Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course
As the second installment in our Golf and Gambling series, we explore six additional destinations that are perfect for a day on the course followed by an evening on the gaming floors.
Tunica, Mississippi
Tunica reinvented itself in the early 1990s as a Mississippi River casino hub and has never looked back. The gaming corridor along the river features major properties from Gold Strike Casino Resort to Hollywood Casino Tunica. Golfers are drawn to the region’s understated but solid course offerings, including River Bend Links, which plays along the natural contours of the Delta’s flat, dramatic terrain. The lodging packages at the major resorts represent extraordinary value and provide fine steakhouses, live entertainment, and world-class gaming at prices that make Las Vegas blush. Tunica is unpretentious, affordable, and genuinely fun. It is the kind of place where a modest buy-in at the craps table can keep you thoroughly entertained for half the night.
River Bend Links
Reno-Tahoe, Nevada
Reno occupies an unfairly overlooked corner of the American gambling landscape. It is a city that has polished its offering steadily while Las Vegas grabbed all the headlines. Surrounding high desert and Sierra Nevada foothills host outstanding golf, led by the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course on the southern shore of Lake Tahoe, a stunning beautiful venue that plays host to some of the biggest celebrities and sports icons annually at the American Century Championship. Wolf Run Golf Club and Red Hawk Golf and Resort round out the local options admirably. Downtown, the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino is Reno’s finest gaming property, featuring a full casino floor, a luxury spa, and multiple well-regarded restaurants. At this elevation, the air is thin, your drives travel farther, and the sunsets over the Sierra turn the sky amber and deep violet creating a worthy backdrop for any serious golf-and-gambling adventure.
Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course
Palm Springs, California
The Coachella Valley contains some of the most spectacular golf in the state, and Palm Springs has been a playground for the sporting wealthy going back to the Eisenhower era. PGA West is the star of the show here that hosts some of the most demanding courses in the country, most notably the Stadium Course. The course features its famed island green par-3 17th hole known as Alcatraz, but the rest of the course is no walk in the park either as it is routinely considered one of Dye’s greatest challenges that he designed. The nearby Mission Hills Country Club and Indian Wells Golf Resort cater to players of all abilities. California’s card room laws support a thriving local poker scene, and Spotlight 29 Casino and Augustine Casino provide serious gaming action within easy minutes of the resort corridor. After a round beneath the San Jacinto Mountains, a cool evening at the poker tables feels like the natural and satisfying conclusion to a perfect desert day.
PGA West
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia
White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia is home to The Greenbrier, one of America’s most storied and distinguished resort properties. This 710-room colossus of Colonial Revival grandeur tucked into the Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia is home to three golf courses: the Greenbrier Course, the Meadows Course, and the Old White TPC, longtime host of the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic. These layouts represent some of the finest mountain resort golf in the entire Eastern United States. The resort added a casino in 2010, giving guests a compelling reason to linger long after sunset. The casino is refined and elegantly appointed, entirely in keeping with the Greenbrier’s historic character and Dorothy Draper design. The combination of historic grandeur, spectacular mountain scenery, and genuine gaming excitement makes this one of the most civilized and complete golf-and-gambling experiences in the country.
Greenbrier Course
Thackerville, Oklahoma
WinStar World Casino and Resort, sitting just over the Texas border in the small town of Thackerville, is by many measures the largest casino in the world — a staggering complex that draws visitors from Dallas, Oklahoma City, and well beyond. The resort has invested significantly in golf, with the Firefly Golf Links and the Montbrook Golf Club offering two very different experiences: Firefly a breezy, open links-style layout, Montbrook a more traditional and strategic parkland design. The casino itself is organized into nine themed gaming plazas named after world capitals, creating a genuinely immersive, almost theatrical experience. The lodging, dining, and entertainment options have all improved dramatically in recent years, making WinStar a genuine destination rather than merely a convenient drive-through gaming stop for Texans looking to scratch the casino itch.
WinStar World Casino and Resort
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
The Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course holds a distinction that no other course in the world can claim: a floating, moveable island green anchored in the crystalline blue waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene, accessible only by a short boat ride from the mainland. That singular feature alone would earn it a place on any list worth reading, but the surrounding resort amplifies the experience at every turn. The Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel, operated by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe and situated nearby in Worley, provides the gambling counterpoint — a full casino with table games, slots, poker, and entertainment that draws regulars from across the inland Pacific Northwest. Together, the resort and casino form a package that is genuinely unlike anything else in American golf and gaming travel. Play to the floating green, hit the felt at the casino, and fall asleep to the sound of pine wind coming off the lake.
Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course