THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Showcasing ‘our pride and joy’
While most of the spectators at last year’s Circling Raven Championship were surrounding the final green on Sunday afternoon, watching the players finish, a few dozen were following the leaders out on the course.
One of them was David VonBrethorst.
“Peiyun Chien, who won the tournament, birdied four of the last five holes, and I was fortunate to be following her,” recalled VonBrethorst, in his third year as head professional at Circling Raven Golf Club, in Worley.
“She had birdied 16 to tie for the lead, and coming off that green, she stopped for about four minutes and signed autographs for little kids, and talked with them and interacted with them. And I just sat there, blown away — here’s this girl trying to win a tournament that will be life-changing for her, to try to get her onto the LPGA Tour, but with two holes left and tied for the lead, here she is, signing autographs for kids and interacting with them. I just don’t know of another sporting event where you would get that type of interaction with the athletes participating.”
THAT WAS VonBrethorst’s “moment” — when it hit him that it was a great idea for the Coeur d’Alene Tribe to sponsor a golf tournament on a tour for women aspiring to reach the LPGA Tour.
Laura Penney had several “moments.”
The CEO of the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel spoke with pride of how “the team came together” — the golf course staff, the volunteers, everyone — to make for a successful event.
She spoke of Gabby Lemieux, a native of Caldwell, a member of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribe, who played in the Circling Raven Championship last year, and is in this year’s field. To watch her roll in a putt to birdie the final hole of last year’s event, at a course owned and operated by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, “that was a really special experience,” she said.
“We reached out to Notah Begay,” Penney said of the Native American, former PGA Tour member and current golf analyst. “I did not know that Notah was Gabby’s manager, and so we were able to reach out to him, and he came out on site, and I got to play with him and we visited, and he gave some insight on how special it is to associate the tribes with this tournament.
“I took advantage of the opportunity, and I asked him to give us a commentary on a specific hole, and we did a short video with him. He’s down to earth; a great guy; a great representative for our native peoples.”
Penney spoke of the golf maintenance staff at Circling Raven, hanging out at the course after their work was done for the day, just to watch that level of golf.
“They were beaming with pride to see the ladies compliment how great the course was,” Penney said.
YEAR TWO of the 54-hole Circling Raven Championship is scheduled for this Friday, Saturday and Sunday at Circling Raven.
It was called the Symetra Tour last year; Epson took over as sponsor this year on a five-year deal.
The purse remains $200,000, with $30,000 going to the champion.
Some of the players have changed — the top 10 finishers on last year’s Symetra Tour money list earned a spot on the LPGA Tour.
But many of the players — including Lemieux and former University of Idaho golfer Sophie Hausmann — are expected to return.
And if you were there last year and liked what you saw … well, get ready for more of the same this week.
“It’s still the same course; they liked it,” VonBrethorst said. “They liked that it was firm and fast; they really appreciated the quality of greens, they liked the flexibility in our course, that they could put out a few driveable par-4s each day, and move those around from day to day so they weren’t the same hole each time.
“We got multiple feedback from the LPGA staff that this is, if not THE best, one of the best courses they play on this tour.”
As was the case last year, the nines are “flipped” — the front nine for regular play is the back nine, and the back nine is the front side for this event, in part because the ninth hole is out in the open, and there’s more room around the green for spectators.
“One of the things they did last year, that they’re planning to do this year, is on Sunday, when they’re coming down the stretch … “ VonBrethorst said. “Fourteen is a par-5, which is a great birdie chance, and they moved the tee box up on 15 to make it a driveable par-4. I think we had two eagles, and a lot of birdies, so you can get a lot of movement in that leaderboard on the last day coming down the stretch.”
The LPGA staff that oversees the tournaments decides that stuff.
During regular play, greens run between 9.5 and 10 on the stimpmeter. For the Epson Tour event, greens will be a little faster, probably starting at 10.5 and finishing the week at 11.
“It’s not like they’re lightning fast, but if you get above a hole … we have some subtle drop-offs on some of our greens, so if you’re not paying attention you can definitely lose the ball pretty quick off the green,” VonBrethorst said. “They like to see birdies out here, so it’s set up to optimize for that type of play.”
The course will play firmer and faster.
“Even watching them last year, the girls were getting an extra 40, 50 yards on their drives on certain holes,” he said. “In talking to them, it’s not that they’re looking for a target score, but they want to see the girls get birdies, have some eagle chances.”
VOLUNTEER DUTIES include, as you might expect, a little of everything, from picking up garbage to shuttling players to the range and back. And on the 10 holes at Circling Raven that are more than a five-minute walk from the green to the next tee, players are shuttled from green to tee to speed up play.
For that, VonBrethorst said 20 of the golf carts at the course have to be converted to carry four people.
Some of the volunteers serve as caddies.
“I would say most of the girls don’t have a caddy that comes in with them” for cost reasons, VonBrethorst said. “The caddies are all volunteers that we provide, and they range from people that are just carrying their bag, to caddies that we get from Gozzer (Ranch) and different places that will help them read greens, help them select shots.
Most caddies won’t get paid, “but some of the girls will recruit a caddy from the area that they know has done some tour-type work, and they’ll work out some sort of arrangement with them,” he said.
Roughly two-thirds of the players will stay at the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel, at a reduced rate. The others stay with host families; many with the families they stayed with last year.
Last year, they had 231 volunteers for the event. This year, spots filled up quicker, and they have 255 volunteers for this week.
“In general, we live in such a great golfing community, people come out of the woodwork to volunteer, and they like to be part of big events,” VonBrethorst said. “You look at Ironman, Hoopfest, Bloomsday; this region has such a great community feel to it. But it definitely did seem like it filled up much quicker and faster this year.”
VonBrethorst got into the golf industry only five years ago; he was an assistant at Kalispell Golf and Country Club (the former Spokane Country Club) for a year before coming to Circling Raven.
He was a basketball and track and field athlete in high school, and was head girls track and field coach at Ferris High in Spokane for 18 years before turning to golf.
MOST OF the prep work for the Circling Raven Championship took place before last year’s event. The LPGA Tour has a template for how to run these tournaments; Tour staff made a few trips to Circling Raven last year to check out a few things on the course, including potential pin placements. Circling Raven has a team of some 22 members who meet throughout the year.
One addition, Penney said, might be a “comfort station” with drinks and snacks between the ninth green and 10th tee for fans walking the course. A second food truck is planned, too.
Temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s are expected this weekend.
Circling Raven’s three-year deal with the Epson Tour expires after the 2023 tournament, and whether the tribe plans to re-up after that hasn’t been decided.
The Tribe is responsible for funding the purse, and it recoups some of that through sponsorships.
The rest? By spreading the good word about the course, the tribe, the area, etc.
“By building awareness, seeing increased rounds of play, enticing more corporate groups to come out and play,” said Penney, who took up golf some 13 years ago after following her father, Ernie, around the golf course when he would play in tournaments.
“Our CFO at the time (in the early 2000s), he’d go off and have meetings on the golf course, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m kind of envious of that,’” Penney said.
During tournament week last year, the trip hosted cultural events for the players.
“We think it’s a great opportunity to inform and educate others, who we are as Coeur d’Alene Tribal people, as part of our cultural program that we offer to our customers,” she said. “And we thought this would be great to include them to who we are as tribal people but also share with them our beautiful lands.
“Kayak tours, boat tours, and we also give them some history on our tribe,” Penney said. “We also host a cultural night where we have a little powwow and we include them and share with them.”
Folks from the Wildhorse Resort and Casino golf course in Pendleton, Ore., saw what Circling Raven did last year, and signed a three-year deal to host an Epson Tour event, starting this year.
The first one is the Wildhorse Ladies Golf Classic, scheduled for the week after the Circling Raven Championship.
Penney said the Tribe is proud to host this tournament.
“The Tribe is great about reflecting back on our values, and we’re fortunate to incorporate those values into our business,” she said. “And that value system is always looking out for generations to come. We have beautiful Circling Raven Golf Course; that’s our pride and joy, and we want that to reflect on our tribe in a great way, and also to build future golfers and careers, and just enhance the experience for Native Americans in general, as far as play, and provide growth and development in all areas of golf.”
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 208-664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.
