Excuse the pun, but the Spokane-Coeur dAlene golf market is at par with demand.


That, however, is about to change.


The golf course-to-population ratio here matches the national average, and area golf pros say their courses are busy, but not busy enough to justify more links.


Nonetheless, a number of new golf course developments are in the works, and the market is about as likely to maintain par as a weekend golfer whose ball lands in sand and surf more often than on turf.


At least six new golf course developments either are being built or are proposed. One of those projects, an 18-hole course north of Post Falls called The Links Golf Course, could open late this fall, while some of the others havent received regulatory approval, and construction of them could be years away.


At estimated costs of $7 million or more for a couple of the courses, total development costs for all of the courses and adjoining residential lots potentially could range well into the tens of millions of dollars.


In light of a healthy market for golf and the adequate number of courses now, many prospective golf course owners in the current wave of links development are going after a high-end golfer who they say is underserved in this area. These developers envision courses that would draw both local players and tourists, with challenging holes, upscale amenities, and, consequently, higher greens fees. At least two say their courses will be of a caliber that could host major professional golf tournaments, and they hope to do just that after opening.


The half-dozen projects in the Coeur dAlene-Spokane area are going through various stages of planning or development. Two are under construction, work is set to start on a third soon, and three either are going through regulatory approval processes or will be soon.


The projects include:


The Links Golf Course, an 18-hole course off McGuire Road north of Post Falls that is well under way and is expected to open within a year. It wont include adjoining housing.


Powderhorn Ridge Golf Course, a course that is under construction off State Route 97 north of Harrison, Idaho, is in a project that includes home lots.


An 18-hole course that the Coeur dAlene Indian Tribe plans to build later this year as part of a larger resort-style development across U.S. 95 from the Coeur dAlene Tribal Bingo & Casino.


Blue Heron Golf & Country Club, a proposed 18-hole course that would be built north of Spokane near the Indian Trail Road-Rutter Parkway junction. That project, which would include a residential subdivision with 95 lots, currently is being reviewed by Spokane County.


Arrow Point Resort Golf Club, a proposed 18-hole course that would be built just east of Lake Coeur dAlene. Approval for the golf course is currently being sought. Condominiums already have been constructed near the proposed golf course site.


A proposed 18-hole course, tentatively called The Club at Black Rock, that developers are to submit later this year to Kootenai County for approval. It would be built, along with homes, condominiums, and country club-style amenities, on 650 acres at Rockford Bay on the west side of Lake Coeur dAlene.


Different strokes, same folks


The six golf courses would offer different styles of play, depending upon developer preferences and the lay of the land. For instance, a handful of basalt outcroppings jut from the ground at Blue Heron, creating natural obstacles on the hilly terrain. Additionally, developers have proposed building into the course a number of ponds. Conversely, at The Links Golf Course, which is located on the mostly flat Rathdrum Prairie, there are no plans for water hazards or rocks, but the course will have a lot of deep sand.


Regardless of the diverse styles, courses like those proposed here draw the same breed of golfer, says James Connolly, a veteran golf-course development consultant who recently started his own consulting firm here, James Connolly Consulting Ltd.


Connolly is an agronomist who worked for the U.S. Golf Association in the northeastern U.S. before helping Jacklin Seed/Simplot Turf & Horticulture start its turfgrass division, JacklinGolf, and is familiar with some of the golf course projects envisioned in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area. Specifically, he says he is negotiating consulting contracts with developers of the Blue Heron and Coeur dAlene Tribes projects.


Connolly says all of the projects hes familiar with would seek higher-end golfers, a market that he says currently isnt served well here.


Spokane is a funny market, Connolly says. You can play very good golf courses for $15, then your next level of play is $185. The $60 to $80 greens fee doesnt exist.


At least three of the proposed courses here likely would be semiprivate, but somebody is going to create the high-end public experience, he says.


He estimates that about 60 percent of the golfers at such a course would be from the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area, and about 40 percent would be visitors.


Most golfers in this area wouldnt play a high-end course regularly, Connolly concedes, but says many duffers would treat themselves to two or three rounds of golf at such a course each season.


With more expensive greens fees, high-end links wouldnt necessarily need to draw as many rounds as a course with less expensive fees. For example, managers of some courses here say about 45,000 rounds of golf are played on their courses annually.


If a course drew that many people and charged $20 per round, it would bring in $900,000 a season. A course that charged $60 per round would need to draw only about 15,000 rounds to make the same amount of money.


A revenue generator for some of the new courses likely would be tournaments. The developers of both the Blue Heron and Links projects say their courses would be suitable for events, such as mens and womens professional tournaments and state amateur championships.


At par


While courses serving the higher-end player might fill a void here, the Spokane-Coeur dAlene golf market as a whole already appears to be well served.


The National Golf Foundation, a Florida-based, nonprofit trade organization that promotes the golf industry, reports that U.S. cities have an average of 78 golf holes per 100,000 people, compared with 77 golf holes per 100,000 people in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.


The market is about where it should be, says Gary Lindeblad, head professional manager at Indian Canyon Golf Course in western Spokane. When the weather is nice, the better courses are always packed. I dont think its to the point where anybody who already owns a golf course is turning away so much business that they are thinking about building another one.


Lindeblad says new golf courses might struggle if they tried to go head-to-head with established links, but he agrees theres a higher-end niche that could be filled.


Several smaller cities in the Inland Northwest also are the site of either new or expanding golf course developments.


For example, the 18-hole Moses Pointe Golf Course is expected to open in Moses Lake, Wash., at the end of this month. Course co-owner Mike Moore says the development eventually is expected to include a 150-unit hotel, 400 homes, and 450 apartments.


At Chewelah Golf & Country Club in Chewelah, Wash., developers plan to add nine holes and to build a new clubhouse. The nine new holes are expected to be annexed to the back half of the current course, and the front half of the current links is expected to be broken out as a nine-hole course. The developers also plan to add more homes to a residential neighborhood there next year and add either condominiums or a hotel at some point.


At Othello, Wash., Othello Golf Club owner Doug Buck says he hopes eventually to add nine holes and up to 150 homes to his establishment, which currently includes a nine-hole course, a clubhouse, and a 90-home development.


Although his plans still are tentative, he says, Theres no reason we shouldnt see growth in the golf industry in this region. Our resources are as good as anywhere else.