I had a brief trip to Tahoe at the begining of the week having arranged to play Edgewood G.C. The reservation was screwed up, so returned to the north shore and played The Resort at Squaw Creek. They are awfully proud of their Audubon Society accolade. As with Spanish Bay, I am immediately put on alert when I hear the words " environmentally sensitive areas." The marsh grasses that can be found on either side of most fairways are basically out of bounds. It would seem as though the staff know that they have the greatest annuity in golf ball sales. The wooden slatted pathways over the wetlands for golf carts, make such a racket that one thinks of driving over the 'pave' in France. All in all I would rather have gone to the dentist.
As luck would have it I was directed to the Coyote Moon G.C. in nearby Truckee. At 6.30am I called the shop to see if I could get an early time, by a stroke of luck I was told to be out there at 8.30am. There had been a slight frost delay, so teed off a few minutes later.
I found a stunningly beautiful course whose original routing by Homer Flint was through an old logging tract. The final touches were initated by Brad Bell of Saramento. The course has seventeen holes that require thought an good shot-making, the eighteenth however is a short par 4, an elevated green and a bit of an anti-climax. Forget Squaw Creek and Edgewood, play Coyote Moon.
There is one caveat I should make, especially to my old friend Dan King, I'm not sure I would want to walk it in hot weather and over six thousand feet elevation.