February in North Idaho? Tee 'em up!

COEUR d'ALENE - The sun was shining Monday through the tall pine trees that line the holes at Coeur d'Alene Public Golf Club.

The skies were blue, the fairways and roughs were bright green, and the parking lot was nearly full.

The golfers were in particularly high spirits. They're hitting the links in North Idaho, and it's still February.

"This is a real treat to get out here and play this time of year," said Ted McCaffree of Coeur d'Alene. "It's absolutely wonderful."

Monday was day one of what promises to be a long playing season at the Coeur d'Alene course.

Golf director Dave Hobson said this is the mildest weather he has ever seen in February.

The sunny, snow-free days have had golfers itching to hit the links. Phones have been ringing off the hook, Hobson said.

They always try to open the playing area on Fairway Drive by mid-March, he said, but the heavy snows of the past two years have made that impossible.

The Coeur d'Alene course didn't open until April 15 last spring.

"We're about 45 days earlier this year," he said.

The course opened earlier in 2005, he said, but they had to close again for awhile when the weather turned winter-like again.

The only challenge Monday was the extra effort it took to push a tee into the cold earth.

"The ground is hard!" said Kent Setty, of Coeur d'Alene, after setting a ball sailing across the fairway.

Setty and McCaffree played at Prairie Falls Golf Course about a week ago.

Things have been hopping at the Post Falls course since they opened on Feb. 1, said Prairie Falls head pro, Dave Mallrie.

"With last year's winter, it's been quite a change," Mallrie said.

The Spokane Street course has attracted an average of 100 golfers a day since opening, and about 150 on the weekends.

Ponderosa Springs Golf Course on Galena Drive in Coeur d'Alene opened even earlier, in January. The Highlands Golf Course is open, too.

The area's resort courses will be opening a little later.

They haven't set a date yet, but Tom Davidson, golf director at Circling Raven in Worley, said his team is looking at a mid-March or early April opening day.

The Coeur d'Alene Resort Golf Course opens April 1.

Because the resorts provide additional guest services that require more employees, Davidson said they like to wait until they have a better idea whether the milder seasonal conditions will continue. An exceptionally early opening involves risking periods of closure due to poor weather conditions, and the potential for a large number of employees to be out of work for potentially extended periods of time, he said.

They also like to wait until there are no more hard frosts at night that freeze the ground on the Worley course.

"The sun will thaw about the top inch or so of the ground during the day which makes the turf highly susceptible to "root shear," in which with even the slightest pressure the roots are separated from the plant, and the plant eventually dies," Davidson said.