Part 2 of the trip. North Idaho.

We made it to Couer D Alene on Sunday and checked in to our luxury rooms overlooking the lake.
What a place!

View out of our room looking over Lake Couer D Alene



Played our day one of golf and the first round of the tournament at Hayden Lake Country Club. H.L.C.C. is the oldest course in Idaho (104 years) and was a favourite place of Bing Crosby's when he was alive. He had two houses on the course. This is a real oldstyle course tree lined (80 - 100 foot pines) doglegs, small to medium size greens, a real shot makers course with views of Hayden Lake that you couldn't imagine.

View down the 18th and over Hayden Lake.

Winner of the day Mick Carroll with 46 points (Yes it reads right). And a great day was had by all.

Day two of golf was at Circling Raven. When this day started we were a bit worried as it had turned cold and a little wet and we thought the northern winter was on it's way early, but thankfully the weather held off for the majority of the day and we were able to get around and stay dry. We started the day with a warm up session at the range and then a group clinic on the putting green touching on aim and some green reading methods using ground control and a little bit of aimpoint.

The course was in great shape. It's hard to describe this course - long, wide fairways but long grass in the rough, very large, fast greens and built on 620 Acres. It's like your group is the only group on the course. Winner for the days event was Howard Fraser with a fine score of 37 points on a pretty tough day.

Heading to the first green at Circling Raven

Day three and the final day of the competition was at the Couer D Alene Resort. We had a 10 minute boat trip to the course (at 40 knotts) where we were greeted by a real North Idaho day. Big blue sky, 75 F  and views to kill for. The course was immaculate and turned out to perfection. This course has 8 water front / view holes (the same amount as Pebble) running along side or nearby Lake Couer D Alene and they were sparkling today. Winner for todays event was Juan Montoya with 39 points on an sensational day for golf.

After golf the group was treated to a clinic with top 100 coach Randy Henry. Randy has worked with numerous Regular, Senior and Ladies tour players and today it was our guys chance to work with a legend and he did not dissapoint. His easy approach and ability to pick the one thing that makes a difference proved to be a huge help to all the attendees and rounded out this massive day of golf and learning.

The group went back to their rooms to freshen up and get ready for dinner, Tournament presentations and a guest speaker that we had put together in the way of Jim Hoffmeister. Jim is a US PGA Member, Teacher and Clubfitter, USPGA Rules Official and R&D expert with the Henry Griffitts golf company and is very knowledgable on most aspects of the game and as we found out quite a mind for red wine as well as the participants were happy to find out.
The three day event prizes was a special event were we compbined each players scores with the pro's in attendance to come up with the best 4BBB score for each player and added the 3 rounds total together to come up with a result. Winner for the 3 day event was Mick Carroll with 135 points with Juan Montoya a close second on 131 points.

The Marina at the Couer D Alene Resort

The next day was a rest day but a few of the group managed to find their ways to the golf course again. Another fantastic day of weather allowed for another fantastic day in the north west and it was enjoyed by all.

The final day in Couer D Alene was started of at the local Public Golf Course. This is better than any public course i have ever played. 6700 yards, Bent fairways, big flat tees and large undulating greens and those 80 - 100 foot pine trees that are the trademark for the local area, it was more like Royal Canberra than any public course i had ever seen. Todays round was overrun by Maree Johnstone who cleaned up with 13 skins over 18 holes. This course averages over 300 rounds per day for their 8 1/2 month golf season and in the condition it was in i am not surprised at all. From there we headed to the airport for our return trip to San Francisco and back to the Bay Landing for our last nights accomodation. We did happen to catch the AFL Grand Final at the nearby Elephant Bar and we were the only table in the crowded place watching, but we did get plenty of coments by the passes by.

Our final day was spent shopping and sight seeing in San Fran. Most people went their own ways heading to the shops that suited their needs and we all caught up back at the Hotel around 6.00pm to head around to the Airport for our 11.00pm flight.

Thanks to all the attendees Juan, Maree, Michael, Howard and Mick for making the annual pilgrimage with us, Scott for all his help with guest relations and for filling in when needed and to my old mate David who was a huge help and really my right and man stepping up to do all the little jobs (and some of the bigger ones) that need to be done. Special thanks to Caroline (Pebble Beach resorts), Patrick (Poppy Hill G.C.) , Steve (CDA Resorts), Matt Bunn at Hayden Lake Country Club and David Hobson at Couer D Alene Public as well as Jim Hoffmeister, Vannessa Newton, Randall and Randy Henry from Henry Griffitts, whom without all of your efforts the trip would not have been anything like it ended up.

One of next years courses Spanish Bay Golf Links

Keep your eyes open for next years trip which is already on the drawing board and proves to be even bigger and better with us organising Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and Spanish Bay and the second part of the trip going to be at Palm Springs, California. We are also looking at putting together a non golfers package for 2012, so keep your eyes peeled.

All the best
Jeff Mansfield