Prairie Falls' new, 'cool' par-3

The old hole was not only long, but also dangerous — if you happened to be walking or driving on Idaho Street.

Through necessity, some changes had to be made to the par-5 fifth hole at Prairie Falls Golf Club in Post Falls.

Thanks to a little bit of imagination, and a little bit of practicality, what was oftentimes a long, tedious walk has been transformed into a scenic, but still challenging, hole.

Welcome to the new 14th (more on that later) hole at Prairie Falls — a picturesque mid-range par-3 with four tee boxes, ranging from 100 to 210 yards, all requiring a certain amount of carry over water.

“I think it turned out to be one of the best par-3s around,” said Billy Bomar, majority owner of Prairie Falls.

The new hole has been open for a couple of weeks.

HOW DID this come about?

“It started with looking at the infrastructure on that hole, which had been hit by lightning several times,” said Bomar, who along with former Coeur d’Alene resident Jerry Neeser, now in the construction business in Alaska, bought Prairie Falls in 2014. “A lot of that infrastructure’s 20-some years old. So the irrigation, the electrical part of the irrigation, was all due for a major repair. So what’s our options?”

When Bomar and Neeser bought Prairie Falls, the course was losing money. A plan to recoup some of that money was to sell approximately 5 acres of land near the tee box on the fifth hole.

“And also with the purchase of the golf course, the previous ownership had gotten a pre-approved development in there,” said Bomar, who moved down from Alaska to take over at Prairie Falls. “So they were able to already be pre-approved to do 19 homes.”

Prairie Falls opened in 1998 as a nine-hole layout — a second nine opened in 2001. The idea of someday turning that land near the fifth tee into a housing development has been talked about for at least a decade.

Bomar said the homes were going to come in anyway, “but it was probably going to be later than sooner with me, until I figured out what the irrigation was going to cost.”

At first a par-4 was designed, but “that would have been very dangerous because you have a tee box back where that lake is starting ... so now you’re going to have a very beautiful home that’s going to get nailed,” he said of the new homes that were going to be built.

So they decided to move the tee up even farther, out of the way of the new homes, and make the hole a par-3.

“And it started out with no lake,” said Bomar, who designed the new hole with help from course superintendent Marcus Curry and project manager Brant Morris. “And we had some thoughts on the hole becoming a better hole with the lake, and the lots would be more attractable with the lake.”

Bomar, who said all the design and construction was done in-house, said he didn’t want to raise greens fees to cover the expenses. Building a lake actually helped offset expenses.

Prairie Falls needed fill dirt to raise the elevation of the 19 lots.

“Instead of shipping it (dirt) in and paying for it, if we dig a lake, we’ve got our own fill right here,” Bomar said. “It started out as a deeper lake in front, to a little shallower, all the way back.

“When we talked about making the hole better each segment of the way — bringing the water back, bringing the tee boxes out — we figured we might as well keep going (back), and now some of the lots are on the water.”

In fact, the lake runs some 50 yards back behind where the back tee is on the new par-3. Plus, the water in the lake will be re-circulated, and used as irrigation on that hole.

“So this was a way we could develop a brand new hole and have a signature hole, have 19 lots to sell which would cover the expense of doing that,” Bomar said.

Prairie Falls owned and developed the land, and plans to sell the land to a developer who will build the homes.

Bomar got to name the street which will run through the new housing development — Side Saddle Lane, an ode to the putting style Bomar, 54, has used his entire life.

They started digging up the land on the hole late last summer, and Prairie Falls was a 17-hole course the rest of the season, with reduced rates, as well as early this season.

Neeser, who recently turned 70, came down from Alaska a couple weekends ago to check out the changes to the course. On May 25, the new hole was opened for the first time, with Bomar and Neeser and “friends and family that had supported us” getting a first shot at it.

“He’s pretty successful at building things, so I know if I can impress him, it’s done right,” Bomar said of Neeser. “It’s unique that you go out into the water to hit over the water. You know you’re doing something right when people are taking selfies on the tee box.”

Since then, the hole has been open to the public.

The red (women’s) tees are roughly 100 yards out. The yellow (senior) is around 130. The blue and white tees share the same tee box, at roughly 160 yards. From the black tee (which is called the “Pirate” hole, because, as Bomar explained, you can imagine a pirate ship out in the water ahead) it’s 210 yards. He said that tee will likely only be used for special events.

The green is a little small for a par-3 (remember, it was built to accept wedge shots into a par-5), “but our greens out here are pretty big anyway,” Bomar said. “It’s small for the back tee — but any hole from back there is going to be pretty tight.”

The lake was created so little “fingers” of water are between each tee.

“It shaped it much better, and created a cooler-looking hole,” Bomar said.

There’s probably 25 yards of fairway from the end of the lake to the front of the green, if your tee shot happens to land a little short.

“We wanted it to be a real pretty hole — signature hole, but real playable,” Bomar said. “Because the last thing you want to do is build a hole that’s so hard you can’t play it. Because then people forget how nice it looks.”

Because of the redesign, Prairie Falls now has back to back par-3s. The next hole is a 150-ish yard par-3 downhill, with a massive bunker running along the right side of the green.

“The Coeur d’Alene Resort’s got them,” Bomar said of back-to-back par 3s. “It’s not a bad thing to emulate.”

PRAIRIE FALLS “flipped” its nines at the start of the golf season this year.

“We learned when we were working with 17 holes, late in the year in the fall, these last three holes were dead into the sun,” Bomar said. “Then we also saw that the pace of play improved.”

So the new first hole — the old No. 10 — is a par-3. The old starting hole is now the 10th hole, which is why the old fifth hole is now No. 14.

No. 12 (the old No. 3), a fairly straight 451-yard hole, was changed to a par-5 this year, from a par-4.

“A majority of the people who play here have a hard time getting home in two there,” Bomar said. “You don’t want every par-5 to be 450 but for the average person, it’s too long (to be a par-4).”

Prairie Falls was a par-70. Now with the changes at 12 and 14, it’s a par-69 (34-35).

Bomar said he had heard some crazy rumors about the course in recent years — that it was going to close, or be sold to the city, or that every hole would be converted to a par-3.

“What we did do was create a great hole and improve the golf course and neighborhood,” Bomar said.

Starting your round with on a par-3 is a little unusual, but “what we found is people have hit more drivers by the time they get to this side and the old No. 1,” Bomar said.

Then, by the time they get to the old No. 5, they can put the driver away, enjoy the view, don’t worry about the trouble in front of them, and put a good swing on it.

“It was more of a need that worked itself into a cool idea,” Bomar said of the new hole.

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.