Hideaway Golf Club in La Quinta prepares for $46M renovation to golf courses, facilities
Thor Damerval knows there are two groups that will need to be pleased with upcoming renovations at The Hideaway Golf Club in La Quinta: Current members and those who might become members in the future.
“There are a lot of articles that will state that if you want to grow your membership, you invest in non-golf amenities,” said Damerval, general manager and COO at the Hideaway. “If you want to help retain your membership and focus on satisfaction, put money into the golf course.”
Damerval and the Hideaway hope to do both in the next two years with a $46 million renovation that will include the club’s two 18-hole golf courses as well as the existing clubhouse and new facilities.
With 96 percent of the membership voting and with more than a two-third majority approving the changes, Damerval said most of the membership wanted changes to their club.
“The first primary data point happened maybe a year and a half, maybe two years ago, when they did a big survey of the membership,” said Damerval, who has been at the Hideaway for six months after five years as GM and COO at a club in Medford, Ore. “And the membership came back and said yeah, we want an improved experience at the Hideaway. We want new things to do. We recognize our building is over 20 years old. It still looks nice, but it's feeling a little bit tired from time to time.”
Starting in May and ending in the fall of 2025, the Hideaway will undergo its first major renovation since opening in 2002. That means the La Quinta club will join the growing number of desert private clubs adding facilities and refreshing old buildings, but this time the renovations will include $6 million in changes to both the Pete Dye and Clive Clark courses at the club.
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“We are re-doing our greens this summer, all 36 holes, plus the south end of our practice facility,” Damerval said. “Greenside bunkers, greenside irrigation. So we’ve got two big firms coming out to work on each course, so that’s a good move.”
Damerval said the changes, which will include miniverde grass on all 36 greens, are not because of dissatisfaction with the courses but more a matter of time.
“Courses are living, breathing entities and everything has a lifespan,” he said. “Greens have a shelf life. You look at the golf course, it seems like it is much more of a natural landscape. You don’t need to actually replace those things out there. But it is the same as just a facility. It is going to deteriorate at some time.
La Quinta's Hideaway Golf Club courses need a refresh
“Bunkers are going to get worn out, you have to re-do the shell of it. You have to review drainage,” Damerval added. “The greens are going to get old, they are going to flatten out, they are going to need to be rebuilt.”
As for the facilities, the biggest changes will be with the existing clubhouse, which Damerval said won’t be bulldozed but will see significant upgrades. Those will include a renovated upstairs restaurant and bar area and major changes in the lower level including moving the women’s locker room, expanding the pro shop and staff areas and adding some meeting space. Another big change will be adding a building that will be attached to the existing building to expand the spa and fitness areas.
“Everyone is excited about different parts of it depending on how you use the club. But it’s going to be difficult not to be excited about the clubhouse facilities, especially the spa and fitness building that is largely a brand new facility,” Damerval said. “We have our current spa and fitness area that is not big enough now, and we have outgrown it. So we are right next to it building a larger space for both functions.”
A new pool and spa and grill will also be added, with Damerval said, including the addition of bocce ball courts.
“It is going to transform that entire piece of the property that not many people are using,” Damerval said. “The bar and the restaurant up here is going to look and feel different. Food and beverage are often the glue that is the cohesive that holds together a membership.”
While Damerval is new to the desert and to Hideaway, he said he understands the desire for private clubs to constantly be looking to the future with renovations.
“The Florida courses have been doing it since the 1980s. I guess the Coachella Valley and Scottsdale, there are some pockets of that,” he said. “It is the keeping up with the Jones to a degree. But the more you reinvest into yourself, the more attractive you are to your current and future members.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Hideaway Golf Club in La Quinta prepares for $46M renovation
