Mission Hills Country Club: homes, land, and membership

The short answer

Mission Hills, at 34600 Mission Hills Drive in Rancho Mirage, is a private club with three courses: Desmond Muirhead's 1971 Tournament course (the Dinah Shore course), Arnold Palmer's 1979 course, and Pete Dye's 1988 Challenge course. Around it are more than a dozen separate neighborhoods. Buying a house here does not make you a member. Membership is a separate purchase with its own categories. Several neighborhoods sit on leased land, and a few include a social membership in the HOA. For me, the neighborhood decides the deal more than the club does.

The club in one paragraph

The Tournament course hosted the Colgate-Dinah Shore event from 1972, which became a women's major in 1983. Players started jumping into Poppie's Pond after winning in 1988, and the tournament left after 2022. Racquet facilities run to 15 hard, 10 grass, and 4 Har-Tru tennis courts plus 20 pickleball courts. The club currently offers three golf membership categories. Premier includes all three courses. Signature covers Dye and Palmer. Weekender gives seasonal access to Dye and Palmer. Golf members also get reciprocal access to Indian Wells Country Club. Lifestyle memberships are also available. The club does not publish initiation or dues. Call Membership at 760-324-9400 for current figures, and get them in writing before you remove contingencies.

Neighborhood by neighborhood

The tenure, HOA, and home-count figures below come from a 2022 on-site neighborhood summary. They are approximate and four years old. Confirm current HOA dues, lease payments, and land status from the resale packet and preliminary title report for the specific house.

Leased land: where it is and what it costs you

The two largest and oldest groups, Golf Villas and the Tennis Condos, sit on leased land. Together they account for most of the homes in Mission Hills, and they are where most of the lower-priced listings are. A leased-land condo carries two monthly checks, the lease and the HOA. On the 2022 figures, those two together can run past $1,000 a month before club dues.

My view: leased land is why these condos are the most affordable door into a 54-hole club, and it's also why they resell to a narrower pool. Some lenders and some buyers won't touch a lease. Price the lease into the comparison. A Golf Villa that looks $300,000 cheaper than a fee-land house in Oakmont is not $300,000 cheaper once you put 15 years of lease payments next to it.

The sold data shows the discount clearly. Over the last 24 months, Mission Hills had 82 sales on leased land, at a median of $264 a square foot, and 99 on fee land at $438. Comparing condos only, leased condos sold at $263 a square foot against $367 for fee condos. In those leased-condo listings, the median MLS-reported HOA was about $843 a month and the median land lease about $496 a month. That's roughly $1,340 a month before club dues, and it's approximate and as reported by listing agents, so confirm it from the resale packet. The median leased sale had 95 years left on the lease. (CDAR/FlexMLS closed sales, 10/24/2024 to 10/24/2026, as of Oct 24 2026. Tenure is read from the MLS land-lease fields.)

Not every "Mission Hills" address is on the club's courses

Oakhurst, Stone Ridge, Haciendas, and Mission Hills East carry the Mission Hills name, but the 2022 summary places them on the neighboring resort courses (the Pete Dye resort course and the course Gary Player designed), not on the club's Tournament, Palmer, or Dye Challenge courses. That isn't a flaw. Some of these HOAs fold a social and fitness membership into the dues. But a buyer who wants to walk out the back gate onto a private-club fairway should confirm which course the house actually backs to before falling for the view.

Which neighborhood for which buyer

• The golfer who wants the full club on owned land: Legacy, Fairway Estates, Oakmont, or Westgate. Westgate is the custom-home end of Mission Hills.
• The part-time owner who wants the gate and the amenities at the lowest entry price: Golf Villas or the Tennis Condos, provided you're comfortable owning on a lease and have priced it in.
• The buyer who wants a social membership without a golf initiation: Legacy, Lakefront, Oakhurst, or Stone Ridge, where the HOA includes a social or fitness membership. Confirm the current terms with the HOA.
• The tennis or pickleball household: anywhere inside the gate. The courts, not the course, are the reason.

How I'd approach a purchase here

1. Pull the land status and the lease terms on day one, not in escrow.
2. Get current membership pricing from the club in writing, along with any waitlist.
3. Compare per-month total cost of ownership (mortgage, lease, HOA, club dues), not purchase price.
4. Walk the house in July if you can. The Dinah Shore course has some of the most open fairway exposure in the club, and afternoon sun on a west-facing patio is a real cost.

Mission Hills compared with other Rancho Mirage clubs: see Rancho Mirage country clubs and my Mission Hills membership and golf guide.