The golf hole is so famous and unique that you start thinking about it long before you play it. And if you’re like me, sometimes you plan your vacation around it. It’s the reason we flew into Spokane, Wash., last month, rented a car and stopped in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on the way to Glacier National Park in Montana.
It’s the 14th hole at Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course, featuring the world’s only floating island green – an engineering marvel that was built on a barge and moves via underwater cables to different locations on Lake Coeur d’Alene.
The floating green covers 15,000 square feet, weighs about 5 million pounds and has a control room underneath, where a computer system is used to dial the distance from the tee on a given day. (Depending on your tee box, the par-3 normally plays from 95 to 218 yards.)
From shore, you look over the water and see three pine trees and two large beds of red geraniums behind the putting surface, with bunkers lurking front right and middle back. The island is connected to a docking station where an electric boat dubbed “Putter” ferries golfers from the shore and back. It’s an imposing and intimidating target.
But let’s go back to the start of my day, when the drama of the challenge began to build. As resort guests, we were picked up dockside by a Honduran mahogany water taxi to transport us to the course about 10 minutes away. As we jumped aboard, the skipper warned us that the winds were up and that the ride would be a little bumpy. “Going to be tough to hit the island green today in this wind,” he said.
I didn’t need to hear that, making it the first time I needed AdvilandDramamine before a round.
When the boat pulled up at the dock outside the course, we were met by our forecaddie, Ned Reynolds – fittingly, a former caddie at Bel-Air Country Club in L.A. and Lakeside Golf Club in Burbank – who retrieved my golf bag from storage and pointed us to the golf shop. The floating green was already in my head, so it didn’t help matters when I found out the range required all golfers to hit practice balls into the lake – into the wind, no less.
Another bad omen for No. 14, perhaps? Is that why complimentary chair massages are offered, to relieve the mounting stress, before you head to the first tee? Good thing I didn’t know then, as resort pro Andy Mackimmie would tell me after the round, that they fish 25,000-30,000 balls out of the water near the floating green every year. And that’s for a season that lasts only 6½ months. Yikes!
To lessen the tension, everyone gets to ride around the course in an $11,000 golf car featuring heated leather seats, tilted steering, chrome wheels, beverage cooler, ball and club washers, waste receptacle … almost everything you need except a personal chef. But they take care of that on the ninth tee, where you can order food that will be delivered to you in a picnic basket on the 10th tee.
The stunning lake views from virtually every hole, the meticulously manicured fairways and smooth-rolling greens all enhance the experience, which Mackimmie says has been a point of emphasis since the course opened 25 years ago. The caddies also fill all of the divots they see on every hole.
“Course conditions, pampering service and amenities are very important to us,” Mackimmie said. “We’re much more than the floating green thing.”
Even so, everyone looks forward to the floating green. And when you arrive at No. 14, it’s your turn to try to hit the island. Each golfer gets two tries; if unsuccessful, the generous “drop area” is marked on the green. To dispense with the suspense, I teed up my Titleist, took a deep breath and hit 7-iron toward a back-left pin playing 157 yards into a slight breeze …
Yes! My tee shot landed pin-high right, about 40 feet from the cup.
“Enjoy the ride,” said my caddie, handing me my putter as we puttered toward the green.
Two putts later, I celebrated a glorious tap-in par by accepting a personalized Certificate of Achievement with my name, date and score on it. I’ll always remember that par more proudly than my four birdies that day.
