Course must address needs of members, area

During a recent visit to Sandpoint to evaluate a potential investment and attend a homeowners association meeting meeting, a previously active resident, Luke Reed, wrote a blog on the Daily Bee website. It was an article seriously denigrating the Hidden Lakes Club. He was very critical of the previous owner’s operations.

The next day, I happened to meet a former employee of Hidden Lakes who was similarly furious with the article. Neither of us could remotely understand the very negative contents. Fact checking revealed much very conflicting information.

Hidden Lake’s Golf operations were financially successful grossing $1,000,000-plus annually and receiving excellent ratings from the golf community including:

• Number one rated greens in Idaho

• Number one rated Proshop in the Pacific Northwest.

• Number three rated golf course in the state of Idaho

• Employed over 140 full and part time employees – all of whom were fully paid

• Generated approximately $200,000 a year to charitable organizations in Sandpoint.

The “hell roaring saloon” referenced was:

• Number two new golf clubhouse in the United States the year it was built.

• Number one golf restaurant in the Pacific Northwest

• Was in the Top 100 wine cellars in the United States

As a facility of great class, perhaps some charitable functions or members and their guests may have chosen to stay past us older folks’ earlier bedtime, but certainly one must prefer the award-winning clubhouse to a burned foundation that the current owners have chosen to remain.

As to the financial conditions and decision to sell:

• Locally owned Hidden Lakes Resort owned and operated two other resorts and the 900 acres being developed required substantial additional funding to rapidly proceed so the owners felt a sale would be best to facilitate that active development schedule.

• The first sale was cancelled by the owner when the buyer expressed disrespectful and rude comments about the people of Sandpoint including Idaho’s two U.S. senators who attended a function at the resort.

• The ultimate buyer appeared well qualified and brought in some name professionals to help. Unfortunately, the “Great Recession” and some very bad decisions by that developer severely impacted their efforts as it did many other projects nationwide. This resulted in many local individuals and companies never being paid. That never happened with Hidden Lakes. And I, like more than 500 of our RVing companions, no longer come to Sandpoint after more than 30 years of visiting and nearly that many of golfing.

One must reflect on the desirability of achieving a viable operation by providing a golf operation that realistically addresses both members and the local community needs particularly in the small community of Sandpoint and considering golf’s declining popularity.

JIM O’CONNOR

Sandpoint