Featured Golf Trip: Truckee, California

After much consideration, we’ve come to this conclusion: Truckee, California, is one of the most underrated golf trips in America.

It offers a little bit of it all: Great, scenic golf, including a PGA Tour stop. An optional night or two at the casinos in Reno. Chill cabin life in the mountains. Easy access to a boat day on Lake Tahoe. And a local scene that’s wonderfully low-key, speckled with dive bars and great, unpretentious food.

Our experience a couple years back on a bachelor trip was second to none. A group of six of us flew into Reno and stayed a night at the Peppermill Casino, gorging ourselves on all-you-can-eat sushi and indulging in some games of chance. The next morning, we dragged out of bed and teed it up on the way to our cabin in Truckee.

Among the options for golf: Coyote Moon, Gray’s Crossing, and Old Greenwood, which plays host to the PGA Tour’s Barracuda Championship. We stopped at Grizzly Ranch for 18 on our transition day from Reno to Truckee—and couldn’t recommend it enough, as it stood up to Old Greenwood in scenery and condition at greens fees of $185 compared to the latter’s $300ish. The pro shop was accommodating, too, letting us play as a fivesome as we awaited our sixth’s arrival that night.

Of course, Old Greenwood is a site to behold. It’s a serene trek cut out of the mountains and towering pines. You’ll hit chippy wedges over quiet little lakes and agonize over risk-reward club selection, like on the dangerously tempting short par-4 11th. The Nicklaus Signature design has fallen out of rankings favor in recent years, but once upon a time—in 2012—Golf Digest considered it the 77th best public in the U.S.

Next to Old Greenwood sits Gray’s Crossing; both are under the umbrella of Tahoe Mountain Club, which offers a variety of cottages tucked in and around the two courses. That’s where we stayed—and it didn’t disappoint.

From there, you’re five minutes from downtown Truckee and just a delightful strip of taverns and pubs and breweries and dives. We found it to be a perfect post-golf scene for a bunch of 30-somethings, with plenty to get into without all the noise and busy-ness of a big city (side note: please step off my lawn). We rounded out the trip by renting a boat on Lake Tahoe, where we glimpsed Tiger’s lair on Billionaire’s Row and heard our captain’s tales of celebs and mob ties and bodies that may or may not be lurking deep below.

All in all, Truckee remains one of our favorite golf trips ever, a can’t-miss experience that mixes a touch of casino-resort life with great golf and immaculate mountain vibes. It proves that sometimes the best golf trips aren’t the most obvious—they’re the ones that sneak up on you and leave you planning your return before you’ve even unpacked.

This piece originally ran in the GTG newsletter. Subscribe here for free and get pricing details alongside the weekly featured stop—plus news on openings, redesigns, and more—in your inbox each Thursday afternoon.