Short Game Extra - Travel The NW

Presented By • Tito’s Handmade Vodka

When considering the always forward-looking Kalispel Golf and Country Club, it’s rewarding to look the other way, back in time, to the earliest days of golf in Spokane, Wash.

It’s a long history. And it all started, in 1898, with the Spokane Golf Club.

The founders put the first golf course at 14th and Perry Street in the South Hill district of Spokane. Early on, the members sought a better fit. The next location near Hart Field served four years until the clubhouse burned, and the club moved to another site near the Little Spokane River. There, the new course opened on July 8, 1911, and there it remains today.

The club, in attempting to build its memberships, used a jitney (a small bus) to help members bridge the distance between the club and Spokane’s main population centers.

Over the years, the club hosted a U.S. Women’s Open (1946), won by Hall of Famer Patty Berg.

Lee Trevino, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, Curtis Strange, Nancy Lopez, Fred Couples, Chip Beck, and Nick Price all made appearances at the club. Tom Watson set the course record.

Flash ahead to 2015, when the Kalispel Tribe of Indians acquired the club and renamed it Kalispel Golf and Country Club. Among other updates at the property, the restaurant on-site became a gastropub renamed the 1898 Public House, in honor of the year the course was founded.

Kalispel is a full-fledged golf destination, in partnership with the Tribe-operated Northern Quest Hotel and Casino. The golf on this richly scenic site has remained much the same through the years — top tier — and was only enhanced when esteemed golf architect Robert Muir Graves did a remodel of the course in 1988.

The course has been honored as a Top 50 Resort Course in the U.S. by Golfweek. The par 72 course, meandering alongside the Little Spokane, features 54 well-situated bunkers and water hazards in play on seven holes.

The golf course is fully private, but the visiting public can get on Kalispel by reserving a stay-and-play package. It’s a good deal — the resort welcomes “members for a day” to play golf and gain access to members’ amenities in the casino, spa and dining venues.

Hotel stay-and-play packages start at $209 per person and include a round of golf for two at Kalispel, a night’s stay in a luxury room, and dining and drink discounts at the 1898 Public House and members-only Kalispel Grill, both located at the golf course.

A lower-cost but still upscale stay-and-play alternative is a night in a luxury cottage at Northern Quest RV Resort, with packages starting at $159, which offers the same golf access and resort amenities as the hotel package.

Dining and drinking options are virtually unlimited at Northern Quest. It starts with Highball, an opulent lounge near the Pavilion entrance to the casino.

East Pan Asian Cuisine on the casino level offers madein-house noodles and a contemporary take on Asian dishes. Neon Pizza is all about pizza, and EPIC Sports Bar offers the nachos and buffalo wings you expect, plus craft cocktails and an epic beer roster.

Masselow’s Steakhouse is the prime fine dining option on the property, with top-grade grilled meats, fresh seafood and house-made pasta among its menu offerings. This joint is popular: reservations with credit card are required.

If your gaming plans include wagering on sports, the Turf Club Sports Book invites you to show off your betting acumen while enjoying a cocktail or cold beer.

Post round, you don’t need to venture from the clubhouse to find good grub. The 1898 Public House is hugely popular among the non-golf Spokane public and offers menu items a considerable cut above typical golfcourse fare.

The frog in the Kalispel logo symbolizes health, balance and community in the Kalispel tribal tradition. At Kalispel Golf and Country Club, it stands for world-class golf far into the promising future.

— Bart Potter