Idaho Club opening brings back 'Hidden' memories

Sometime in the mid-1980s (my memory and my hair are seemingly fading at an equal rate), I rode around with Jim Berry as he gave me a tour of a dream of a golf course in the Pack River Flats outside Sandpoint called Hidden Lakes.

The land was still dirt, but you could see the outlines of the holes.

I remember being parked at what was going to be the 11th tee — a par-5 with a downhill tee shot and a second shot over water. I thought it would be a picturesque driving hole and as it turned out, it was.

The other thing I remember is that we were not cruising around the dusty terrain in his golf cart.

We were in his car.

Two decades later, things sure have changed on the land which houses Sandpoint area’s only 18-hole golf course.

As Jack Nicklaus gave a playing tour on 11 of the 18 holes Wednesday at the course he designed on that land — now called The Idaho Club — I couldn’t help but think back to what was and what it has become.

EVEN IF you lived in the Sandpoint area, playing the old Hidden Lakes seemed like a getaway.

That hasn’t changed.

The old clubhouse — a trailer — was quaint. The new clubhouse, built a few years ago, is immaculate.

The practice area where Nicklaus put on a clinic used to be covered by brush and more brush. When a rustling in the woods behind us could be heard, it was speculated — jokingly, I hope — a bear was in there. That would have made two on the property, as the Golden Bear was getting loosened up a few yards away on the range.

Then it was off to the course.

The tee on No. 1, which plays 433 yards from the tips, is near where the old No. 13 green was, and plays back and past the old tee. The tee shot is over water this time, rather than the approach. I forgot to check for all the balls I’d hit in that water over the years. Nicklaus, naturally, zinged his drive some 260 yards straight down the middle to christen the course.

The tee on No. 2, a tight 177-yard par-3 over more wetlands, is back and to the right of the old No. 12 green, a par-3 over water. The green looks to be where the green was for the old No. 14, a par-4 dogleg left.

No. 3 is played on the same strip of land as that old No. 11 — except it plays back toward the old tee as a 450-yard par-4 now. The approach shot is slightly uphill, and a house sits behind the green — near the spot where Mr. Berry and I sat in his car more than 20 years ago.

“Never build a house behind a green — unless you can make money,” Nicklaus said with a laugh to the people following him around the course.

The tee on No. 4, an uphill 153-yard par-3 over water, is roughly where the green was on the old No. 8, the downhill par-3. The green is near where the tee on the old No. 9 was. In the old days, I’m sure some people considered rifling a ball in the direction of No. 9 after butchering the eighth hole. At least that’s what I hear.

Jack didn’t play holes 5-11, which are across the highway and won’t be ready for another three weeks, he said.

BACK ACROSS the highway, the tee for No. 12 is roughly in the middle of the old No. 9 fairway, and plays as a 555-yard par-5 roughly back toward the tee of the old 18th hole, a par-5 with an uphill third shot which seemed like it played about 800 yards long by the end of a long, trying day.

No. 13 is a 471-yard par-4 with a couple of lakes to the right. The hole runs along the same lines as the old No. 2, which was a par-5.

I kinda felt bad for the people who live along the old No. 1 and No. 2 holes — now they’re a bit back from the new course. Perhaps that’s golf.

No. 14 — a par-3 over water which plays 212 from the tips — should look familiar to longtime Hidden Lakes golfers as the old No. 3 with some minor tweaking. Jack cleared the water — better than many of us used to do — but put it in the left bunker.

No. 15, back in what used to be some of that old brush, is a 447-yard par-4, angling left with a tee shot over water. The layout looked like several finishing holes on the PGA Tour, including the 18th at Pebble Beach — minus the waves, of course.

No. 16 is a 199-yard par-3, with a tee shot over water and water guarding the left side of the green. A little like No. 16 at Augusta.

Four holes were added/redesigned a few years back.

No. 17 is a 419-yard par-4, dogleg left, along the same path as the new No. 1 from a few years ago. However, this hole has two greens (that could be handy most days!). One is short of the water, for ladies and seniors, and the other is off to the right and over the water. It’s the old/new 17th green from the redesign, though the old tee shot came from a different direction.

No. 18 is much like the new 18 that was built a few years back, minus a tree and with a new green.

THE NUMBERS for the Jack Nicklaus Signature course — a par-71 (35-36), 7,089 yards from the tips, 6,560 from the blues, 6,007 from the white tees and 5,130 from the ladies’ tees.

Chuck Reeves, owner of The Idaho Club and, as he showed on Wednesday, a pretty good stick himself, said they plan to keep several hours of midday tee times open to the public (at at least $125 a round).

I know some of the locals are grumbling over the loss of their relatively inexpensive 18-hole course — they’ve told me this more than once — but perhaps that can be rectified somewhere down the line. In the meantime, they’ll have to pony up a little more, but at least there’s still an 18-hole option in their town.

Money drives everything — I understand that, and it’s not The Idaho Club’s fault that they were able to build such a gorgeous track — but hopefully the locals will always be able to play the course that Jack built.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via e-mail at mnelke@cdapress.com.