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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Mixing it up at Riverside

The sixth hole at Riverside Golf Course at Fairmont Hot Springs, looking north.

The diversity of the 18 holes that make up Riverside is remarkable.

Fairways bend in all directions, with only a few playing straight away. And each of the five par-3s, which range in length from 150-193 yards, has its own unique character and level of difficulty.

Three of those short holes grace the front nine, which plays to a par of 35. The toughest is the 193-yard eighth, which has the Columbia lurking on the right all the way from the tee box to the green, which is also protected by three well-positioned sand traps.

Two of the par-4s play over 400 yards, with the longest – and most difficult – being the 442-yard 11th, which features a narrow fairway that can be as intimidating as the sheer length of the hole. Nine is another testy par-4, stretching some 386 yards from the back tees and playing to a well-bunkered putting surface that also has water protecting its right front.

None of the four par-5s are extremely long, but two – the 560-yard fourth and the 590-yard 14th – feature sharp doglegs that run in opposite directions. The fourth turns almost 90 degrees to the left, while the 14th plays around the river in a near semi-circle.

And the 18th, which measures 562 yards from the tips, is a double dogleg, turning left around a pond and then right over a stand of reeds to a green that has water to its immediate right. The reeds add to the difficulty of the approach shot by obscuring the front of the putting surface and making the approach shot visually unnerving.

The only weak hole on the Riverside course is the short, 316-yard par-4 10th that doglegs sharply to the left around a hill and forces golfers to challenge the narrowest portion of the severely pinched fairway in order to get a clear look at the green when hitting their approach shot.