I run a golf league in my hometown and we finish the year with the Hiskey Cup (The Hiskey family is Idaho most famous golfing family with Babe Hiskey being the most decorated of the clan) where we in the past have travelled up to the Driggs/Victor area for a 36 hole match play event. I contacted Huntsman Springs about hosting our group for our September 9th event and the Manager told me that the tees, greens, and fairways were in great shape and very playable and that there were just three holes on the back nine that didn't yet have sand in the bunkers. They only have 11 carts which wasn't enough to handle our sized group so we ended up at Headwaters (Teton Springs) instead. Huntsman Springs is very walkable but we didn't have enough guys that were willing to walk 36 holes. I've been to the property but that is it. The reports from people my friends that live in the area say that the course is fantastic. I was going to try and get up there this fall but never pulled it off but will play it next year for sure.
The course has a nice variety of lengths, for example, the par 3s from the tips range from 114 - 211 yards, par 4s 340 - 489 yards, par 5s 572 - 659 yards. You can see the scorecard here: http://www.huntsmansprings.com/pdfs/scorecard.pdf
I hope it does well. I know some of the Huntsman family from my time in Houston and they are an amazing family and fortunately have deep pockets so hopefully they can make this project work but that area is really struggling from a real estate perspective. The population of Driggs/Victor can't be much more than 3,000 and there are 4-5 courses plus a new Greg Norman course (River Rim) going in. Driggs/Victor was getting the spill over from Jackson Hole 5-6 years ago when real estate prices around Jackson were causing all the billionaires to "kick out" the millionaires and this pocket in Idaho (30 minutes from Jackson) seemed like a perfect 2nd option. Teton Springs (Headwaters) went in and did well initially but then the real estate market began to suffer and now you can find foreclosed homes all around the golf course. Teton Reserve and Hunstman Springs started making plans to do their developments while the market was still good but by the time they were ready to open the market fell flat.
Teton Reserve, Hale Irwin reversible routing, ended up having to open as a public course because they couldn't land anywhere near enough members to cover operation expenses. It was closed at the beginning of the year and then made arrangements to open up to the public and try to generate some revenue. Huntsman Springs has 2-3 people working there and have eliminated their entire sales force since hardly anything is selling for a respectable price in the area. River Rim claims they will be opening in 2010 but I haven't been out to the property to see how progress is coming along.
The season is VERY short up there in Teton country so it can be a challenge to make a golf course profitable. Last year they weren't able to open until after June 1st and by this time of the year they have snow. Teton Springs has offered some more affordable memberships to try and generate revenue and try to appeal to more locals. Not sure what the Huntsman Springs membership initiation fee will be but they will make a big push next year with their grand opening I'm sure.