Desert Classic
golf tournament held in California, United States
The American Express (previously known as the Desert Classic, CareerBuilder Challenge, Palm Springs Golf Classic, the Bob Hope Desert Classic, the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, and the Humana Challenge) is a professional golf tournament in southern California on the PGA Tour. Played in mid-winter in the Coachella Valley, it is part of the tour's early season "West Coast Swing".
It previously had five rounds of competition (90 holes) rather than the standard of four rounds, and was known for its celebrity pro-am. For many years, the event was named for and hosted by entertainer Bob Hope and featured a number of celebrity participants.
In 2012, the Desert Classic changed to a traditional 72-hole format over three different courses with a 54-hole cut, similar to the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and ended their celebrity pro-am. The tournament is organized by the nonprofit Impact Through Golf, which took over from Desert Classic Charities in 2020.
History
Founded in 1960 as the Palm Springs Golf Classic, the tournament evolved from the Thunderbird Invitational that was held in Palm Springs the previous six years, from 1954 to 1959, but with a much smaller purse. The event was renamed the Bob Hope Desert Classic in 1965 and the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic in 1986.
Until 2012, its format remained unique among PGA Tour events, being played over five days and four different courses. In its first three years, the tournament was played at Thunderbird Country Club and Tamarisk Country Club, both in Rancho Mirage; Bermuda Dunes Country Club in Bermuda Dunes; and Indian Wells Country Club in Indian Wells.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Desert Classic” is golf tournament held in California, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Desert, Classic and golf, not as a finished interpretation.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q654498. Authority coordinates are 33.643, -116.257. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2012, 2020, 1960 and 1954.
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This entry incorporates text from “Desert Classic” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.