Best golf courses near Truckee, 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.

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.

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.