R.D. Hubbard led a group of Member investors in the purchase of BIGHORNs land and development rights in 1996. Over the ensuing 25 years their vision was realized by Hubbard’s innovation and calculated risk taking to achieve a community lifestyle for the whole family. Hubbard and the investor group reinvested profits in creating a campus of amenities in a private club the scope of which had never been done before. The first private club in the Coachella Valley and likely most everywhere else to combine in one Club and high end community separate Spa, Salon & Fitness Center, Marketplace boutique market, outstanding private stand-alone-Steak House restaurant, Golf House patio restaurant, Golf teaching facility, cutting edge, modern Clubhouse, two Championship Golf Courses and two driving ranges, with dog and kids parks and views of valley and mountains, immediately accessible hiking trails.
What current and past projects that you’ve worked on are you particularly proud of? While a simple renovation to a 20-year old clubhouse would have sufficed for most if not all very successful clubs, BIGHORN trailblazed on a large scale. The old clubhouse was razed to the ground—something no club in the Coachella Valley and likely anywhere else has done before—and in its place was erected an extraordinary $70 million masterpiece. But even “extraordinary” isn’t adequate to describe this modern edifice, let alone all it brings to the member experience.
What is the ethos behind your business? It’s casual and comfortable in high-quality amenities and surroundings. There really aren’t any rules here except being courteous and to never hold anyone up on the golf course. Members and their families can wear denim throughout the Clubhouse and to all of the dining venues including the fine dining Steak House and hip bistro Pour House. BIGHORN Members love the lifestyle so much that it now draws second and third generations of owners. Over the last five years, 164 new Members have joined BIGHORN and purchased homes. They’ve been welcomed into the fortunate and exclusive community of only 525 families living BIGHORN’s lifestyle.
What makes your business high-end? For over 20 years, BIGHORN Golf Club has embodied everything a luxurious, private golf community should be--and thanks to passionate, talented staff and solid financial base, its legacy of excellence and innovation lives on. It’s transportive. It’s a place of pure natural and created beauty and endless possibility. It’s everything R.D. Hubbard envisioned when he and 20 fellow members purchased the club back in 1996.
What do you think sets you apart from your competition? BIGHORN is a self-contained community developed over time by leaders who themselves lived in very high-end exclusive communities. Their goal was to improve on their own experience and innovate beyond what had been previously acceptable. This is especially relevant and desired today. BIGHORN offers an ultra-convenient, varied club lifestyle, at the highest level of quality, but without the typical formalities of most other clubs. There are many private club developments, but BIGHORN stands apart as a true community with the bonus that it offers more than any other Club in the Coachella Valley and Southern California.
What unique services do you offer? BIGHORN boasts five-star amenities in a campus of dedicated facilities from exquisite dining experiences at the Canyons Steak House to the variety and convenience of the boutique Marketplace offering Starbucks coffees, smoothies, wines and sundries where you can pick up chocolates and fresh flowers or drop off your dry cleaning while checking your email in this internet café. It’s all right next to the Kiddin’ Around Play Park and Dog Park. The BIGHORN Spa & Wellness Center is a full-service salon, offering luxurious spa services, cosmetic treatments, expansive fitness rooms and fitness classes and personal training. It even offers a sub-zero cryotherapy chamber. The Vault is another first-of-its-kind experience. In the fall of 2015, BIGHORN created a “club within a club” with the opening of an ultra-luxe auto gallery and Redline Lounge sports bar called The Vault where Vault Members display and enjoy their classic, luxurious and exotic machines. The current waiting list is proof of The Vault’s popularity and uniqueness.
Please share what is up next for you and the business in terms of future launches, collaborations, openings or any news we can buzz. BIGHORN is always innovating, its management is always in “research and development” mode and annually unveils some renovation or new amenity. There are also long range goals that will keep BIGHORN relevant into the future. Any club in full mode success that will tear down a functioning clubhouse because it doesn’t best suit its members’ needs, will always boldly go where no club has gone before.
Is there anything else you’ d like to add or think we should know about your work? BIGHORN truly can’t be adequately described in writing or in images on a page or in video, it must be experienced. Once experienced, then it becomes obvious how unique and bespoke it is.
Photography by: BIGHORN Properties
