The Reserve Club

Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish laid out the course through rugged foothills, canyons and desert washes, and they kept the native terrain front and center. The championship 18 is joined by three trophy holes, a par 3, a par 4 and a par 5, which is why members talk about a 21-hole course. There are no tee times, which tells you how uncrowded the golf is. Practice facilities are excellent: a double-ended range, two large putting greens and an 18-hole putting course. The club recently completed a multi-phase irrigation and bunker project, following a larger enhancement program that began in 2018, and it runs clinics, member games, junior camps and twilight golf with Sunday cookouts.

The Club Village sits against a natural rock outcrop above the course and brings together four buildings: the clubhouse, the casual Lakehouse, the fitness and wellness center and the golf shop. The clubhouse resembles a Tuscan villa in hand-laid stone, with a recently refreshed contemporary interior and broad lawn patios for outdoor dining. Lakes and waterfalls run below. Beyond the village, residents have seven marked walking trails from 1.7 to 7.7 miles, a fenced dog park, an onsite post office and spa services. Members often compare the pace of life to summer camp.

The club offers three categories. The Reserve Membership is an equity membership available only to homeowners in the community, with full club privileges. The Hawk Membership is a non-resident, non-equity membership, also with full privileges, which lets people who live elsewhere join. The Social Membership is non-golf and non-equity, open to residents and non-residents, with full use of the Club Village. Membership is deliberately kept small, which is a big part of the appeal. The club does not publish fees online, so buyers should ask the membership office for current figures and whether any membership obligation attaches to a particular home.

Homes at The Reserve come in four types: Bungalows, Casitas, Villas and Estates. They vary in size, but all share a natural palette of stone, earth tones and textures drawn from the surrounding terrain, with open rooms that flow onto patios and long views. Density is low, with a little over 200 homes built across about 700 acres and a small number of custom homesites left, which leaves wide stretches of golf and open desert between homes. Prices sit firmly in the luxury tier. Homeowners association staff handle the community on site, separate from the club.

The Reserve is about space and quiet. A long entry drive winds through open desert before you reach a single home, and the setting borders The Living Desert and the 17,000-acre Boyd Deep Canyon research reserve, so wildlife is part of daily life. About 80 percent of the plants on property are native to the Coachella Valley, and more than 1,700 trees and shrubs were saved and replanted during construction. Even so, El Paseo's shops and restaurants are only minutes away.