This club has five championship 18 hole courses set in a valley next to the mountains The views are arresting and the conditions are nearly always perfect Twenty years ago the best players on the PGA Tour refused to return to the Stadium Course which touts itself as The western home of golf in America They whining that it was too difficult Well Pete Dye s West Coast answer to the TPC at Sawgrass is laughing all the way to the bank because every golfer who comes to town still lines up to play it Technology has defanged the course for the pros since its big hair heyday but for the rest of us the Stadium Course remains absolutely relentless in its assault thanks to insanely deep bunkers and forced carries over water and desert Long after you leave you ll remember the stirring mountain backdrops the 19 foot deep bunker guarding the green at No 16 and the treacherous island green at No 17 Playing here is an exhausting and often deflating experience but the prospect however remote of passing the most demanding test west of the Mississippi makes the Stadium Course an essential stop The new course the PGA West Greg Norman course is 40 feet below sea level and surrounded by an immense crescent of terra cotta mountains