Re: Coeur d\'Alene Resort
Just got back to Portland. Quick bullet points, since I'm too tired for a big trip report:
- Being spoiled is fun. Water taxi from the resort to the course (while a shuttle takes your clubs over so they can be cleaned). Caddy meets you at the dock. "Sports massage" off of the driving range. Sweet.
- Course was in insane condition, as expected.
- While the course is definitely a resort course in the sense that the majority of fairways funnel, there are some definite challenges. I'll get around to posting pictures, but some of the "signature" holes gave up ease for coolness and the photo-op factor. One of the par threes is an absolute bitch, especially with where they put the pin.
- The caddy system is nice, but being so far away from the cart screwed with my game. I'd think I had the right club, didn't, and was too lazy to go back and get the right one. Caddy was good. They have a forecaddy system, but he gave a lot more advice then I expected a forecaddy to give (I thought they pretty much just ran around the course). Sucked for him that we were only a threesome. We tipped $60 for the two of us, and when we noticed our playing partner only gave him $10 my dad tossed him a sleeve of Pro Vs.
- Par on the 14th, floating green. Yardage for the day was 145, with a strong wind right in our face. Green is really pretty large, obviously the water plays a big psychological factor, but it's not difficult to hit, even with the wind.
- It's really not a bad deal. Expensive, but for what you get, worth it. We got a hotel/golf package, and it ended being $150 each for the golf, and $150 for the room. The rooms at the resort are REALLY nice, as is the rest of the resort.
- It was SLOW. I'd expect they might be having to lower their rates in the future, but I don't know how courses like that normally react to bad business. Apparently there's a new course in the area, Black Rock, that's private, but is popular enough already that the celebrities/athletes that used to play at the Coeur d'Alene now play there. We only played in a threesome, there was a twosome in front of us, and I know for a fact there were several empty tee times surrounding ours (I saw the tee time sheet). This on a Saturday in July.
So that's that, until I get around to posting some pictures. Great course, and with Coeur d'Alene being as beautiful as it is, definitely worth a trip to the area if you want to play some golf and enjoy the outdoors.
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