The Idaho Club

Jack Nicklaus put his name on this one, and the Selkirk Mountains made sure it would matter. The Idaho Club is a Nicklaus Design course carved through the forested terrain above Lake Pend Oreille, one of the deepest and most dramatic lakes in the American West. Opened in 2007 as the centerpiece of a private residential community, the layout winds through stands of ponderosa pine and western larch, with the lake and surrounding peaks framing the rounds in ways that are genuinely difficult to ignore.

The Sandpoint area occupies a corner of the Idaho Panhandle where the geography feels closer to the Pacific Northwest than the high desert most people picture when they think of Idaho. Winters close the course seasonally, making the playing season feel appropriately precious — the kind of place where a July tee time carries real weight.

As a private club, The Idaho Club serves a membership that chose this setting deliberately. The Nicklaus pedigree brings expectation, and by most accounts the mountain terrain delivers conditions that reward strategic play over pure power.