High Sierra golf is as good as it gets

Golf Betting Lines

06/25/2010 - Reno, NV (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Twenty-five years and one wife ago, I first discovered the Reno-Lake Tahoe area and was taken by the beauty of the desert, mountains and pine trees. I was also impressed with the variety of golf courses in the region and as a Seattle native, I thoroughly appreciated those abundant blue skies.

Make no mistake, besides the magnificent setting, I was attracted by the casinos - and still am. Where else can you get golf and gaming and great weather in a spot like this? Nowhere. That's why I keep coming back year after year.

In June, I played in a press junket called the High Sierra Media Tour in which writers sampled the area during a weeklong golf bender that included 36 holes every day if you were so inclined, which I was. We stayed at one hotel one night, another the next, playing courses in the morning and afternoon, and doing it all over again and again. It was wonderfully repetitive.

If you can't stand hot and humid weather, this is the place to be in the summertime, especially Tahoe, where the temperatures are typically in the 70s and 80s. And if you somehow still get overheated, take a dip in the lake - it's glacial-fed. If you get out of the lake and are still hot, cool down at the craps table - I found it to be downright frigid.

The golf is glorious. I'd suggest a week or two with three buddies on the same route we took, starting in Reno then heading to Carson City, South Lake Tahoe, North Lake Tahoe and Truckee. They're all jumping-off points for some of the best and more affordable courses you'll ever play.

The drives are mostly spectacular. Take the one up Kingsbury Grade from the Carson Valley on the way from Genoa to South Lake Tahoe, and if you have the time, drive up the west side of Lake Tahoe instead of the east side when going from end of the lake to the other. The west side features a not-to-be-missed view of Emerald Bay.

Here are some more trip tips that will make your golf vacation in Reno and Lake Tahoe a memorable one:

- After playing D'Andrea and marveling at the views of Reno below, stop at the High Sierra Casino on your way to the Arnold Palmer design at Dayton Valley. Have a burger and a malt at Johnny Rockets, make a bet on your favorite team at the sports book and look forward to your $40 round at Dayton Valley, knowing that if you were here last year, the same round would've cost you $80.

- Don't miss, and let me repeat this in bold face and capital letters, DON'T MISS playing at Genoa Lakes in the Carson Valley. You'll never realize how pretty the Carson Valley is until you're there, looking at the mountains that surround every inch of it. And the feeling you get when you play the course is almost mystical.

- If you hit a jackpot on a slot machine or just feel like splurging, play Edgewood at South Lake Tahoe. This is where they hold the annual American Century Championship celebrity tournament in July, and no matter what you shoot, you know you'll have a better score than Charles Barkley.

- Before leaving South Lake Tahoe, visit the Harvey's Casino sports book, but don't bet on Geoff Ogilvy to win the U.S. Open like I did (he missed the cut), and make a point of having breakfast at the Red Hut, a local greasy spoon that's a hangover helper.

- In the Truckee-North Lake Tahoe area, tee it up at Coyote Moon, Gray's Crossing and Old Greenwood, three pine-tree lined layouts that will immediately join your list of best courses you've ever played. Coyote Moon has some unforgettable holes with boulders around the greens, and one, the 13th, that is incredible - a severely downhill par-3 over a cavern that plays two to three clubs less than the yardage. Gray's Crossing used to be a very private club that is now open to the public, and Old Greenwood might be one of Jack Nicklaus' best.

- Put this one in the area of my own personal preference, but it could be yours too - I was dazzled by the Ritz Carlton where we stayed one night at Northstar, a ski area on the Northwest side of Lake Tahoe. But I got more of a kick out of my room at the Truckee Hotel the next night. It's Rustic with a capital R. The original hotel opened in 1873. When you ask for a wake-up call, they'll call your cell phone and have coffee ready for you in the morning, made by the cool guy with the bushy beard behind the desk who will show you a scrapbook and tell you all the stories behind this historic place. The Truckee Hotel, like the golf and everything else in the Reno-Lake Tahoe area, gets five stars from me.

For more information, visit www.golfthehighsierra.com.

Jim Moore is a sports columnist for seattlepi.com. You can reach him at jimmoore@seattlepi.com.