Facility Spotlight: Deep Canyon Tennis Club
As the calendar turned another page, Larry Hunter said goodbye to March and to one of the busiest months of the year.
The Deep Canyon Tennis Club is bustling throughout the month of March with local members and Deep Canyon residents excited about all the tennis being played for three weeks down the Highway 111 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden just six miles down from the Palm Desert club where the BNP Paribas is held.
Mid-March brings the popular DCTC Can-Am tournament with more than 40 matches representing all levels of tennis in men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles were played, which, of course, was followed by a party for all participants.
Then the Adidas Easter Bowl rolls into town, as the nation’s top juniors took to the courts, using some of the 12 courts at the facility.
Hunter has been the Tennis Director at Deep Canyon since 1994 and is assisted by 35-year teaching pro Steve Vaughan. In 2002, Vaughan was the Pacific Northwest USPTA Coach of the Year and in 2009 he was awarded the PNW USPTA Tennis Industry Award.
“It’s a very active tennis community and they really enjoy this entire month of activity,” Hunter said. “We have members who attend the matches at the BNP and others who volunteer. It’s what everyone is talking about this time of year.”
The Easter Bowl was no different. “It’s amazing how good the kids are and the members can’t get enough of it,” said Hunter, who had the Stadium Court named after him in 2017. “It’s strange when they leave because it becomes really quiet around here.”
But not as quiet as June 15-September 15 when the facility is shut down because of the intense desert heat in the Coachella Valley.
The Deep Canyon Tennis Club website bills itself as, “a vacation destination in the heart of Palm Desert, where you’ll find 12 tennis courts, two tennis pros…And the most congenial, friendly group of people you’ll find anywhere!”
DCTC has as many swimming pools and tennis courts with 12 each, and also has six pickleball courts, a Bocce ball court, a putting green, a work-out room, library and clubhouse.
Hunter said the tennis players and pickleball players are now cordial toward each other, but it wasn’t always that way. “We’ve resolved our differences and we are all getting along now,” he said. “Our past fights seem like a distant memory now.”
DCTC players also participate in the Coachella Valley Grand Prix Tennis which holds monthly tournaments on the various court surfaces throughout the valley. A team cup competition is also held in November.
For more information on Deep Canyon Tennis Club, go to: http://www.deepcanyontennisclub.org/