The Idaho Club

The Idaho Club reopened in 2008 as Idaho's only Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, Nicklaus's team completely remodeled the existing Hidden Lakes layout, acquired additional land for a new front nine with dramatic elevation changes, and returned the final holes to the original flatter parcel with more water in play. A semi-private facility with intentionally limited public tee times in Sandpoint, northern Idaho. Par 71 at roughly 7,000 yards. The par-3 4th is a quality uphill one-shotter where anything short finds a left-side bunker or tumbles down a steep bank into water below, a classic Nicklaus tee-box setup. The par-5 9th is a cape hole that wraps around a large rock formation instead of the usual water hazard, with the fairway narrowing to the right around a large deep-lipped bunker that blocks the green from the left side. Risk-reward is wired into the bones of the routing. Reviews are mixed, some love the visual drama and strategy, others call it penal with water on 15 of 18 holes and trees tight to the fairways. Idaho's only Nicklaus Signature, period, which earns it a spot on any northern Rockies golf itinerary regardless of the debate.