It was getting late in the afternoon when we arrived at the Ruby View course on the northeast side of town, just off the freeway, and we had just enough time to play the front nine and check out the back nine, again stopping to play a few open holes.

Ruby View, named for the view of the Ruby Mountains to the south, was in the nicest condition of the five courses we played, with tree-lined fairways and smooth greens. The course was very playable and had a nice variety of challenging holes.

We left by 9 the following morning, heading west toward Battle Mountain. The forecast from the night before showed high winds in the area, and we discovered them when we got to Battle Mountain and saw the dust flying. The wind gusts must have been 40 to 50 miles per hour, and we nearly turned around after stepping out of the car.

When the starter told us that the woman just coming off the course usually played 36 holes every day but was leaving, we wondered how stupid we were to be playing golf in those conditions. But after driving 70 miles, we weren't about to turn back without swinging our clubs a few times.

The holes with the wind at our backs weren't bad, the crosswind holes sent our balls way off line and we skipped any holes into the wind.

We considered going another 50 miles to Winnemucca, but I had already played the course, and we needed to start moving east with the wind behind us.

There was one more course on our list, Spring Creek, in a community of the same name, 15 miles south of Elko. I expected to see a small course in a tiny community, but there was quite a large development around the course, which we would have never found without directions.

The course had obviously been through a rough winter based on the condition, but you could tell it was well-designed with an assortment of interesting holes. The clubhouse sat on top of a hill, meaning the first and 10th holes featured quite an elevation drop, while the ninth and 18th were almost straight uphill, a tough way to end your round.

We still had enough time to play some holes at Toana Vista in Wendover, but since we'd already played there a few times and wanted to get home before dark, we skipped it.

After playing 51 holes, touring 21 more and and driving nearly 800 miles in less than 36 hours, bed sounded awfully good.

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E-mail: sor@desnews.com