{"id":1812,"date":"2010-10-07T16:34:34","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T23:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jeffwallach.com\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2011-02-20T10:13:31","modified_gmt":"2011-02-20T17:13:31","slug":"edgewood-tahoe-a-modern-classic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/golf\/1812\/edgewood-tahoe-a-modern-classic","title":{"rendered":"Edgewood Tahoe, A Modern Classic"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Number 16.<\/p><\/div>\n

What can I say about Lake Tahoe\u2014\u201cthe jewel of the Sierras\u201d– that hasn\u2019t already been said . . .\u00a0 except maybe Hoo-chee Mama! Yabba Dabba Do! and Katie bar the door!\u00a0 Formed 5-10 million years ago by shifting faults that pushed up surrounding mountains (but through no fault of it\u2019s own), and by volcanic activity that dammed the Truckee river, the stunning, almost too-blue lake\u2019s average depth is nearly 1000 feet.\u00a0 The pristine waters are so clear that you could see a golf ball 75 feet below the surface\u2014and if you do, it\u2019s probably one of mine.\u00a0 Twenty-two miles long by twelve wide, and with 71 miles of shoreline, the lake holds 39 million gallons, or nearly the amount of Diet Coke that John Daly quaffs during a TOUR event.<\/p>\n

The peaceful Washoe Indians had the place to themselves until John Fremont, guided by forecaddie Kit Carson, \u201cdiscovered\u201d the lake in 1844.\u00a0 A decade and a half later, the Comstock silver lode was dug up nearby, and all hell broke loose.\u00a0 By the 1890s the miners had moved to San Francisco to start a football team, and rich city folk began visiting Lake Tahoe for recreational purposes.\u00a0 Resort development picked up in the 1950s, and surged when the winter Olympics were held at Squaw Valley, on the north side, in 1960.<\/p>\n

The land that would become Edgewood Tahoe golf course had been a Pony Express and Wells Fargo stage line stop when the Park family bought it in 1896 and began running some very lucky cattle in the meadows beneath the pines beside the lake.\u00a0 A later, more insightful Park hired architect George Fazio to build a golf course on the site in 1968.\u00a0 Fazio\u2019s nephew, Tom, has kept the work in the family by touching up the layout over the years.<\/p>\n

In 1980, Edgewood Tahoe hosted the first USGA event ever played in Nevada\u2014the US Public Links Championship, won by a Georgia Southern College junior named Jodie Mudd.\u00a0 In 1985, Miller Barber won the US Senior Open on the course by being the only player in the field to break par.\u00a0 The cut for the tournament was a robust, fourteen-over, 158.\u00a0 For many years, Edgewood has thrown a party called the Celebrity Golf Championship, where any athlete or entertainer with a familiar name and a ten handicap or lower can compete for the $500,000 purse.\u00a0 Favorites appearing in this 54-hole stroke play event have included John Elway, George Brett, Michael Jordan, Mario Lemiux, Bryant Gumbel, Dan Quayle, and many others.<\/p>\n

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Number 4.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Number 10.<\/p><\/div>\n

So how nice is this course that\u2019s on everyone\u2019s top 100 list and exudes the exclusivity and pool-table maintenance and throw-up fast greens you\u2019d expect at the toniest private club?\u00a0 For starters, it\u2019s post-card beauty looks almost touched up.\u00a0 It\u2019s got pine-scented forests, clear streams, views of the third-deepest so-damn-blue lake in America, with the snowy spines of the Sierras beyond.\u00a0 At over 6200 feet of elevation, you might hit an eight-iron 190 yards, and what could be more beautiful than that?\u00a0 And unlike the Donner party (whose motto was \u201cWe don\u2019t have any food, but we have each other\u201d), you can enjoy a great meal in the wood and glass clubhouse overlooking a golf course that combines the awesomely powerful visual poetry of Shaquille O\u2019 Neil in action with the refined manners and snappy good humor of Sir John Gielgud.<\/p>\n

The longest of four sets of tees plays to 7445 yards with a slope\/rating of 139\/75.7.\u00a0 Fourteen holes have water, and as the course routes through meadows and forests and over and around lakes, trees occasionally stand sentry, both in the fairways and in front of greens.\u00a0 But nothing at Edgewood seems tricked up or artificial, merely reverent.<\/p>\n

The first couple of holes provide a clean, classic introduction\u2014par fours with lakewater borders and smatterings of trees.\u00a0 Number one sports three bunkers, number two has none.\u00a0 The third is Edgewood\u2019s first great hole, a 599-yard epic dogleg right with trouble-making fairway bunkers loitering at the landing areas like greasers outside a corner store.\u00a0 The second landing is further compromised by water on the opposite side of the sand.\u00a0 From there, the hole snuggles into a chute and climbs to an elevated green hosting a congregation of trees and two front framing bunkers.<\/p>\n

Number four conjures both Spyglass and Shadow Creek with its pine clusters and rocky stream frolicking in the open.\u00a0 Another par five, of 532 yards, this hole features a bailout area to the right of the stream on the right, although the more traditional lay-up is between the creek and the bunkers left of it.\u00a0 But a perfect play here still leaves a nervy angle into the small, firm green.\u00a0 Trees first pose an unignorable vertical hazard on the 220-yard par three fifth, where a seemingly innocent pine guards the front left of the green, almost leaning in the doorway between bunkers and smoking a cigarette, thus menacingly discouraging a fade.\u00a0 Six will shiver your timbers; the approach on this mid-length par four is more daunting than a cop approaching a doughnut shop.\u00a0 If you\u2019re short, pull out your swim fins.\u00a0 If you\u2019re long and the pin is up front, you\u2019ll have a slippery downhill shot on a slick green, a choice not unlike that between death and bunga bunga.<\/p>\n

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Number 18.<\/p><\/div>\n

Consider ordering the hefty breakfast burrito at the turn to provide strength for the back nine, which opens with water and trees.\u00a0 On number eleven, a tee shot struck too far left will leave a defending pine between you and the severely front-dropping green.\u00a0 The middle holes on the back side will prove crucial to scoring before Edgewood eases up a little; the finish here is more dramatic than difficult.\u00a0 When you rip your drive past the fairway tree on 564-yard sixteen, you\u2019ll encounter your first direct view of the lake, which has lurked on the edge of consciousness for the past three hours.\u00a0 You knew it was there all along.\u00a0 You anticipated it.\u00a0 You felt the clean pull of its clear, blue waters.\u00a0 And finally, the course delivers it to you at just the right time.\u00a0 Lay-up 125 yards in front of a green horseshoed by bunkers and backdropped by the Lake.\u00a0 Number seventeen presents a perky par three that runs parallel to the water over a beach.\u00a0 Wind direction could prove to be the protagonist here. Edgewood Tahoe finishes with what could be the easiest birdie hole on the course\u2014unless you\u2019re basketball great Bill Laimbeer, who launched three balls into a water hazard (since dubbed \u2018Lake Laimbeer\u201d) from seventy-five yards when leading the Celebrity Tournament one year.\u00a0 Daring players might reach the green of this par five in two by massaging a fairway wood or long iron over a neck of water craning in from the left.<\/p>\n

Edgewood is one of those rare courses where you\u2019ll remember virtually every hole after your round.\u00a0 And if you came to Nevada to gamble, you can take some pretty good chances here.\u00a0 Even if you hit a hard eight when your point was four, the payoffs are still big.<\/p>\n

All photos by Rod Hanna.<\/p>\n

For further info call (775) 588-3566 or visit www.edgewood-tahoe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What can I say about Lake Tahoe\u2014\u201cthe jewel of the Sierras\u201d– that hasn\u2019t already been said . . .\u00a0 except… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3600,3603,4907,9,17],"tags":[2354],"class_list":["post-1812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-golf-tour","category-golf-the-high-sierra","category-oregon-golf-assoc","category-golf","category-courses-and-travel","tag-edgewood-tahoe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2010\/10\/Edgewood18A.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1812"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2225,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions\/2225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jeffwallach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}