Circling Raven Golf Club

Circling Raven is Gene Bates's 2003 routing across 620 acres of Coeur d'Alene tribal land in Worley, Idaho, 25 miles south of the city. The scale of the property gave Bates room to lay out 7,189 yards through open meadow, mature ponderosa pine forest, and wetland corridors without two holes sharing a visual character. It's consistently ranked among the top public courses in Idaho, and for many golfers visiting the region for the floating green up at the resort course, this is the round they end up talking about most when they get home.

You're playing 7,189 yards, par 72, slope 144 from the back, easing to a more reasonable 6,400 yards from the middle tees. The opening holes move through broad meadows with long views and turf that runs firm. Wind across the open sections shows up earlier than most visitors expect and becomes the primary variable on approach shots.

The middle stretch from the 7th through the 12th is where Bates made his strongest moves, dropping into and climbing out of a forested valley. The 9th, a sharply downhill par 3 to a green protected by bunkers and natural contour, is one of the better short holes in the region. The 11th and 12th tighten through dense pine and reward accuracy over ambition. The closing holes return to open ground with wetland framing, and the par-5 18th bends around a lake with a real risk-reward decision on the second.