Whitefish Lake Golf Club (South)

Overview: The South Course at Whitefish Lake Golf Club is a public 18-hole profile in Whitefish, Montana, shaped by John Steidel's work on the club's expansion. The course uses pine-lined fairways, open ground beside Lost Coon Lake and the wetlands of the Flathead Valley to create a setting that is both scenic and strategically changeable. Its parkland character is more about the relationship between trees, water and broad mountain air than about a single dramatic landform. The South Course provides a different experience from the older North Course while remaining part of the same historic municipal golf tradition.

History: Whitefish Lake Golf Club began in 1927, and the original course was developed in stages as the local golfing community grew. John Steidel remodelled the older nines in the 1980s, then worked on the South Course expansion. The additional nine holes were built, grown in and opened in June 1994. Flooding during the unusually wet early 1990s later forced extensive rebuilding near Lost Coon Lake, and the South Course reopened in July 1998 after the affected fairways, greens and tees were restored.

Did You Know? Whitefish Lake Golf Club began life with a second purpose: the original 1935 course also served as an emergency landing strip. That unusual municipal history links the club's golf story to the public-works era and the growth of Whitefish as a community.