When my hometown of Savannah becomes a late-spring steam bath, there is nowhere I’d rather stray to than the cool and refreshing grandeur of the great Northwest. Oregon’s Bandon Dunes Resort has become one of the game’s most desirable destinations in the last decade. Washington’s year-old Chambers Bay is the “new new thing,” an amazingly authentic links course near Tacoma, future host of both the US Amateur and Open.

But from a pure golf perspective, neither venue has anything on the remarkably capacious and totally thrilling Circling Raven Golf Club, in the Idaho Panhandle, just east of Spokane.

Circling Raven is wholly owned by the Coeur D’Alene Tribe, and this 620-acre rambling, tumbling golf course comprised of lush forests and waving meadow grasses is one of the most uniquely desirable venues in the game. Many back nine holes offer 360 degree views, and a neck-craning golfer can look in any direction and see nothing on the horizon but fields, forests and mountain tops. Little more than a half hour away is the Coeur D’Alene Resort Golf Course, as lovely as a flowerbed, with it’s world famous floating green a target that lures curious golfers from all points on the compass.

The Coeur D’Alene Resort may be better known, but Circling Raven is the marquee golf venue from opening tee to final green. In tandem, they make the northern reaches of the Idaho Panhandle a compelling golf destination.