Circling Raven putting “finishing touches” on preparations for Symetra tournament

Players preparing for the Circling Raven Championship are fine-tuning their swings on the range and putting strokes on the practice green. They’ll map out course strategy during practice rounds and pro-ams leading into Friday’s first round.

Behind the scenes, the Symetra Tour and Coeur d’Alene Tribe have devoted countless hours on logistics so everything is running as smooth as possible when the first tee shot is struck at 7 a.m. on the scenic course in Worley, Idaho.

It’s a sizable task, requiring foresight, coordination and as many as 150 volunteers.

“It’s kind of like opening a brand new course with all the logistics, recruiting committee members, volunteers, selling sponsorships,” said Circling Raven director of golf and tournament director Dave Christenson, who is working with 13 committee chairs. “These last 4-5 days, most of the scrambling is done. Now it’s just logistics, making sure everyone is on point and putting the finishing touches on it.”

The COVID-19 pandemic erased the inaugural Circling Raven Championship from the Symetra Tour schedule last August, but not the planning that had taken place.

“We had a lot of things in motion that we’ve picked up and moved forward,” Christenson said. “Last year we had a number of volunteers already register. Once we hit the pause button on that, most of those people carried over to this event, so we’re super strong with 218 registered.”

One of the main roles for volunteers will be providing hole-by-hole scoring for leaderboard updates on the Symetra Tour Website (Symetratour.com). There will not be live television coverage or live streaming of the tournament.

“We’ll have a person following each group and entering (scores) after each hole so people can follow the scores live,” said Matthew Clark, Symetra Tour senior coordinator for tournament business affairs. “Players in our tournaments might represent 30 different countries and they have a lot of family and friends following them.”

Volunteers also assist as on-course spotters, starters on the first tee and shuttling players via cart when there is a lengthy distance between holes.

The Symetra Tour’s on-site staff of 12-15 includes rules officials, a physical therapist and employees that set up signage and tents.

Clark said about 70% of the players had been vaccinated when the Symetra Tour, a qualifying tour of the LPGA, stopped testing a few weeks ago.

“I imagine that’s a little higher now. At one point, we were testing everybody every week,” he said. “We’re asking everyone, players, caddies, staff, to wear a mask indoors.”

Spectators can purchase tickets ($5 single-day pass, $20 for the week) at cdacasino.com/golf/circlingravenchampionship.

Circling Raven’s layout will be essentially the same as it is throughout the season, but the front and back nines will be reversed with No. 9 closer to the clubhouse and better suited as a finishing hole for spectators and an awards ceremony.

The only modifications to the course involved enlarging the practice green by 25% to 12,000 square feet. “As that expanded we had to remove the blue tee on No. 10,” Christenson said. “We expanded No. 1 and No. 10 (tee boxes) together.”

Christenson estimated the course will play at about 6,400 yards with flexibility to set up holes differently for each round.

“They sent an agronomist and rules official last year and located what the tees will be and where the pins will be,” he said. “I don’t think they’re looking for crazy speed on the greens, they want to keep them around 11 (on a stimpmeter). There’s a nice mixture with a lot of risk and reward but also some holes playing longer than they normally do.”

Most of the players are staying at the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel near the course. Roughly 30 of the 132 are staying at private homes in the region.

“The course is in perfect shape,” Christenson said. “It’s going to be nice competition and it will be exciting to watch how well they play the course.”