Tennis At Enchantment
Great package at Arizona's #1 Resort (Travel + Leisure pick)
www.enchantmentresort.com
Here's what others have had to say about Shadow Mountain Resort & Club and Desert Tennis Academy, Shadow Mountain.
"Travel 6000 miles and take 20 hours from the UK to get to this one-but worth it. As good as ever, units seem to be a little better than before. Karen, Mark and Bob in the pro-shop are top seeds when it comes to finding games-great people! Our 4th or 5th time here, will keep coming."—R.B., Int., March 2010
""—N.N., Adv. Int., January 2010
"As a 4.5 player I was very pleased with the pro staff and their ability to keep drills fast paced and in "play" like situations. I was in a group with equal playing ability and so it made the sessions very competitive and fun all at the same time. The pro staff in very talented and friendly. Great place to play tennis and get your game tuned up for competition."—K.B., Adv., September 2009
Tennis hostess Karen Haase been a fixture at Shadow Mountain for more than 20 years. A former top-ranked junior herself, 
she is one major reason that this unpretentious 125-room resort—whose chief amenities are 16 hard and clay courts and a figure-8 swimming pool—stands out as a haven for avid players. She is a master at arranging games and never waits to be asked. "When I look at the list of arriving guests and see names I know, I go ahead and set up games for them and then leave a message for when they check in," Haase says. "If they don't want to play they can cancel. And I like it when people who haven't been here call and let me know what they want. I think of it as being the cruise director and every day we have a big party. I love it."
A celebrated place to play, Shadow Mountain has also long had a Desert Tennis Academy, but in this case it took Michael McFarlane to infuse new life into that program and turn it into one of the nation's highly regarded camps. Since he arrived in June of 1997, he has fashioned a solid program consisting of three hours of technical work and drills in the morning and an optional two-hour singles or doubles session in the afternoon. And in late February 2010, Reed Anderson moved his tennis school to the resort, adding yet another layer of tennis instruction to an already solid tennis haven.
Shadow Mountain sits in a residential neighborhood a few blocks south of the celebrated boulevard of shops and restaurants called El Paseo. A high wall hides it from view. Beyond that wall is an unprepossessing collection of flat-roofed, two-story condominiums ranging in size from studios to three bedrooms. At the core of the resort is a large figure-8 swimming pool and the 16-court tennis complex. Life at Shadow Mountain revolves around those two amenities.
Pro Shop: 760-346-6123
Tennis Staff. Although tennis director Michael McFarlane played college tennis, his passion has always been to teach, and he revels in diagnosing and correcting technical flaws.
Tennis Programs. The Desert Tennis Academy offers two programs: a three-hour morning session and a two-hour afternoon singles or doubles session. They can be booked either together or separately. Since McFarlane took over the academy he has made several changes. "I've tried to enhance the stroke production and video analysis," he notes. "We hit a lot of balls but all have a purpose to them." Although advertised at a 5:1 student:pro ratio, these frequently run more like 4:1 or even 3:1, which means the camps can be fairly intense when that's what students want. 
Beyond the camps, Shadow Mountain has superb game matching under Karen Haase, who's been there more than two decades. It also runs a couple of social mixers each week (the best-attended on the weekends).
Courts & Fees. The main bank
of 10 hard courts 
(6
with lights) has been laid out in fairly orderly fashion
in banks of three or four running not north-south—the
preferred deployment—but northwest-southeast. The other
eight, five of which are clay, appear to have been shoehorned
in wherever there was room. One of those even runs east-west.
But though the layout suggests that the complex received
secondary treatment, it is in fact a focal point of the
resort. The courts flow from a two-story tennis clubhouse,
which rises at one end of the figure-8 pool. It contains
not only a full-service pro shop but also a small fitness
center (make that very small) and the resort's only restaurant:
the Courtside Cafe on the second floor overlooking the
courts and pool. Court
fees: None.
Golf Courses. The resort has no golf course of its own but does have the ability to book tee times at the adjacent Gene Sarazen-designed 5,418-yard, par-70 Shadow Mountain Golf Club, which is otherwise private, and can make arrangements to play elsewhere in the Coachella Valley.
Fitness Center. Located in the Tennis Clubhouse, this small room has a handful of cardiovascular machines and one Body Master weight-training station. There are also saunas and a massage room.
And ... Apart from the large figure-8 swimming pool and its adjacent Jacuzzi, there are three additional pools, one paddle tennis court, a basketball court, a volleyball court.
Accommodations at Shadow Mountain range from simple studios to three-bedroom condominiums. All have full kitchens, except for a few of the studios, which have either kitchens or hot plates, microwaves, and small refrigerators. All are individually owned and therefore subject to the decorating whims of the owners; however, the resort itself sets minimum standards of maintenance and furnishings for all units it accepts in its rental pool. You have a choice of locations: poolside (these are also closest to the courts), creekside, and fairway (the last overlooking the adjacent privately owned golf course). The larger units also have their own washer-dryers, while the rest have access to several strategically placed guest laundry rooms.
The least expensive units are the studios. The one I stayed in was essentially a junior suite with a Murphy bed, convertible sofa, full but compact kitchen equipped with a microwave and coffeemaker, a small bath with a shower but no tub, and a TV and VCR (tapes are available for rent in the resort office), and an outdoor terrace or balcony.
The resort has one small, unpretentious restaurant, the Courtside Cafe, which is open from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Located on the second floor of the tennis clubhouse, it has windows overlooking the teaching court and outside decks with tables overlooking the figure-8 pool. It serves breakfast and lunch daily—omelets, salads, sandwiches, smoothies. For evening dining, there is a Passport program that provides discounts at selected restaurants, many of them just a few blocks away on El Paseo Drive.
If you're looking for another haven for avid players, also check out:
If you're looking for other resorts that specialize in programs for groups and teams, also check out:
Lodging consists of studios, most with kitchenettes, and 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom condos. They frequently offer discounts on multiple-night stays as well as weekly and monthly rates. In general, summer is low season, spring, and fall are shoulder seasons, and winter is high season as far as rates go, though the rate structure is actually more complex than that. Check out their website for the specific dates that apply to each season.
Seasons. Although Shadow Mountain is open year-round, summer temperatures in the Palm Springs desert reach triple digits and that figure-8 pool will look much more appealing than the tennis courts. So for tennis, the season runs from October into early May.
General Tourist Information. Visit the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention & Visitors Authority website or contact them at 69-930 Hwy. 111, Suite 201, Rancho Mirage, CA 92270. Phone: 760-770-9000 or 800-967-3767 or Fax: 760-770-9001.