Tahoe Donner Golf Course

Beginning back in the 1920s, logging pine and fir was the prime industry in the Truckee area, keeping two sawmills operating. Then, in 1970, the Tahoe Donner Association was formed. The first home was built in 1972, and now there are more than six thousand, most of them second homes for owners from Sacramento and the Bay Area.

The golf course was planned as a feature that would attract people to the area. It worked then, and that same business plan works today. The Tahoe Donner Golf Course was designed by Bob Williams and opened for play in 1976. The original design was a good one then, narrow fairways and greens that called for a good understanding of strategy and a deft touch. When the association thought it needed to update the course it turned to Carey Bickler. He did not redesign the layout, but he made it correspond to the distances new equipment was allowing golfers to achieve. To appeal to a wider audience, new forward tee boxes were added and a general facelift was included. It didn't look all that bad before, but now it's simply great.

Construction began on the new clubhouse, called The Lodge, in the summer of 2004, and the grand opening was in September 2005. The Lodge, which blends seamlessly into the landscape, provides meeting facilities, a pub, an elegant banquet room and an American Bistro style dining room for Tahoe Donner's members and visitors. It also houses the golf shop and offices for the golf staff.

Right below the clubhouse is a putting area that has some of the features of greens on the course, not nearly as tough but good enough to get you comfortable with your stroke. A chipping area, with a flag to shoot for, is twenty steps to the right, and one of the most beautiful driving ranges you'll ever see is a few hundred yards away, it's well worth the trip, especially if you want to get prepared for the opening hole.

Since this is a residential area, the golf course is bordered by houses that for the most part are set back far enough that they don't interfere with play. Just once in a while are there some homes that intrude on the natural look.

This is a fun golf course to play. There is the allegation that golfers have to walk the course in single file because of its width. It isn't quite that narrow, since there are only four or five holes that make you hit your shots more accurately than you are used to. But that's good, isn't it?

The first is the number-one handicap hole, a 459-yard par-four, that by rights all first-time players ought to get to play twice. It is very narrow, the fairway slanting down from right to left with rough on both sides blending quite quickly into wilderness. About 150 yards from the green is a drainage ditch, dry most of the time but a hard place to escape, although it's out of reach from the tee for most players. From this distance, the green is a mere sliver sitting a little above the fairway. There is a bunker on the left side and a few small trees on the right that guard the two-tiered green. This, your first chance to challenge the course's greens, is a moment to savor, especially if you avoid a three-putt.

Trees standing outside of the tree line on the right, a few yards into the groomed fairway, are a very nice but sinister design detail. Though not visible from the tee, once you get closer they can become an obstruction as solid as a wall.

The second hole is a 513-yard par-five, the narrow fairway rising to a plateau about 250 yards away, then for the last eighty yards dropping about 20 feet down to the green. The green is not too wide and fairly deep, but still there is a danger of running off the back.

As I'm walking the course, it occurs to me that golfers riding in carts miss a lot of the natural beauty as it unfolds around you, the placement of obstacles that mostly are not obvious from the side in a speeding cart, and just plain being with yourself and the course.

The third is a fairly long par-four at 439 yards. With a good drive you might have a middle iron left to the green. Contradicting common configuration, the fairway gets wider as you get closer to the green. The green is about forty-five yards deep and has undulations on top of undulations. Getting your approach shot close to the hole would be a good thing.

The fourth, the first par-three, is about two hundred yards to a green that is about ten or fifteen feet above the teeing ground, and is protected by three bunkers, one of which wraps around half the front. The green rises steadily to the back, making a putt coming back down a heart-pounder.

Number five is a par-four of only 377 yards with a rather wide fairway and not much trouble around the green. This will just get you warmed up for the sixth, the feature hole, a par-four of 357 yards. Starting out, the fairway has a slight rise, presenting a horizon of woods on the right and a thirty-yard-long bunker on the left, along with a huge tree smack dab in the middle 180 yards from the tee. There are two options: get past the tree on the right or get past it on the left. Either is good and sets up a second shot to a green that is trapped on the right, surrounded by tall pine trees and quite a bit below your feet. About fifty yards short of the green are two large pines with the fairway running between them that can make this shot a bit like kicking a field goal.

Number seven, a par-three of medium length at 163 yards that was recently refurbished, will usually play downwind. This beautiful setting deserves, no, demands a good shot. The green is difficult to read, given the many undulations, putting emphasis on club selection and execution to get close. The bunker on the left side has a steep face, and the opening to the green is mounded. The eighth hole is a downhill, dogleg-right par-four of 470 yards. From the tee there is an outcropping that juts into the fairway, fifteen or twenty yards, reducing it to half its width. Getting past this obstacle and cutting off as much of the corner as possible makes the shot to the green, which has to carry a trench, almost routine, almost.

The 550-yard ninth also was given a coat of new grass and new irrigation, but the same long look was kept. It will take even big hitters two good shots to get to the green in regulation. There are some bunkers, a small one on the left and an eighty-foot sculpted monster on the right, to show you where and how far you must hit your drive. The green is well bunkered, as is the left fairway short of the green.

The back nine starts with a virtual clone to the first hole. It runs in the same direction and is parallel to number one but is about thirty yards shorter. The eleventh, a par-five of only 450 yards, presents a most intimidating view from the tee. The fairway curls slightly to the right, rises as it goes along and seems to get narrower. The right side of the fairway is banked, directing balls back into play. The left side's thick brush and trees, however, make that side not so inviting. The green has no bunkers, which is about the only solace on this fiendish little devil of a hole.

The twelfth is a par-three of 200 yards, with the flat, thirty-five-yard deep green rising toward the back. It is probably the easiest green on the course to read. The thirteenth is a par-four of only 320 yards that doglegs severely to the left. It's only a good five-iron to the mounded turn, then a six- or seven-iron to get to the large green that, uncharacteristically, is easily read.

Number fourteen, a par-four of 391 yards, plays longer than that. There's a trench in the landing area that needs to be carried and another that requires you to play short. There are some bunkers beyond the second trench that aren't really in play. The green, large and intimidating, returns to the tough, undulating mode. The fifteenth, a par-five that is 519 yards long, has drainage ditches running diagonally across the fairway twice, neither of which should be in play. The green sets up nicely, with bunkers left and right but a fairly wide opening to the putting surface. This hole decides many a competition.

Sixteenth is the number-two handicap hole, a 453-yard par-four. With a very slight rise in combination with a relatively narrow fairway this hole has reason to be so high on the handicap pole. Seventeen is a lengthy par three at 226 yards, mostly downhill to a large, undulating, bunkered green that is very hard to hit and once on even harder to read. The finishing hole is 422 yards long, starting severely downhill. The tee shot should reach a relatively flat area that cannot be seen from the tee; in fact there is a periscope to let you ascertain that the group in front has left. The shot to the green is wonderful. Just in front is a brook that has plenty of tall grasses and balloons out into a little pond. The green is heavily bunkered and again can be hard to read.

Competitions and tournament play are the lifeblood of golf, so it is good to see that there are several active groups at Tahoe Donner. There is a Men's Club that meets every Wednesday at high noon and a Woman's Club, as well as a Nine-hole club for women, both of which meet every Tuesday morning. The inaugural year for the Mark Wellman Celebrity Golf Challenge, a fund-raising event that will benefit disabled athletes, was 2005. Many celebrities as well as Olympians came to Truckee to participate, which made it a very successful event at a very successful golf facility.