Course to get a Nicklaus makeover

In a few short weeks, Dick Villelli will relinquish one of his most cherished possessions.

Villelli, a Bonners Ferry, Idaho, resident and president of Villelli Enterprises, Inc., will sign away ownership of the Hidden Lakes Golf Resort to a real estate development firm based in Monterey, Calif., sometime between now and the first day of June.

“Personally, it’s like watching your child get married,” Villelli, the managing partner for the ownership group, said of the pending sale, which will ultimately result in a complete makeover of the scenic and secluded course that unwinds so serenely – but also confusingly, at times – along the Pack River just eight miles east of Sandpoint. “It’s like having one of your kids walk down the aisle.”

The big difference in this case, it would seem, is that none of those who knew the Hidden Lakes Golf Resort layout prior to its walk down the aisle with the Monterey Development Company will recognize it once the honeymoon has ended.

The new owners, according to Villelli, plan to bulldoze all 18 of the existing holes and, with the assistance of Nicklaus Design, create a spectacular Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course that will rival the best the Pacific Northwest has to offer.

Upward of $10 million is expected to be invested in the redesign, which will include seven holes that will be built across Highway 200 from where the current course stands. Villelli said golf legend Nicklaus, who heads Nicklaus Design, will be personally involved in the massive makeover.

The course, which was purchased by Villelli in 1994, underwent a major $3 million facelift in 2001 that included a new $2 million clubhouse. Villelli and Mike Patano, a Coeur d’Alene-based architect, collaborated on the new design, which stretched the once-friendly course to a menacing 6,923 yards from the back or “Moose” tees and drew a fair amount of criticism because of its unusual routing and tight, hard-to-define fairways.

The redesign did, however, maintain the natural beauty of the course, which plays across and along vast expanses of wetlands.

“Most of the members agreed I didn’t screw it up too bad,” Villelli chuckled.

But come June – or thereabouts – the big-name professionals from Nicklaus Design take over. The course will be shut down for at least 12 months. The character of Hidden Lakes will change dramatically.

“So anybody still thinking about setting a course record that will stand forever better give it a try before then,” said head professional Adam Hoffer.

Villelli said the new course blueprint calls for a layout that will make golfers feel like they have played four distinctly different courses.

“There will be island holes, wood holes, open meadow holes and holes that play through an outcropping of granite,” he explained. “From what I’ve seen of the plans, I’d be really disappointed if this doesn’t turn out to be one of the best destination golf courses in the region.”

The new Hidden Lakes Golf Resort, which won’t open until late in the summer of 2007 at the earliest, will not only serve as a splendid destination course, but will remain – at the insistence of Villelli – the home course for both the Sandpoint and Clark Fork high school golf teams as well.

“Can you imagine two high school teams having a Nicklaus Signature course as their home course?” Villelli asked.

Not around here.

But on the downside, greens fees for the public will undoubtedly increase immensely once the course reopens – possibly into the $100-$150 range.

“It will, obviously, be a different price point,” Villelli said. “But I think the price point will be commensurate with the golfing experience. I think it’s still going to be reasonably priced – keeping in mind that it may very well end up being the No. 1 golf course in the Northwest.”

According to Villelli, the new development plan calls for 480-plus residences to eventually be built on the 800-acre complex. But most of the homes and cabins will not be immediately visible from the course.

“The golf experience will be pretty phenomenal,” he said, “but the residential experience – where most people will also be able to see the (Schweitzer) ski mountain and the water – will be even better.”

There will be a membership element, the number of which has yet to be determined, involved once the Hidden Lakes reopens. But Villelli insists the course will still cater to the general public.

He also said he hopes to eventually be able to cope with the loss of a loved one.

“These guys are going to do it properly,” he said, “and for that reason, alone, I’m OK with letting it go. It’s nice to know that I am going to be able to take my grandkids on a drive past there and show them what I was a part of.”

But Villelli admitted letting go of his golf course won’t be an easy task.

“It’s going to be really difficult for me to just walk away,” he said. “But, if nothing else, I plan to stay around and harass people.”

Spoken, it would seem, like a true father of the bride.