COURSE PROFILE INTERVIEW: Circling Raven Golf Club By Brian Weis

COURSE PROFILE INTERVIEW: Circling Raven Golf Club

By Brian Weis

What You Need To Know: Circling Raven Golf Club

An Insightful Interview With Christopher A Runyan, PGA, Director of Golf Operations, Circling Raven Golf Club

Whether you have played a course 20+ times a year or looking to play the course for the first time, insights from an insider can help enhance your golf experience. Below is an interview with Christopher A Runyan, PGA who shares some valuable tidbits about the course, memorable holes and must eats and treats at the 19th.

Give Our Readers An Overview of the Golf Course/Property
Nestled among wetlands, woodlands and Palouse grasses, Circling Raven offers a beautiful and at times challenging landscape for golf enthusiasts. Circling Raven Golf Club's 18-hole course sprawls out over a majestic 620 acres. The golf course was designed by Gene Bates to both challenge and entertain golfers.

If Someone Was Looking To Golf In The Area, Why Should They Play Your Course?
It has the same sprawling meadow look as Erin Hills, and the opening hole felt like the par 5 version of the first at Prairie Dunes in Kansas. In both cases, these comparisons? They're a good thing.
My favorite rounds are often ones that traverse multiple landscapes. I often tell people the reason I like Bandon Trails so much is because its land is more unique than the other Bandon Courses. Instead of just ocean links-land you start in the dunes, work your way through meadows, and up into coastal forests before coming back again.
But you don't really get a sense for what the course is truly going to give you until after you duck in a tunnel off the first green and head to the second hole.
Circling Raven gives you a similar experience. You start out in sprawling meadow farmland, while weaving in and out of forests, and finishing with some wetlands on the back nine. These different types of terrain lend itself well to unique and memorable holes - which Circling Raven is full of.
Circling Raven is the antithesis of the more well-known Coeur d'Alene Resort with the floating green.
While that course feels very tight at times, and sits on a relatively small piece of lakefront property, Circling Raven is big.
It resides on over 600 acres, and it feels like it. Some golf courses just have a presence, and from the moment you stand on the first tee Circling Raven gives you that feeling of a big, bold course.
Being out here feels like a high-end private club. It had some Ballyneal vibes, where you're out there and the only thing that matters is golf.

What Tips or Local Knowledge Would You Provide To Help Them Score Better At Your Course?
You can play Circling Raven with a draw or a fade; you just better know how to aim and know your distances.

Any recent changes to the golf course? Or any upcoming changes?
Several updates are planned for the near future, but nothing scheduled at this time.

Recent Awards or What You Are Most Proud About The Course?
#1 Public Course in Idaho, Golfweek Magazine, 2023
#1 Golf Course in Idaho, GolfPass Members, 2023
#1 Voted the Best Idaho Course, Golf Advisor's Golfer's Choice, 2022
#1 Golf Course in Idaho That You Can Play, Golfweek Magazine, 2022
America's Greatest Courses, Golf Digest, 2022

What Is The Signature, Most Talked About, or Most Photographed Hole?
No. 15, par 4. It's just a beautiful straightaway hole that has so many elements of what makes Circling Raven unique-forest lining the fairway on both sides, a bit of open meadow behind the green, distant mountain views, and plenty of challenge. It's nicknamed "Stealing Horses," but it also steals your heart and sets up a great finish to every round.

What Is Your Favorite Hole? Any Tips to Play It?
I personally love No. 2, Par 4. Classic risk-reward hole; the longer you hit your drive, the shorter your approach shot is. This is important because the green is elevated and requires a ball spinning to hold the green.

Must Have Dish or Drink after the round at the 19th Hole?
The Bogie Sandwich at the clubhouse's Twisted Earth Grill.

For the traveling golfer, do you have lodging onsite or partner with any area hotels?
We have 300 rooms available to the traveling Golfer. Just visit www.cdacasino.com/hotel/rooms-and-suites-casino

Who Holds Course Record and What Was Their Score?
Men: Rich Beem, 62

Back Tee Stats
Par: 72
Yardage: 7189
Slope: 144
Rating: 74.1

More Information
Circling Raven Golf Club Worley, Idaho, 83814 1-800-523-2464 ext. 7262
www.cdacasino.com/

Revised: 06/01/2024 - Article Viewed 866 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.