Coeur d'Alene, Northern Idaho

The most photographed hole in Idaho golf sits on a barge. The par-3 14th at the Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course features a floating green anchored in the lake, reached by a mahogany boat rather than a cart path. It has drawn golfers to the Idaho panhandle since 1991. What you discover upon arrival is that the floating green, for all its fame, is not the strongest argument for making the trip.

That argument rests on the landscape. Lake Coeur d'Alene stretches 25 miles through forested mountains, its surface shifting between deep blue and silver depending on the light. Lake Pend Oreille, 55 miles north near Sandpoint, is deeper and quieter, surrounded by the Cabinet and Selkirk ranges. The five courses here occupy land that would be remarkable without a single fairway on it, and the best designs understand that. They route through ponderosa pine forests, across rolling meadows, and along lakeshores where the views compete with the golf for attention.