Circling Raven Golf Course - Hole #17

Circling Raven Earns 'Golfweek's Best Resort Courses' Distinction

Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort Amenity Continues to Shine in 2021; Idaho Golf Club Set for Stellar Year

By Brian Weis

Circling Raven Golf Club enjoyed a banner year in 2020, posting record numbers, garnering several new or improved course accolades, giving back to the local golf community, and announcing it will host the Circling Raven Championship, a Symetra "Road to the LPGA" Tour event this coming August.

If its start to 2021 is any indication, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe-owned property is poised for another successful season - Circling Raven earned high marks from Golfweek course raters and is subsequently included in its annual "Best 200 Resort Courses" compilation.

"We're gratified to join iconic properties like Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes on the list of most highly regarded stay-and-play venues in America," said Laura Penney, CEO of Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort Hotel. "There are more than 14,000 golf courses in the country; to be one of the Top 200 is a status we work hard to achieve and maintain annually."

To come up with its list, hundreds of Golfweek course raters evaluate courses nationwide and score them based on 10 criteria, including routing, memorability of holes, greens and surrounds, conditioning and ecology, and tree and landscape management.

This is the latest accolade Golfweek has bestowed upon Circling Raven. Last year, it rated the Gene Bates-designed 18-hole layout one of the nation's top casino courses and one of the best playing venues in Idaho, a state filled with exceptional golf options.

Located approximately 55 minutes from Spokane International Airport (GEG), Circling Raven measures 7,189 yards from the rear tees. Many who play Circling Raven, which includes a nationally honored retail shop and the excellent Twisted Earth restaurant with bar, claim it as an immediate member of their all-time best golf experiences in the west.

The course and Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort Hotel will host the Circling Raven Championship (Aug. 23-29, 2021), a Symetra "Road to the LPGA" Tour event, through which top women professional golfers compete to qualify for the LPGA Tour.

As part of its mission to give back to the game, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe has granted two exemptions to the Circling Raven Championship - to Gabby Lemieux, a Native American and member of the Symetra Tour who is from Idaho; and to Allyn Stephens, a Houston teenager who won the Notah Begay III Junior Golf Championship in the girls 14-18 age group. Begay is a Native American, and he and the Coeur d'Alene Tribe have aligned missions to support and provide opportunities for young people through the game.

Spring stay-and-play packages are now available. The following rates are good until May 23, 2021, and include golf for two, golf cart with GPS, use of the 25-acre Practice Facility, and a one-night stay at the award-winning resort:
Mountain Lodge
Monday - Thursday | $249
Friday - Sunday | $279

Spa Tower
Monday - Thursday | $279
Friday - Sunday | $319

Additional rounds may be added to packages:
Monday - Thursday | $79 per person
Friday - Sunday | $89 per person

For more information about Circling Raven and Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort Hotel, call 800-523-2464.

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Revised: 12/16/2020 - Article Viewed 21,849 Times - View Course Profile

About: Brian Weis

Brian Weis is the mastermind behind GolfTrips.com, a vast network of golf travel and directory sites covering everything from the rolling fairways of Wisconsin to the sunbaked desert layouts of Arizona. If there’s a golf destination worth visiting, chances are, Brian has written about it, played it, or at the very least, found a way to justify a "business trip" there.

As a card-carrying member of the Golf Writers Association of America (GWAA), International Network of Golf (ING), Golf Travel Writers of America (GTWA), International Golf Travel Writers Association (IGTWA), and The Society of Hickory Golfers (SoHG), Brian has the credentials to prove that talking about golf is his full-time job. In 2016, his peers even handed him The Shaheen Cup, a prestigious award in golf travel writing—essentially the Masters green jacket for guys who don’t hit the range but still know where the best 19th holes are.

Brian’s love for golf goes way back. As a kid, he competed in junior and high school golf, only to realize that his dreams of a college golf scholarship had about the same odds as a 30-handicap making a hole-in-one. Instead, he took the more practical route—working on the West Bend Country Club grounds crew to fund his University of Wisconsin education. Little did he know that mowing greens and fixing divots would one day lead to a career writing about the best courses on the planet.

In 2004, Brian turned his golf passion into a business, launching GolfWisconsin.com. Three years later, he expanded his vision, and GolfTrips.com was born—a one-stop shop for golf travel junkies looking for their next tee time. Today, his empire spans all 50 states, and 20+ international destinations.

On the course, Brian is a weekend warrior who oscillates between a 5 and 9 handicap, depending on how much he's been traveling (or how generous he’s feeling with his scorecard). His signature move" A high, soft fade that his playing partners affectionately (or not-so-affectionately) call "The Weis Slice." But when he catches one clean, his 300+ yard drives remind everyone that while he may write about golf for a living, he can still send a ball into the next zip code with the best of them.

Whether he’s hunting down the best public courses, digging up hidden gems, or simply outdriving his buddies, Brian Weis is living proof that golf is more than a game—it’s a way of life.