heyday, Thunderbird's membership was a snapshot of Hollywood's A-List of the 1950s and '60s, and boasted names like Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and singer Hoagy Carmichael. Former presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford were members at Thunderbird, and revenue from the Bob Hope Desert Classic, which moved from the club in 1963, helped fund construction of Eisenhower Medical Center (now Eisnehower Health) in 1971 on 80 acres of land donated by Hope. Another former president, Barack Obama, is a more current member.
Thunderbird's spectacular history has made a lasting on the game.
According to legend, the electric golf car debuted at Thunderbird, and the club also was the inspiration for the naming of the eponymous Ford roadster that hit assembly lines in 1957 as the company's answer to the Chevrolet Corvette. As the story goes, the name Thunderbird was the idea of Ernest Breech, Ford's chairman at the time and a member at the club.
Singer Perry Como was a member at Thunderbird and it was there that his trademark cardigan sweaters reinvented men's fashion.
For better or worse, Thunderbird is recognized as the country's first real estate golf community, and many of its famous members owned homes there. A more valuable contribution by Thunderbird was the debut of underground residential utilities in the 1950s.
While embracing Thunderbird's historical ties to old Hollywood, its members recognize the importance of simultaneously casting an eye on its future. Here, the two will forever go hand-in-hand.
