The Challenge

With a redesign of the award-winning Indian Wells Golf Resort’s Players Course looming, the City of Indian Wells sought to preserve the course’s legacy and vision by creating a video showcasing the Golf Resort’s history and design. The Golf Resort is a vital City asset that helps drive tourism, generates significant revenue and serves as a source of community pride. The City tapped Tripepi Smith to produce this compelling video to honor the original work, educate residents and build excitement for the changes.

Our Approach

The Tripepi Smith team began by working to understand the Golf Resort’s significance to the community and to identify key storytelling elements. We quickly recognized the importance of featuring the course’s original architects, renowned golf course architects John Fought and Clive Clark, whose vision helped shape the course into the acclaimed destination resort that exists today. Fought is leading the charge for the Players Course transformation.

Tripepi Smith developed a one-day production strategy that started with creating an authentic conversation between the architects and Golf Resort General Manager Robin Graf. This provided an opportunity to reminisce about their work, share their passion for the course and discuss the Golf Resort’s impact. Our team blended their personal reflections with scenic walkthroughs of the course to showcase the stunning visuals of the Resort. We also set aside time to capture additional scenic footage and behind-the-scenes content that would help tell Fought’s vision for the redesign to the public.

Once filming was completed, Tripepi Smith organized everything into a 10-minute video that captured the unique personalities and design brilliance of the architects. It showcased the technical aspects of the course’s design and the passion and creativity that helped to transform the Indian Wells Golf Resort into a world-class destination.

Results

The video debuted during the City’s Strategic Planning session, earning praise from both the City Council and community members. Given the enthusiasm and storytelling quality, the City requested the video be extended to 13 minutes.

The extended video was then distributed twice to more than 6,000 email subscribers. A dedicated email about the video led to 427 clicks, and more than 1,000 people clicked the City newsletter that promoted the video.

Tripepi Smith also shared the video on social media. As of June 2025, it collected:

  • 1,000 views on YouTube
  • More than 60 hours of watch time on YouTube
  • 100 views on Facebook
  • 19 views on X