Explaining 'the Indio Effect' in Golf
What is the Indio effect? The short version: It's a term that described the tendency of putts on the Mission Hills CC golf course to break in the direction of the city of Indio, California, even when (in some instances) a golfer could not read the green as breaking that way.
The Indio effect was sometimes referred to a "a mysterious pull" being exerted on golf balls. But, in fact, it was just the slope of the greens doing what contours on greens always do.
The LPGA major that was played at Mission Hills Country Club, in Rancho Mirage, Calif., went by several names over its years there, most notably the Dinah Shore Colgate, the Nabisco Dinah Shore, the Kraft Naft Nabisco Championship, and the ANA Championship. After 50 years at Missions Hills, the tournament left California and moved to Texas. And broadcast references to the Indio effect ceased.
(During broadcasts of a PGA Tour tournament also played in the Coachella Valley, the event that was for decades known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic, one might still hear references to the Indio effect. But the term was always most-used during and most-associated with the LPGA's Mission Hills major.)
Indio is a city to the southeast of Mission Hills Country Club. The Coachella Valley region also includes well-known golf cities such as Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells and La Quinta. Indio is often referred to as the lowest point in the area, and, in fact, the city is slightly below sea level.
Longtime members of Mission Hills Country Club, and LPGA veterans who played many times in the Mission Hills major, recognized over time that putted balls tended to break toward Indio. So knowing where Indio is in relation to the green being played at Mission Hills can provide valuable insight into how any given putt might break.
What causes the Indio effect? Why do many putts at Mission Hills break toward Indio even if the break might not appear to the golfer to be in that direction? For the same reason all putts that break do so in a given direction: because of the contours of the greens. Indio itself has nothing to do with it. There is no "pull" coming from Indio; there is nothing magical or mystical about it, as some commentators imply. Any putt at Mission Hills (or any other area course) that breaks toward Indio does so because of the specific contours of the specific green being putted.
If a putt breaks toward Indio despite the golfer reading the break differently, that is either because a given golfer mis-read the green, or merely due to an optical illusion.
"Indio effect" is sometimes used as a much broader term for "mysterious pulls" that locals know about their home golf course. For example, a golfer at Podunk Municipal might realize over time that most putts, coincidentally, break in the direction of the Walmart over yonder, and tell a newbie to the course, "Our Indio effect is that Walmart — if you are unsure about how a putt breaks, it probably breaks in that direction."
Golfers who travel to the Palm Springs/Palm Desert areas in California to play golf will probably hear from local golfers and caddies all about the Indio effect.
Photo credit: Northwalker, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
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TheGolfChick.com. "Question About the Indio Effect," https://www.thegolfchick.com/?tag=indio-effect.
Mell, Randall. "2012 LPGA season full of plot twists," NBC Sports, https://www.nbcsports.com/golf/news/article-randall-mell-2012-lpga-season-full-plot-twists.
Stanger, Rob. "Golf Tip: Keys to winning the Kraft Nabisco," The Desert Sun, March 31, 2010.