Circling Raven Golf Club at Coeur D'Alene Casino

Overview: Circling Raven Golf Club occupies a broad, largely undeveloped setting near Worley, Idaho, beside the Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort. The 18-hole Gene Bates design stretches across roughly 620 acres of wetlands, woodlands and Palouse grasses. Rather than relying on a residential backdrop, the course uses space and changes in vegetation to create a sequence of distinct inland Northwest settings. Wide corridors give the layout room to breathe, while the natural ground and shifting native landscape keep the round visually varied.

History: Circling Raven opened in 2003 as part of the expansion of the Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort, which is owned and operated by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe. Gene Bates was chosen to shape a course that would use the site's existing landscape instead of flattening it into a uniform resort template. Later course planning has continued to focus on practice facilities, course flow and long-term improvements, while the original 18-hole routing remains the central golf experience.

Did You Know? The course's official description names three landscape types in particular: wetlands, woodlands and Palouse grasses. That mix helps explain the unusual sense of scale at Circling Raven. A hole may begin in open grassland, turn toward a wooded edge and then reveal a wetland corridor, all without the visual interruption of surrounding housing. The varied ground gives the course its strongest identity.