The Lakes Country Club

The Lakes Country Club is a private, member-owned country-club community in Palm Desert, California, where water is woven into the residential landscape. Lakes, fountains and cascading channels wind between low-rise homes, while broad golf fairways open toward the Santa Rosa Mountains.

Its identity comes from the whole setting: an all-condominium neighborhood, a 27-hole golf course, a substantial Racquet Center, dining venues and a modern Lifestyle & Wellness Center. Mark Miller’s 13 original aerial photographs, captured November 4, 2026, show how those pieces connect.

The Lakes at a glance

• Location: Palm Desert’s Country Club Drive corridor, east of Cook Street.
• Community: Private, gated and member-owned, with 902 condominium homes.
• Golf: Three nine-hole courses, originally designed by Ted Robinson, with later renovation and redesign by Casey O’Callaghan.
• Recreation: Tennis, pickleball, POP Tennis, neighborhood pools, a lap pool, fitness and wellness facilities.
• Membership: Residential social membership is included in HOA dues; residential golf membership is an additional option.

Where The Lakes sits in Palm Desert

The club and homeowners association’s published address is 161 Old Ranch Road, Palm Desert, CA 92211. The community sits along the Country Club Drive corridor, with Cook Street nearby providing a north–south connection toward Interstate 10 and the central Palm Desert area.

Country Club Drive places The Lakes among established residential communities, golf properties and resort destinations. Everyday shopping is available around Cook Street and Country Club Drive. El Paseo, Civic Center Park and McCallum Theatre lie farther south; regional destinations such as Acrisure Arena are reached by driving beyond the immediate neighborhood.

Find The Lakes on the DOI map to understand its position within Palm Desert. The marker is an orientation point, not a surveyed boundary or an individual home. For appointments, confirm the correct gate and access instructions with the host.

The landscape: water between the homes

The Lakes’ water features do more than decorate the edges of the golf course. In several of the photographs, narrow channels pass directly between residential clusters, widening into pools of water with fountains, rock edges and small planted islands. Other lakes sit against broad fairways.

This creates two different scales of scenery. A home may face an expansive golf corridor, or a more enclosed waterside garden framed by neighboring rooflines and palms. The close aerials show bridges, curved shorelines, lawns and pathways becoming part of the view from nearby patios.

The water features are part of a designed landscape. Their appearance, sound and relationship to a residence vary with the specific location. A fountain-side patio, a quiet bend in a channel and a home across from open fairway should be understood as different settings.

How the community developed

Developer Bill Bone began work on The Lakes in 1982, pairing condominium homes with golf, racquet sports and landscaped common areas. The original golf layout had 18 holes. Owners took possession of the community assets in 1986 and voted the following year to add another nine holes designed by Ted Robinson.

The next major chapter was the 20/20 Project, approved in 2019. It brought a new Lifestyle & Wellness Center, a clubhouse remodel and expansion, Charlie’s dining venue, and changes to the Racquet Center. The project’s completion was celebrated with the clubhouse grand opening in November 2021.

That history explains the combination visible today: mature residential landscaping and established architecture alongside substantially renewed social and recreation facilities.

Golf: three nines within one community

The Lakes has 27 holes, organized as the Lake, Palm and Mountain nines. Ted Robinson’s original design and later work by Casey O’Callaghan give the course its setting among water, bunkers, mature shade trees and tall palms.

The golf program includes a driving range, putting areas, chipping and bunker practice, and an 18-hole putting course. The club also offers instruction and organized golf activities. This is a private club environment: playing privileges depend on the relevant membership or authorized guest or tenant arrangements.

For a resident, the distinction is straightforward. A golf view can be part of the home’s location without conferring full golf privileges. Residential golf membership is offered as an enhancement to social membership. Current availability, dues, cart arrangements and any additional charges should be confirmed with the membership office.

Tennis, pickleball and the Racquet Center

The Racquet Center is a major destination within the community. Its published inventory includes eight hard tennis courts, two clay tennis courts, nine pickleball courts and four POP Tennis courts, with a pavilion overlooking stadium seating.

The different court types support more than one style of play. Tennis retains its full-court setting; pickleball provides a separate compact-court game; POP Tennis adds another option within the racquet program. The photographs show the scale of the complex and how it sits beside surrounding homes and landscaped grounds.

Lessons, clinics and help arranging games are part of the club’s program. Court reservations are required, and guest or tenant use follows the club’s arrangements. Someone evaluating the community for racquet sports should consider both the facilities and how the playing schedule fits their routine.

Fitness, wellness and swimming

The Lifestyle & Wellness Center expands the community’s recreation beyond golf and court sports. It includes strength and cardiovascular equipment, group-exercise space, dedicated spin and Pilates studios, and a schedule of classes and activities.

Its wellness facilities include spa treatment spaces, saunas and steam rooms. A 25-meter lap pool provides a different swimming experience from the smaller pools distributed through the residential neighborhoods.

The distinction is visible in the photographs: the lap pool is arranged for exercise beside the wellness building, while neighborhood pools are embedded among homes and landscaping. Pool-heating schedules vary seasonally and by pool, so the nearest pool’s current schedule matters more than a community-wide assumption.

Clubhouse dining and social spaces

The clubhouse is designed around both indoor gathering spaces and outdoor views. Broad glazing and terraces connect the building to the golf landscape, with the Santa Rosa Mountains forming the backdrop from favorable viewpoints.

Mountain View Grill, Bar & Terrace provides the main casual dining and bar setting. The club also identifies the Santa Rosa Room and Wine Room for additional dining experiences and gatherings. Charlie’s, named for the late golf professional Charlie Sipple, offers café-style food and a patio overlooking the driving range.

These are private-club venues with seasonal menus, service hours and event schedules. Their value is the ability to meet for a meal or spend time at the club within the community; they should not be confused with public restaurants offering unrestricted walk-in access.

The homes: an all-condominium community

The Lakes identifies 902 condominium homes. Its published location information describes residences from approximately 1,300 to more than 2,700 square feet. Individual homes can differ through floor-plan configuration and later alterations, so these figures describe the community rather than every current property.

The aerial photographs show an established, low-rise environment of tiled roofs, garages, courtyards, patios and planted common areas. Although the buildings have a residential scale, the community’s condominium structure is important: the ownership and maintenance framework differs from simply buying a detached house on an independent lot.

The most useful way to read the neighborhood is by the home’s relationship to its surroundings. Water frontage, fairway depth, nearby pools, other patios, streets and mature trees all shape the experience. Similar interiors can sit in quite different outdoor settings.

Light, privacy and the mountain outlook

At The Lakes, the immediate view and the distant view are separate qualities. Water, grass, palms and nearby buildings occupy the foreground. Mountains appear beyond them where the orientation and sightline allow.

The broad panorama shows the Santa Rosa Mountains across the wider Palm Desert landscape. Closer images show why that does not translate into an identical mountain view from every patio: rooflines and mature vegetation frame, interrupt or redirect the outlook.

Sun direction also changes how outdoor spaces feel. A patio looking across open fairway receives light differently from one sheltered by buildings or palms. The photographs document a November visit; they do not establish the afternoon exposure, privacy or year-round view of an individual home.

Everyday life beyond the main clubhouse

The community’s recreation park on Running Spring Drive adds neighborhood-scale activities, including a picnic and barbecue area, playground, bocce, basketball and a putting green. It provides another gathering point outside the golf, racquet and wellness buildings.

A dog park is also part of the amenity mix. Access is controlled and can be adjusted around golf and maintenance activity; the club requires pet registration and does not permit dog walking on the golf course. The relevant routes and current rules should be reviewed before treating fairways as general walking space.

These details make The Lakes more than a collection of homes around golf. It has several places to gather, exercise and spend time outdoors, with different facilities serving different parts of a resident’s day.

Membership and ownership: the useful distinction

Residential Social Membership is included in HOA dues, providing access to the clubhouse, pools, Racquet Center and Lifestyle & Wellness Center under the club’s rules. Golf is offered through an additional residential membership rather than being automatically included in the social category.

Guest and tenant privileges have their own conditions. Renting a home does not automatically reproduce every owner privilege, and golf access can depend on the membership attached to the property and the applicable package.

This page focuses on the location and community experience. Current assessments, transfer charges, golf costs, maintenance obligations and rental rules belong in a property-specific ownership review. The membership office’s published number is 760-610-8106; the club and association can be reached at 760-568-4321.

Explore The Lakes homes on Bloom, compare nearby communities in the Community Explorer, or browse the Palm Desert collection.

Frequently asked questions

Original photography by Mark Miller · November 4, 2026. Images document the community and do not indicate that a photographed home is for sale. Amenities, membership terms and access arrangements may change.