For Las Vegas by Design Southern Nevada has a wealth of courses designed by famous links architects. Pete Dye, in his own words, can be "diabolical" when designing a golf course. Not only is Dye the architect of some of the world's greatest golf courses, such as TPC at Sawgrass and the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island , but he's also designed some of the most difficult. Four for Fore A southern quartet offers golf getaways. Southern Nevada's outlying towns - Mesquite , Laughlin, Primm, and Pahrump - offer many golf enticements. For instance, golfers teeing up in Mesquite, 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas , find high-quality links and scenery. Big-Name Links The courses of Reno and Sparks have their share of high-dollar designers. Although it didn't become a full-fledged golf destination until the late 1990s, Reno-Sparks had designs on greatness way back in 1969, when developer Stan Jaksick and his family enlisted Robert Trent Jones to build a course on and below a rocky hillside three miles south of downtown Reno . Home-Grown Pro Genoa Lakes' Lou Eiguren has a "Divine" sense of Northern Nevada golf. Lou Eiguren, director of golf at Genoa Lakes, was born and raised in Winnemucca, which makes him one of Nevada 's few home-grown golf pros. He also might be the only Basque-American member of the PGA. Thin Is In High altitude means monster drives from Tahoe's rarefied tees. It's one thing to watch Tiger Woods and John Daly smoke 350-yard drives. It's another to watch teen phenom Michelle Wie bash it out there to big-boy dimensions as she starts her LPGA career. Going Long in Ely Golf pro Randy Long takes his shot at small-town golf. Ely golf pro Randy Long can instantly improve the distance of your drives. His secret? The altitude. The White Pine Golf Course is 6,500 feet above sea level. As at Lake Tahoe, the lower air pressure often means longer shots for golfers.