Why Bermuda Dunes Exists: The Country Club That Helped Put It on the Map

Bermuda Dunes sounds like a place that ought to have an ocean nearby. Instead, its name belongs to a desert community where fairways, homes and an airport share the Coachella Valley floor.

The apparent mismatch is part of the story. A development name became a community identity, and tournament golf carried that name far beyond the desert. But the place did not begin with a golf trophy—or with the assumption that the land had no previous life. To understand Bermuda Dunes, start with Myoma, then follow the country club that helped put a new name on the map.

Before Bermuda Dunes, there was Myoma

A useful starting point is a water-company record. Myoma Dunes Mutual Water Company’s urban water plan says the company was established in 1953 to serve the community of Myoma, later renamed Bermuda Dunes after the country club. The company therefore predates the development that would become the area’s best-known landmark.²

Its present-day profile still carries the earlier name and describes wells drawing from the Coachella Valley aquifer. That is a small but revealing piece of continuity: beneath the resort identity was the practical work of supplying a desert community with water.³

It changes how we read the origin story. The country club helped reshape and promote an existing place. “Why Bermuda Dunes exists” is a question about how the community acquired its modern identity, rather than a claim that its human history started in the 1950s.

Why an island-inspired name in the desert?

According to the club’s history, developers Ernie Dunlevie and Ray Ryan wanted a distinctive name. Ryan’s connection to Jamaica helped inspire an island association, and they chose “Bermuda Dunes.” Construction began on February 14, 1958.¹

The pairing does a surprising amount of work. “Bermuda” suggests escape; “Dunes” keeps the desert in view. Read as a development name, it offers an imagined lifestyle before it describes a location. That is an interpretation of the name’s appeal, not evidence of a literal connection between this landscape and Bermuda.

The course was also a way to organize a neighborhood

The club credits Billy Bell Jr. with the course design and describes a brief balancing demanding golf with room for ordinary players. It also names Clark Gable, Cary Grant and Debbie Reynolds among early property owners.¹

Those details describe two parts of the same proposition: a place to play and a place to belong. Golf supplied a repeated activity, while property ownership gave people a reason to return. A famous name could attract attention; a neighborhood needed something more durable than attention.

Imagine the difference between buying a house near a recreational facility and buying into a landscape arranged around it. The fairway becomes a long foreground. Homes look toward shared open space. Neighbors may encounter each other repeatedly through a game or a gathering. This is a way of reading the country-club development model, rather than a claim that every Bermuda Dunes resident shares one lifestyle.

For the wider regional story, read how the Coachella Valley became a golf capital. Bermuda Dunes is one chapter in that larger transformation.

How tournament golf carried the name farther

In 1960, Bermuda Dunes joined Thunderbird, Tamarisk and Indian Wells as an original host of the Palm Springs Golf Classic. The five-day competition combined professionals and amateurs across four courses; Arnold Palmer won the inaugural event. Bob Hope’s official association followed in 1965.⁴

This mattered beyond the scorecard. A private club could become a setting watched and discussed by people who would never own a home there. Tournament coverage gave a local place name a recurring public life.

The event was a regional undertaking. Bermuda Dunes shared its early stage with neighboring clubs, and those separate communities should not be collapsed into a single “Palm Springs” location. Their combined visibility helped establish a recognizable winter-golf destination.

Bermuda Dunes and Arnold Palmer’s final PGA TOUR win

The most memorable single moment came on February 11, 1973. Palmer finished his victory in the Bob Hope Desert Classic at Bermuda Dunes. The PGA TOUR’s retrospective places the decisive celebration at the 18th green; its career record lists the tournament as the last of his 62 PGA TOUR wins.^5,6

That distinction deserves precise wording. This was Palmer’s final PGA TOUR victory, not the end of his playing career or his last win in every form of competition. The milestone is powerful enough without expanding it.

For someone arriving today, the historical connection gives an ordinary-looking fairway a different dimension. The landscape is not only a backdrop to homes. It has also held a public sporting memory. Our Arnold Palmer profile follows his wider connection with the valley.

A short timeline of Bermuda Dunes

1. 1953 · Water for Myoma

   The mutual water company is established before the country-club development.²

2. 1958 · A new development identity

   Club construction begins on February 14, with an island-inspired name.¹

3. 1960 · An original Classic host

   Bermuda Dunes joins the inaugural four-course event.⁴

4. 1962 · Another way to arrive

   The airport’s listed activation date is October 1962.⁷

5. 1973 · Palmer’s final TOUR victory

   The Classic finish becomes part of golf history.^5,6

The community is bigger than the country club

Bermuda Dunes is an unincorporated Riverside County community. It is not a separately incorporated city, and its name does not mean only the gated country-club neighborhood. County government provides local services in unincorporated areas, alongside its regional responsibilities.⁸

Dunes Air lists the airport’s activation in October 1962. Aviation belongs in the story, but it should not be treated as proof that every resident lives a fly-in lifestyle.⁷

For orientation, open the regional map. If you are considering living here, use the Bermuda Dunes housing-market page and Community Explorer alongside this history. A community name, a particular home and a club membership answer different questions.

What to look for in Bermuda Dunes today

Look at the relationship between houses and open space: where roofs sit low, where palms mark a view, and where the neighborhood opens toward the mountains. Then look beyond the club for the roads, businesses and aviation activity that make this a working community.

The club’s current site describes golf, dining, social events and other member activities. Arrange access before visiting private grounds; a place’s historic importance does not make its clubhouse, course or homes public attractions.⁹

The useful question is not simply which celebrities came here. It is how a recreational development helped turn a local name into a lasting identity. Myoma’s water infrastructure, the country club, tournament golf and the airport offer different parts of that answer. Seeing them together makes Bermuda Dunes easier to understand—and more interesting to photograph.