For most of its history, the Racquet Center at The Lakes ran three sports across 23 courts: ten for tennis, split between eight hard courts and two clay, four for pop tennis, and nine for pickleball. That was the configuration listed as recently as last year. Sometime since, the count shifted. The club's current numbers show 22 courts covering four sports, with Spec Tennis added alongside tennis, pickleball, and pop tennis. The Lakes now describes itself as the only facility in the Coachella Valley offering all four disciplines in one place.
A resident who hasn't checked the club's own site recently might not know this happened. The court total actually dropped by one, which tells you the change wasn't expansion so much as reconfiguration: some existing court space was converted rather than added onto. If you've been signing up for tennis or pickleball the same way you have for years, it's worth understanding what moved and why it matters for how court time gets booked this season.
What Actually Changed on the Courts
The math is simple to state and slightly less simple to feel from the sign-up sheet. Before, the Racquet Center split its courts three ways. Now it splits them four ways, with one fewer court total to work with.
| Configuration | Sports Offered | Total Courts |
|---|---|---|
| Previous | Tennis, Pickleball, Pop Tennis | 23 |
| Current | Tennis, Pickleball, Pop Tennis, Spec Tennis | 22 |
What this means in practice is that the club has carved out dedicated space for a fourth racquet discipline without adding new square footage to the property. Pickleball's rise over the past several years pushed a lot of clubs in the Valley to convert tennis courts into pickleball courts. The Lakes appears to have done something more deliberate: it kept its tennis and pickleball footprint largely intact and added a new sport into the mix rather than simply expanding an existing one. That's a different bet than most private clubs in the area are making, and it's the reason the club can now claim a distinction none of its neighbors can match.
If you play regularly, the practical takeaway is to check the current court assignments before you show up expecting the same lineup you used last winter. A facility that reconfigures courts to fit a new sport is also a facility where peak-hour availability for your usual game may look different than it did a season ago.
Where to Actually Eat Inside Your Own Clubhouse
The clubhouse renovation that reshaped the property gave The Lakes four distinct dining and event spaces, and residents who haven't used all of them are missing some real variety within a five-minute golf cart ride of home.
Charlie's is the casual anchor, the room built for a burger and a drink after a round rather than a reservation-required evening. The Mountain View Grill & Terrace does the version of that same casual meal but with the clubhouse's namesake view, opening onto the Santa Rosa Mountains for lunch or a relaxed dinner. The Wine Room is built for something more intimate, the kind of small group dinner that doesn't need the whole dining room. The Santa Rosa Room handles the other end of the spectrum entirely, sized for private parties and larger gatherings rather than a Tuesday night meal for two.
The club describes its cuisine across these rooms as farm-to-table, which in practice means the menu leans on seasonal ingredients rather than a fixed rotation. If your mental map of the clubhouse still centers on one dining room, this is the season to try the other three. Four rooms with four different registers, from a casual burger to a private dinner, is a wider range than a lot of country clubs in the Valley offer under one roof.
The Practice Facility Behind the Scorecard
The golf side of The Lakes doesn't get the same attention as the clubhouse or the racquet sports, but the practice facility is worth knowing in detail if you play even occasionally. It includes a 20-station driving range, two separate putting greens, a chipping green, and a dedicated area for pitch and sand bunker practice. That's a fuller practice setup than the course's reputation as a resort-style layout might suggest.
The 27 holes themselves are organized as three nines, each with its own character: North/East, East/South, and South/North. The Lakes is the only Palm Desert club offering three separate nine-hole courses rather than one continuous 18 or 27-hole routing, which means the combination you play changes the character of the round depending on which two nines you pair. Water comes into play on 23 of the 27 holes, a Ted Robinson signature that shows up in the lakes, waterfalls, and fountains woven through nearly every fairway.
The Clubs Within the Club Are Waking Up for Fall
Beyond golf and racquet sports, The Lakes runs what it calls "Clubs within the Club," smaller interest groups that meet on their own schedules throughout the season. The current roster includes:
- Fly fishing
- A literary group
- A wine society
- Bridge
- Mahjongg
- Poker
These groups tend to be where the actual social texture of a private club lives, separate from the golf leaderboard or the tennis ladder. As the desert's traditional social season ramps back up through the fall months, these smaller clubs are typically the first calendars to fill in, often before the big holiday events get scheduled. If you moved into The Lakes in the off season and haven't found your way into one of these groups yet, early fall is the window when new members are easiest to fold in, before weekly slots lock into their winter rhythm.
What the Racquet Center Change Actually Says
The renovation that gave The Lakes its current clubhouse and 14,000-square-foot fitness center was a headline moment when it happened. Adding a fourth racquet sport years later, quietly and without fanfare, is a different kind of signal. It suggests the club is still actively deciding what its amenities should be rather than treating the last major renovation as the finished product. For a resident, that's worth knowing heading into a season where court time, dining room choice, and club sign-ups all shift slightly from what you might remember.
If you're trying to figure out where Spec Tennis actually fits into your week, or you want the fastest read on which of the four dining rooms suits Friday night versus a Tuesday lunch, Benjamin Melendez keeps closer tabs on what's actually changing inside The Lakes than most people who only visit for a round of golf.
