Best golf courses near Lake Tahoe, CA

Back in the 1960s, a forest south of Truckee, Calif., served as a location for the filming of the popular TV western “Bonanza.” Now, the area near Lake Tahoe is a gold mine for impressive golf experiences, with a half-dozen high-end public courses, including PGA Tour host site Old Greenwood, and a couple of private gems. And in terms of gold, the standard for golf-and-ski living in all of America is Martis Camp. We say that emphatically because nowhere else can residents and their visitors play a mountainous and challenging Tom Fazio layout—Scottie Scheffler won the U.S. Junior Am here—and when winter arrives, take a quick shuttle from home to a private ski lift for the slopes at Northstar. Fazio has called this site one of the finest natural pieces of property on which he’s ever created a golf course. It has pines, firs, hemlocks and rocky outcroppings on nearly every hole, particularly the 18th, where the clubhouse sits atop a 70-foot-high wall of granite behind the green. Fairways are broad, though hazarded by squiggly bunkers in certain spots, and some greens have trunks of tall Ponderosa pines uncomfortably close. So gorgeous is Martis Camp that one critic called it “a private-gated national park experience.” The many amenities feel both natural for the setting and fanciful at the same time. The 18-hole putting course, now popular among high-end resorts, is among the best of its kind, winding through the multi-million-dollar properties. There is an 18,000-square-foot Family Barn that hosts activities all year long—the Beach Boys have played there—along with bike and walking trails, a private beach and dining options on the shores of north Lake Tahoe. Three restaurants on site, including one for fine dining, can keep you on the property for days, and there's even a cool "Lost Library," a cozy cabin tucked in the woods, replete with relaxing porch swings, that offers a quiet escape. Bonanza? Martis Camp fits that bill.

One gets the feeling Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw looked long and hard at this mountain property on the east side of Lake Tahoe before agreeing to take the job. On one hand, the site is gorgeous, an elevated evergreen forest with views of the surrounding Sierra Nevadas and distant valleys. On the other, it was far more rugged than they preferred and would prove challenging to link up 18 well-connected holes on such vast terrain. Ultimately, beauty won out and they were able to find enough calm ground—especially from holes 10 through 15—to make the journey around it seem meditative and not a lurching, adrenaline-filled rush. The boulder-strewn site recalls parts of Rock Creek Cattle Company in western Montana, currently 65th on America's 100 Greatest Courses, and the off-site views and the way fairways and greens blend into the native grasses and conifers bring to mind Gozzer Ranch, ranked No. 43. Pretty good company.

Situated a few miles north of Lake Tahoe, Lahontan is a Tom Weiskopf design that weaves through the densely forested landscape. Weiskopf balanced playability and challenge, presenting narrow corridors off many tees that open to forgiving fairways and large greens. Lahontan is an aesthetically pleasing layout, playing among towering pines and wispy fescue set against a mountain backdrop.

Edgewood Tahoe is one of golf’s most televised courses as the annual host of the American Century Championship. It also holds the distinction of being the only course in Nevada to have held a USGA championship, hosting a U.S. Senior Open and a U.S. Amateur Public Links in the 1980s. Once a member of Golf Digest America’s 100 Greatest Courses, Edgewood Tahoe is as telegenic as they come with fairways framed by stately pines, greens flanked by sparkling ponds and several holes positioned on Lake Tahoe, including the final three. At over 6,000 feet elevation, the ball flies roughly 10 percent further than sea level.

Old Greenwood is one of two 18-hole courses at Tahoe Mountain Club, and since 2020 the Jack Nicklaus signature design has hosted the PGA Tour’s modified stableford event, the Barracuda Championship. Winding through pine forests, meadows, and hilly terrain, Old Greenwood is both a challenging and aesthetically pleasing course.

In the mid-2000s, Kyle Phillips renovated this Robert Trent Jones Sr. design just as he did at Spain’s famed Valderrama, host of the 1997 Ryder Cup. Make sure that you’re in control of your start line on your tee shots, as stately pines guard many of the tees and fairways. The course features a blend of doglegs moving in each direction, often severely. At over 6,000 feet elevation, the ball flies roughly 10 percent further than at sea level.