StoneRidge on the trail to notoriety

The newest member of the North Loop of the Idaho Golf Trail seems quite comfortable amid the elite company it keeps.

StoneRidge Golf Course, a still relatively undiscovered gem of a layout nestled near the base of Mount Spokane just east of the sleepy town of Blanchard, was added to the Idaho Golf Trail last fall and stands ready to open its arms to the rest of the world.

“It’s been amazing,” Aaron Lynn, StoneRidge’s director of golf, said of the interest generated since the resort-style course joined Circling Raven Golf Club, the Coeur d’Alene Resort Golf Course and Hidden Lakes Golf Resort as a member of the Golf Trail’s esteemed North Loop.

According to Lynn, a new reservation system was installed last year to track phone numbers and zip codes of golfers who play at StoneRidge.

“And it’s been remarkable to see the people who are coming in to play the course – and where they’re coming from,” Lynn added.

The Idaho Golf Trail was established in 2004 as a cooperative effort of the Idaho Travel Council and several of the state’s top-rated golf resorts. The five courses that make up the Trail’s South Loop are Meadow Creek, Whitetail Club, Osprey Meadows, BanBury and Sun Valley.

The idea behind the venture was to promote tourism and offer golfers an opportunity to book customized “Stay and Play” vacation packages that include a wide variety of golf experiences and resort-quality accommodations.

StoneRidge, a scenic, serene and nicely conditioned course that underwent a nearly $3 million renovation in 2001, meets both criteria.

The golf experience is fair, fun and memorable, thanks to the work of architect Frank Burandt, who planned and oversaw the massive renovation project that included major improvements to the course’s infrastructure as well as its design. The lodging ranges from studio and one-bedroom apartments to two- and three-bedroom condominiums that can be rented by the night, week, month or entire golf season.

According to Lynn, a member of Idaho’s tourism board came up from Boise and played the golf course last year.

“He was looking at the playability of the golf course, its overall aesthetics and its amenities,’ Lynn explained. “The main thing, he said, was the lodging – can you accommodate people who want to come up here and stay?

He apparently liked what StoneRidge has to offer, recommending that it be added to the North Loop of the Trail.

As a result, the bookings of advance tee time have climbed considerably this spring as tourists check out details about stops along the Idaho Golf Trail on Web sites such as www.visitidaho.org and http://inidaho.com.

Still, one of StoneRidge’s most endearing traits remains its accessibility.

The course, mainly because of its remote location and relative short season that runs from April 1-Oct. 31, did only 20,000 rounds last year, and nearly a third of those involved golfers from its membership base.

“I like to say that we’re still one of the best-kept secrets in the Pacific Northwest,” Lynn said.

With greens fees – which include a shared cart and unlimited range balls – still holding at $38 on weekdays and $43 on weekends – StoneRidge also ranks as one of the best values in the region.

The Bridge Investment Group, a property management company based in Murray, Utah, purchased the StoneRidge course in 1999, along with more than 600 acres of adjacent land that could eventually include as many as 800 housing units, many of them multifamily dwellings.

It is real estate sales, then, that are helping keep greens fees so reasonable.

“The owners are property guys,” Lynn said. “They’ve figured out you don’t get rich on $38 or $43 at a time. You make your money selling property, and that’s the approach they’ve taken.

“So far, we’ve decided that the (golf) demand isn’t at a point where we can start raising our greens fees. I’ve decided, along with the owners, that when we get to 24,000-25,000 rounds a year, we’re going to want to level off, and, at that point, we’ll have to start thinking about (higher) fees so we can keep it at that level.

“But until we do, we’re not going to worry about our prices.”

That should help cement StoneRidge’s growing reputation as one of the must-play courses on the North Loop of the Idaho Golf Trail.