The Idaho Club

The Idaho Club is the Jack Nicklaus Signature design on the shores of Lake Pend Oreille near Sandpoint, 50 miles north of Coeur d'Alene in the upper Idaho panhandle. Signature designation means Nicklaus was personally involved in the routing and detail work rather than lending his name to a team project. The result makes full use of a site most architects would consider a gift: mountain views in every direction, lake frontage, old-growth timber, and natural elevation changes that create visual drama without artificial mounding.

The course plays 7,089 yards with a rating of 74.4 and a slope of 144, numbers that place it alongside Circling Raven as the most demanding layout in the region. Holes route through forested corridors and along meadow edges, with the natural terrain creating doglegs and elevated greens that reward precise iron play. The par 3s are particularly strong, each playing to a different compass point and a different wind exposure, so club selection changes meaningfully across the set. Several holes play along or toward Lake Pend Oreille with the Selkirk and Cabinet ranges as a backdrop. The relationship between course and lake is less dramatic than Coeur d'Alene Resort's floating green but more sustained; the water is a presence throughout the round rather than a single moment.

For a Northern Idaho trip extending to three nights, this is the course that makes the extra day worthwhile.