Playing on a golf course co-designed by Mother Nature amidst a dreamy landscape of rolling hills, woodland forests, and Palouse prairie on the ancestral lands of the Coeur d’Alene tribe is the stuff of dreams. Factor in the area’s other award-winning courses and a mobster-era themed cigar bar and the casual day-dream turns into a necessity.
As an avid golfer in the United States, it’s common to play courses that take you through neighborhoods or have major streets or highways running alongside the course. You’re either hearing cars honk as you tee off or some kids yelling while horsing around in a backyard as you try to make a putt. Even if you’re fortunate enough to play a course that isn’t winding through a neighborhood or doesn’t bump up against a busy street, the course’s routing usually zigzags back and forth meaning the group behind you is often slicing fairway woods into your tee box.
And you know what? That’s OK. It’s not the way it was meant to be played, and you hope those guys yell ‘fore,’ but it’s part of golf’s reality in 2024. If you love to play but live in a crowded city, this is often an accurate depiction of your golfing life. You do your best to work around these shortcomings by playing on days or times that are less crowded, in the hopes of decreasing the chances of playing duck and cover every few holes and increasing the odds of playing an enjoyable round the way the game was meant to be played.
This also means that when you see images or read about a world class course set in a remote area, you quickly picture yourself playing there. Your shot soaring through the air against a cloudless blue sky. In your mind it’s a baby draw curling towards the pin over trouble. It lands just past the pin and spins back a little, finally coming to a stop pin-high, leaving you a gimme for birdie. As you walk up to the green, a family of native deer are feeding in the wetland area to the left, in unison they look up at your group momentarily. Unthreatened, they continue feeding peacefully. You step up to line up the putt, a gentle breeze soothes your nerves, you take aim, and your phone rings.
You come out of this idyllic daydream to realize you’re late for a 3 p.m. conference call with a client. Also, you need a golf vacation.
Photo credit: Greg Wise
The Solution
The idea was to get away from the crowds and summer heat and play two courses that came highly recommended. The Inland Northwest, an area mostly made up of eastern Washington and northern Idaho, is teeming with excellent public golf courses. There’s Indian Canyon Golf Course, the public track that has hosted several significant matches including a PGA Tour event and three USGA Championships. Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course and its famous floating green is a must-visit along with the area’s newest course, The Creek at Qualchan Golf Course. The course gets its name from the Latah Creek that winds through the course. Just 13 miles downriver is Latah Creek Golf Course, named after the actual creek. It was the first of the courses where we’d play on this trip. The second course we would play and perhaps the most decorated in the area is Circling Raven Golf Course. A course that GOLF Magazine has rated as a “Top 100 Public U.S. Course” and Golfweek has named the “No. 1 Public Course in Idaho,” playing “the Raven” would be the highlight.
We packed our clubs and a cigar caddy-full of smokes, and flew cross-country, landing in Spokane International Airport.
Latah Creek Golf Course
It didn’t take more than 30 minutes between the time our clubs came around the baggage claim carousel and when we checked in at Latah Creek Golf Course. Opinions vary on whether you should jump right into playing a round of golf so quickly after a long flight, but I am in the camp that likes to take advantage of whatever daylight is available and get as many rounds as possible on a trip. Assuming that you aren’t playing the main attraction course right out of the chute.
Latah, formerly known as Hangman Valley Golf Course, is a par-72, championship public course originally designed by the father and son team of Bob E. Baldock and Robert L. Baldock, then redesigned in 2008 by Rick Phelps. The layout is challenging but accessible with plenty of elevation change and the eponymous Latah Creek, which comes into play on seven holes.
We enjoyed a quick bite at the Sandbagger’s Lounge, skipped the range, and proceeded to the first tee to get the show on the road. It took a few holes for most of us to get the jet-legs stretched but we thoroughly enjoyed the round. There are a couple of occasions during the round where you’re hitting a blind shot onto the green, but the course is well-marked so that even on those shots, there’s a visible flagpole indicating the center of the putting surface.
Our favorite hole came early in the round. The tee for the par-5 5th hole is perched high above the fairway, which doglegs to the left. The hole plays 630 yards from the tips and demands a long yet accurate drive as bunkers on either side of the fairway guard the landing zone. For most players, the second shot calls for a fairway wood or long iron with a right to left shot shape, otherwise you’re probably looking at par as your best result. It’s one of the more challenging holes on this track, which is considered one of the area’s hidden gems.
Cigar Smoked: Rocky Patel Dark Star
Photo credit: Courtesy of Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort and Hotel
Circling Raven Golf Course
After the round we journeyed east across the state line to the Idaho panhandle where the Coeur d’Alene Tribe was celebrating Circling Raven Golf Course’s 20th anniversary. The tribe’s name comes from French fur traders who admired the Natives’ keen bargaining skills during negotiations. The name translates to “heart of an awl,” an awl being the pointed tool used for piercing small holes or marking surfaces. The tribe owns and operates the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort and Hotel where Circling Raven is located.
To promote economic growth for the tribe, the casino was established in 1993 as a bingo hall. Over the years, earnings were wisely reinvested, and the bingo hall was expanded into a casino where three million-dollar slot machine winners have found their luck among the 100,000 square feet of gaming space that features nearly 1,200 video gaming machines and high stakes bingo. In 2003, the hotel and golf course were added while putting the tribe’s history and traditions at the forefront.
The golf course was named Circling Raven after the legendary chief and spiritual leader of the Coeur d’Alene people. His leadership guided the tribe through some of its most trying times. The name underscores the tribe’s respect for their heritage as well as its connection to this ancestral territory.
It is that connection that led them to select the course’s designer, Gene Bates. Unlike other designers bidding on the project, who wanted to move land to accommodate the tribe’s vision, Bates walked the 620 acres and let the land dictate the design. The result is a uniquely natural golf experience.
The course is typically booked solid, but while you’re playing, it feels like your group is the only one on the course. Since you can’t see the next tee box from the green you’re playing, you’re more likely to see a family of deer, as we did more than once, than the foursome ahead of you.
The par-72 Circling Raven can play up to 7,189 yards from the tips, however the five tee options make it enjoyable for any level golfer. In fact, the design gracefully straddles the line between a stout challenge and a forgiving resort course. Because of that, golfers of any level can play the course enjoyably. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to score easily.
A perfect example of this is the split fairway design of the 406-yard, par-4, 4th hole. Players with precise distance control and a confident short iron game can take the ever-narrowing left fairway. Assuming you manage to stay out of the wetlands that creep in from the left edge, your short iron or wedge shot will have to negotiate the bunkers and wetlands on the left. Successful execution of this strategy will leave you with a chance at birdie. But, if you play from the wider and less punitive right fairway, you’ll have a mid-iron into the green and a mound on the right that helps guide an errant shot back into safety. Your most likely outcome from here is par or worse.
The two-hole stretch of 12 and 13 are a difficult and pleasant one-two punch. The par-5 12th stretches out to 581 yards and is rated the most difficult hole on the back 9. A cluster of pines stands mockingly blocking your preferred flight path to the fairway, forcing you to make a choice early on. To the right of the pines, you have a longer force-carry over out-of-bounds native grass, to the left you make the hole considerably longer and bring a large, fairway bunker into play. The hole isn’t exactly a dogleg but winds slightly left, then right, then left again. Only the longest and most accurate of players can get there in two. As you get up to the green, the hole’s isolation is striking; you see the Palouse mountain range in the distance, then the pines cradling the green. More than anywhere else on the course, this is where you feel like it’s just you, your friends, and nature.
At 253 yards, the par-3 13th stands out as one of the longest par-3s we’ve ever played. Although it is downhill, locals recommend that you play them at their stated distance and not try to compensate for elevation change. The force-carry over native grasslands and a big false-front add to the difficulty, but just like on 12, the feeling of being one with nature is magical.
The feeling is less magical and more like “Oh crap!” as your cart alerts you to “Use caution on the bridge. Watch for moose!” The feeling is amplified when you notice that your cart’s accelerator has been throttled through this section. We didn’t see any moose, I’m not sure if we should be disappointed or thankful.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Circling Raven Golf Course
Cigar Smoked: Rocky Patel Conviction
After the round, the shuttle took us back to the hotel/casino to meet our dinner plans at Chinook Steak, Seafood, and Pasta, the casino’s fine dining experience. Everything from the pre-dinner cocktails at Chinook Lounge, to the wine list for dinner, to the meal itself were outstanding. But they drove us off the cliff when our server Barb offered to make us huckleberry ice cream table side using heavy cream and liquid nitrogen. Why huckleberry? In the Northwest, huckleberries are prized for their intense flavor and cultural significance to native tribes. Barb offered to make the ice cream with any other flavor but we opted for huckleberry. Throughout Coeur d’Alene Hotel and Casino you’ll find huckleberry treats. We had huckleberry soda, muffins, pancakes, pies, and even cocktails. As for the ice cream, if you’ve ever seen it made using liquid nitrogen, it looks like a cross between a science experiment and a witch’s brew, and the flavor is out of this world.
Cigar Scene
Smoking cigars is welcomed at Circling Raven and the pro shop has a limited selection of cigars for sale. We recommend you bring your own but it’s nice to know that if you somehow missed this step in your packing, they have you covered.
In the state of Washington, the indoor smoking ban makes cigar lounges a rare commodity. The only one we know of near Spokane is Legends of Fire at Northern Quest.
But Idaho, where Circling Raven is located, is far friendlier to lovers of the leaf. We enjoyed The Racketeer Lounge in Post Falls. Everything about this intimate lounge is curated. The selection of cigars leans heavily towards the boutique, and the beers on tap and in bottles are meticulously selected, as are the wine and spirits. The Racketeer also carries pipes and pipe tobacco. Proprietor Paul Banducci and his staff are decked out in Speakeasy-era gangster attire. This sounds like it could feel like a costume, but it doesn’t; the look and feel of the place are finely honed and well-executed. After several days in the area playing golf and visiting cigar stores, The Racketeer Lounge afforded us the only chance to sit and enjoy a cigar the way we do back home, indoors and with a cocktail in hand.
It was a perfect ending to a spectacular few days in the Inland Northwest. We often think of the great melting pots of culture as the big cities; New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami, but this part of the country, with its clashing of Native, European, and American cultures, has led the way in figuring out how to coexist peacefully and overcome marginalization and hatred. Along the way there have been atrocities to be sure, but we’re on the other side of it now and places like Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort and Hotel and its golf masterpiece, Circling Raven, offer us a chance to understand their culture and traditions through a language we can understand.
