Bighorn vs. Stone Eagle: Palm Desert's hillside clubs

Bighorn and Stone Eagle sit on the Palm Desert hillside, but they are not the same kind of buy. Bighorn is a private golf club community with published initiation fees and homes inside the gates. Stone Eagle is a privately owned, invitation-only Tom Doak club that puts the golf first and does not publish a fee schedule on its membership page.

Buyers compare them because both sit above the valley floor with long views. That is the right instinct for the lot. It is the wrong instinct for the membership. You are comparing two different instruments.

Bighorn publishes two categories on its own membership page. Club Membership initiation is $275,000 and covers the social calendar and non-golf amenities. Golf Membership initiation is $375,000 and adds unlimited play on both courses, the practice facilities, and the Learning Center, plus those same non-golf amenities. The club describes Club Membership as a non-equity, non-voting, non-refundable, and non-transferable license, and Golf Membership as non-proprietary, non-voting, and non-transferable. Annual dues are not published there. Get them in writing before you remove contingencies.

The golf at Bighorn is two championship courses: The Mountains Course by Arthur Hills (opened 1991) and The Canyons Course by Tom Fazio (opened December 1998). The club advertises play without tee times. The clubhouse is at 255 Palowet Drive. Membership is subject to residency requirements and is treated as separate from the deed. Do not assume the house includes a golf card.

Stone Eagle is a different model. The club's membership page says it is privately owned and that memberships are by invitation only. It points you to a current member for information. It does not list initiation or dues. Older third-party writeups float annual-fee numbers from years ago. I do not budget from those, and neither should you. Ask the club for the current terms in writing.

The course is Tom Doak, set into the hillside with no homes lining the fairways once you reach the first tee. That is the point of the place: golf in the landscape, not a fairway lot with a house attached. Members get The Aerie, the members-only restaurant overlooking the course and the valley. Play is without tee times, with a limited tournament schedule.

So the practical split is this. At Bighorn you are usually underwriting a house inside a residential club community, then a separate non-transferable membership license with a six-figure initiation the club itself publishes. At Stone Eagle you are chasing an invitation to a small private golf club first. The house, if you want one nearby, is a separate conversation, and the membership terms are not sitting on a public fee page for you to screenshot.

On either hillside lot, the ground decides more of the value than the finishes. Grading, view corridors, access, and drainage belong in the inspection scope before you fall for the kitchen. Put the house, the HOA, the initiation, the dues, and any assessments on one sheet. Two purchases when both apply, two exits.

Norman Williams, Compass. DRE 02051057.