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Orlando Sentinel - Sierra golf courses swing united
Released on: Sep 16, 2007
ROD HANNA/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The golf course at Squaw Creek is among those participating in the Golf the High Sierra promotion. Tourism officials and business leaders say the joint campaign has worked well.
By SCOTT SONNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RENO, Nev. — There were a few skeptics when tourism officials and business leaders first approached dozens of golf courses along the Sierra’s eastern front about pooling their resources to help promote the area as a golfing destination.
Why would anyone want to help their competitors?
Nearly a decade later, from the Carson Valley to Reno and the mountain courses north of Lake Tahoe, the verdict is unanimous.
“It’s a great promotion,” says Darryle Fukano, one of the pros at Empire Ranch Golf Course along the Carson River.
“We kind of are competing against each other but also trying to help each other out. Everybody tries to find a niche. It runs the whole range of local munis [municipal courses], all the way through Tour qualifying courses.”
Empire Ranch is one of the courses that make up the “Divine Nine” in Carson City and the neighboring Carson Valley. The nine courses launched their first media tour in 1998.
About the same time, a separate joint venture was hatched to the north — “Golf the High Sierra” — now with 20 courses.
Together, the Divine Nine and Golf the High Sierra ventures include courses designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., George Fazio, Hale Irwin, Peter Jacobsen, Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.
“The golf around here is phenomenal,” says Ben Wright a former golf commentator for CBS. “I had really no idea how beautiful the country is around here.”
Visitors planning golf vacations here could play one course in the morning and one in the afternoon, for two weeks or more, without ever playing the same course twice.
For example, visitors could tee off in the morning at Nicklaus’ Old Greenwood on the edge of Truckee, Calif., and play in the afternoon in Reno at Jones Sr.’s LakeRidge with its signature island green. Or play Irwin’s The Resort at Red Hawk in neighboring Sparks at daybreak and Fazio’s Edge-wood Tahoe Golf Course at South Lake Tahoe as the sun sets over the Sierra.
While golfing is year-round in the valleys around Carson City and Reno, there is often snow December-May at the higher elevations. So this is peak season for playing at the courses on top of the mountain range at Lake Tahoe and Truckee — such as Squaw Valley, Old Greenwood and Grays Crossing.
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IF YOU GO
Divine Nine: divinenine.com or 1-877-697-4653.
Golf The High Sierra: golfthehighsierra.com or 1-877-332-4465.
Nevada Commission On Tourism: travelnevada.com.
Divine 9 Golf Courses
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