Nicklaus’ touch golden

Jack Nicklaus spent Father’s Day Sunday doing what he loves. He was at home in Florida, surrounded by three of his five kids and 12 of his 17 grandchildren. When it started raining, he flipped on the television and caught some of the final round of the U.S. Open at Oakmont, the course he won his first major and first PGA Tour event 45 years ago.

Nicklaus spent Monday also doing what he loves – molding a prime piece of property into a golf course worthy of carrying his signature. After checking on one of his courses in Utah, Nicklaus arrived late in the afternoon and toured The Idaho Club outside of Sandpoint for more than two hours, meticulously plotting changes as subtle as the removal of a tree and as dramatic as the revamping of a hillside.

He then grabbed a bite to eat, briefly addressed a gathering of perhaps 150 members and invited guests in the clubhouse and was ready to hop back into a Kubota tractor to review a few more holes in the fading sunlight on the former Hidden Lakes course.

Anyone wondering if the 67-year-old Nicklaus puts his all into his design projects, let’s just say he arrived at The Idaho Club with a dirt-stained calf from his stop in Utah.

“That’s what I do,” said Nicklaus, who won 18 majors. “I can’t let somebody else do my work. I enjoy this.”

Nicklaus, who last visited in August, checked on the seven holes being constructed south of Highway 200. He was accompanied by a gallery of perhaps 20, including the club’s owners, several members of Nicklaus Design, PGA player Scott McCarron, XXVI Super Bowl MVP Mark Rypien, who will be a member, and Australian Ewan Porter, a friend of Rypien’s who has qualified for next month’s British Open. McCarron, sidelined this season by elbow surgery, is considering purchasing a home on the course.

Nicklaus’ attention to detail started on his first stop, soon after he scaled a hill to reach what will eventually be the 11th tee box. He decided against a sand trap on the right side of the fairway on the lengthy par 4 because of the presence of a tree that protects the left side on approach shots.

On No. 6, a par 4 that features a dramatic drop in elevation from the tee, he ruled out a bunker – “What would it do for you?” he asked no one in particular – but wanted the cart path moved from the right side of the fairway to the left. The fairway slopes to the left and he didn’t want the path infringing on the ideal landing spot for drives.

Eleven of the holes on the north side of Highway 200 could be open for play this fall, according to director of golf Mike Deprez. Grass is growing on many fairways and tee boxes, but the greens haven’t been seeded. The entire course should be ready by July 1, 2008, if not sooner, and Deprez anticipates it will be an immediate hit.

“I would be disappointed if this is not a top five courses in the Pacific Northwest the day it opens, given the combination of setting, course design and service,” he said.

Jack Heath spent part of his 19th wedding anniversary hanging onto the rails of a four-wheel-drive tractor, watching Nicklaus re-work hole designs. Heath, president of Washington Trust Bank, submitted one of three winning bids at an auction benefiting the Rypien Foundation.

Heath said the tour was “as good as it gets” and he praised his understanding wife. “She said, ‘Have a great time and I’ll see you when you get back.’ ”

Nicklaus referred to a white folder with detailed maps of holes, but often simply gazed at a prospective hole and started sketching in bunkers and other features. On No. 8, a par 4 that might be reachable for long hitters, Nicklaus quickly jotted in a bunker about 270 yards from the tee, a collection area, a ditch bordering much of the left side of the fairway, a sloping green and a swale on the right below a rock cliff. “I could start over?” he asked the owners, who wanted nothing of the sort.

Nicklaus called it a “sadistic little hole.”

Later, Nicklaus said he was satisfied with the progress he’s seeing.

“It’s going to be pretty,” he said. “I think you’ll find it’s going to be a really nice course.”