Jay Jilot has always been looking for good golf game. When he first lived near a golf course, there were many days where he shot the front nine before his workday and the back nine when he finished his shift. Now, when the sun sets on a summer evening, the 45-year-old can sit by his outdoor fire pit overlooking the wide expanse of Lake Tahoe, minutes away from six championship golf courses, and think back about that circuitous route he took to find more time for his passion.

That route began with a childhood in Sacramento, California before Jay’s family moved east while he was still young. He became an accounting grad who then enrolled in an MBA program and got a job selling laboratory equipment. He moved up in the organization and relocated back west with his wife Cassie, an Arizona native who had a hard time with Pennsylvania winters. But he was finding himself giving away too many of his hours to the office. “I was working much more than I was playing,” he says. In 2006, he left the company and decided to use his golf prowess to fuel a new career where he was his own boss, teaching at a golf instruction franchise that he bought and managed.

The business hummed along, employing three other instructors and selling golf equipment but, like most non-essential enterprises, it found itself losing revenue during the economic meltdown of 2008. At the same time Jay was noticing the double trend of diminished real estate prices in holiday areas and the rise of vacation rentals by homeowners through various online sites. So, the next year, he and his parents Dennis and Lynne, began a family partnership and developed three luxury rental homes: this home, located in Brockway Springs in Lake Tahoe, as well as two others, one in Hawaii and the other in California, by a golf course, naturally.

His guests at the Lake Tahoe home need not share his passion for golf. The retreat takes in a bevy of outdoor summer pastimes in an area that is also renowned for its winter ski hills and trails. Hikers can trek through the forest around Tahoe City or feel the mist coming off the waterfalls of Shirley Canyon. The property sits on a resort named after the famous hot springs that not only heat the community pool but were once a hotel hotspot for the likes of the Rat Pack and Marilyn Monroe. These days, the entertainers arrive in other forms, from a Shakespeare festival to dozens of music concerts. There’s boating in all its forms, and biking along miles of trails, including a 160-mile path that circumnavigates the iconic lake, the sixth biggest in the US.

And, of course, there’s golf.  North Lake Tahoe, which takes in the top third of the lake, counts six championship golf courses and four executive courses in the immediate area. Another 14 lie within an hour’s drive.

Jay recalls one set of guests, a family from Texas, that took full advantage of their surroundings. “They did everything,” he recalls, of the group that stayed three weeks and walked, hiked, jogged, biked, kayaked, paddleboarded, motorboated, golfed, had barbeques by the pool and hung out on the beach. “They said that when they go on vacation they like to experience the area and have a nice peaceful location where they can begin and finish their day.”

Some of the peacefulness of the home, which is popular during both winter and summer months, comes from being nestled within the boulders and trees of the lakeshore. The interiors of the four-bedroom, two-storey home that sleeps nine, reveal both rustic and modern elements. There are sloped fir ceilings and mahogany floors, with abundant natural lighting coming from the upper windows over the high-ceilinged open-concept living and dining area. Large windows throughout take in the foliage and view of the water. The property also offers the standard high-end amenities, from king-size beds to large flat-screen TVs and granite countertops.

The home’s modern kitchen comes complete with a double oven and double microwave and, outdoors, there are full grills. Jay says many of his guests don’t spend much of their day cooking in the kitchen. “They all say ‘I want to get back on the water.’” On that water, the home offers a long wooden dock that stretches out into the lake. The pool, which runs parallel to the shore, offers a view of some of the more than two dozen peaks in the Lake Tahoe region, while two tennis courts also take up some prime lakefront space.

“I wanted to find a house that we love as a family,” says Jay, who chooses properties based on where he and his wife would like to vacation. In the winter, his eight year-old, Lauren, loves skiing, which sees her taking lessons at the nearby Northstar Ski Resort. The family lives in Reno year-round, which is only a short drive from the Lake Tahoe home. Not only does that allow for the family to stay at the home easily when it’s not being rented out, but it also means that Jay himself will usually be the person greeting the guests, creating a homier atmosphere for the vacationers.

Jay and his parents have decided to cap their empire at three properties for now, and the decision to hold off on developing more properties does have its upside, with Jay finding more time to play and teach golf. Many of his days now have him skiing, playing golf and fishing. “I tell people I’m doing a triathlon,” he laughs.

The gas-powered fire pit Jay loves so much actually sits above a partially hidden garage. But this is no urban-style rooftop. The area that seats eight is surrounded by trees. And it’s through some of those trees that he gets to look onto Lake Tahoe, the body of water that has been a clarion call to so many and leaves this golfer happy that he is able to enjoy plenty of tee offs along its banks.