"You can pretend to be rich and get away with it. But as I found out when I golfed Journey at Pechanga, you can't pretend to be a good golfer when you're not.

The course is carved into the foothills that guard the Temecula Valley, patches of green and narrow fairways that drop off suddenly into deep scrub-filled gorges. It is an amazing course.

The new clubhouse is amazing, as well, as were the Titleist clubs I rented. Later, when the casino public relations manager, Robert Bledsoe, asked me what I thought of Journey, I said I wished I'd invested in a golf ball company before I teed off. I think I lost at least four boxes of balls. I would have gone after them if not for the signs that read "Beware: Rattlesnakes."

The course was exhilarating and beautiful, even if my golf abilities are not. The golf cart even had a GPS system fixed to the dash. It told me how far my drive was and how far the pin was. At the approach of each tee box, a mellow voice emerged from the console and gave me a little cultural and language lesson. (I later found out it was the voice of Mark Macarro, the energetic and intrepid young chairman of the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians.) It was interesting to find out that the "willow was the most common tree in the region" and that "the Luiseño Indians used it for a variety of purposes.""

Get the Story:
David Treuer: An American Indian's Journey in the Land of Indian Casinos (Slate 8//13)