Aspen/Birch

Payette Lakes Golf Course in McCall has long served as the primary public layout for this mountain resort town in the West Central Idaho highlands, and the Aspen/Birch combination represents its most commonly played 18-hole routing — drawn from a three-nine property that lets the club mix and match configurations. The course sits at roughly 5,000 feet of elevation, which means the thin air adds real distance to your shots, the season runs shorter than most golfers are used to, and the afternoons can turn cool even in July.

McCall itself is a genuine mountain escape, occupying the southern shore of Payette Lake and surrounded by the Payette National Forest. The terrain is classic Idaho highlands — ponderosa pine, native grasses, and the kind of open sky that makes you stop mid-round and look around. Golf here is unhurried by nature, which suits the layout's character as a relaxed resort-town track built for enjoyment rather than examination.

This is a place where the backdrop quietly upstages the scorecard, and that's entirely the point.