Vacation visitors to Idaho are typically drawn by an abundance of outdoor activities.
Of course, winter sports enthusiasts have long known that Idaho boasts some of the best skiing anywhere in the Western United States, led by world-class resorts at Sun Valley and Bogus Basin. In the summer months, the state’s mountainous areas offer a superb assortment of picturesque lakes for swimming and boating, as well as miles of scenic hiking trails.
There are, however, other good recreational reasons to make a summertime getaway to Idaho.
Golf, for instance.
Though great golf probably never will make Idaho as famous as its reputation for great potatoes, the Gem State nonetheless has a number of outstanding golf courses that are jewels in their own right.
None more so than the Coeur d’Alene Resort, which is just across the Washington-Idaho border on I-90. Located on the shore of scenic Lake Coeur d’Alene, the resort provides an exceptional golf experience. Though modest in length – the course measures just 6,300 yards – Coeur d’Alene delivers a level of customer service that is almost unmatched in the Pacific Northwest.
As an example, Coeur d’Alene offers a complimentary sports massage therapist on the driving range for those golfers who have a few extra kinks to work out before they start their round.
“Our golf course is a little different,” Coeur d’Alene head pro Mike DeLong said. “We provide so many amenities that are not found at other places. You start off with a six-minute boat ride (along the lakefront) from the hotel to the golf course, and there you’re met by a uniformed caddy that goes with your group and acts as your personal concierge for the day.
“A lot of our guests have not been here before, so having that caddy as your concierge really helps. They can answer questions like, ‘Where’s the restaurant, where’s the bathroom and where’s my ball?’ So that’s kind of different.”
Coeur d’Alene, which is ranked second in Idaho by Golf Digest magazine for 2003-04, can also claim perhaps the most famous golf hole in the region. That would be No. 14 with its renowned floating green. Though the yardage varies from day to day – it can be moved closer to the tee or farther away, depending on the whims of the superintendent – it’s listed at 154 yards from the championship tee, 147 yards from the regulation tee and 137 from the ladies tee. There is even a forward tee of 95 yards for kids, beginners or those golfers who get the shakes as they aim for that itty-bitty green in that great big lake.
The floating green, DeLong said, “is kind of a drawing card for us here, but we also realize that people are not going to keep coming back just because of that one hole. Because we do not have members here, we cater strictly to the golfers that are here for the day. And if we’re hoping to get you to come back, we have to do it by all the other things we do.”
DeLong estimates that one-fourth of Coeur d’Alene’s play comes from Western Washington and many of those same guests, he said, will also visit some of the other top golf courses in northern Idaho. The Circling Raven Golf Club in Coeur d’Alene opened recently “and is a great addition to public golf in our area,” according to DeLong. Further north, Sandpoint’s elegant Hidden Lakes Golf Resort is another must-see.
For those traveling to southern Idaho, other outstanding venues await. Sun Valley, of course, is synonymous with some of the best skiing on the planet, but the golf experience in the summer months can be equally memorable.
The Sun Valley Resort golf course, ranked as the top course in Idaho for 2003-04 by Golf Digest, was redesigned by noted architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. in 1980. It now measures 6,892 yards from the back tees, but has forward tees that can shorten the yardage to less than 6,000. Most holes are tree-lined, and water and bunkers come into play on most holes.
“It’s a very beautiful golf course,” Sun Valley head pro Doyle Corbett said. “With the scenery, I’d put it in the top 10 of all the places I’ve been.”
In addition, Sun Valley visitors can partake in a number of other activities. Just like Sunriver in central Oregon, Sun Valley offers numerous hiking and bicycling trails, along with tennis and swimming. Toss in fishing and you have a pretty complete vacation experience.
“There’s an old saying here,” Corbett said. “People say, ‘You come to Sun Valley to ski, but you stay because of the summers.’ “
Other golf courses worth seeing are the spectacular Whitetail Resort in McCall, Eagle’s BanBury Golf Club, Nampa’s Ridgecrest Golf Club and Blanchard’s Stoneridge Golf Course.
It would be an awesome golf experience to play each of those courses in one visit, but the distances between the courses would make for some daunting travel. Getting from Hidden Lakes Golf Resort in the Idaho panhandle to the Sun Valley area in the south-central region of the state is the rough equivalent of driving from Blaine’s Semiahmoo Resort to the Sunriver Resort in central Oregon – and with virtually no freeways for the entire distance. A better plan is probably to make separate visits to the northern and southern areas of the state.
And fall is a great time to go. Many of the courses drop their rates after Labor Day, and yet the weather remains good well into October.
“The Coeur d’Alene area, to me, has to be about the best golf destination in the Northwest,” DeLong said. “Sun Valley is also an outstanding place to go with great golf and great hotel accommodations, but it’s a little tougher to get to than Coeur d’Alene.
“But in Idaho there is beautiful scenery and great golf courses. I think we are a really, really good place to visit, especially from the Puget Sound-area market.”
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