Huntsman Springs - Driggs, ID - Favorite pics

[Bill Satterfield]

I recently had the opportunity to play David McLay Kidd's new Hunstman Springs course in Driggs, ID (about 30 minutes from Jackson Hole, WY).  The flat land Kidd had to work with was nothing to right home about, but $20+ million later they were able to build up and use the natural wetlands to form a solid golf course.

My favorite hole is #16 which is a mid-length par four with a split fairway.  What I really like about this particular split fairway is that the fairway you will likely want to hit your tee ball to depends on the pin placement for the day.  Too often an architect simply makes one sider shorter with more risk while the other side is safer but longer.  But here Kidd brings variety by enticing players to play to a different fairway depending on the pin and/or wind conditions.

Anyway, below are some of my favorite pics from my visit:


The clubhouse was designed after an old barn that stood on the property:



1st Hole at Huntsman Springs:



4th Hole at Huntsman Springs:




8th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



9th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



9th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



10th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



111th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



13th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



14th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



16th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



16th Hole at Huntsman Springs:



17th Hole at Huntsman Springs:

[Derek Dirksen]

Thanks for the pics, looks like the course is maturing nicely.

[RJ_Daley]

It looks like Kidd got a little carried away on the excavator on this one... 



What is the golf season there, Jn-Jl -Aug? 

[Rob Rigg]

Huntsman was a very challenging site - essentially a swamp or wetlands that lay between the mountains and the watershed.

Massive amounts of dirt were moved across the site and loads more sand was brought in to make the course - 4M cubic yards in total. A virtually unlimited budget made it happen.

Having played Huntsman, during their media day, I was amazed at the course from an engineering perspective. Nick Schaan of DMK and John Haley of Highland Design Services worked diligently to make the site playable and mold it into David's vision for the property. Apparently enough water flows through the site in one day to irrigate it for a year. The course runs around a future housing development which makes walking a challenge when combined with all the water. The nice thing about the routing of the course is that the views are rarely restricted by homes on either side.

David's father Jimmy Kidd did an amazing job in finding blue grass, creeping bents and fescues that would work on the site. Even though the fairways are blue grass HS was playing plenty firm and fast when I was there and I can imagine it is only playing better now. I think the season is sort of May/June to September/October, so pretty short and the winters are very cold which is why bent or fescue could not be used exclusively for the fairways.

As you can see from the photos - the surrounding scenery is amazing.

IMO - Kidd and team did a solid job with the site given what they had to work with and what the client wanted to achieve.

If you want a comprehensive review and photos I posted one on TWG a while ago - http://www.thewalkinggolfer.com/huntsman-springs.html

[Mac Plumart]

I've heard it is a really tough walk.  Is that an accurate statement?

[PCCraig]

Thanks for posting the pictures. I just read an article about the development of the course and surrounding area in Golfweek and it's nice to see the finished product from a player perspective. Looks like there are some very solid holes out there.

[Bill Satterfield]

Mac - The overall terrain isn't too challenging to take on but walking clearly wasn't a high priority in the final routing since you rarely have a direct path to your ball from the tee.  You'd pretty much have to follow the cart path off most tees until you clear the 'natural brush' areas and can get to the fairway.  There are some holes that you have to back track or walk out to a 'point' in order to get to the tips which adds to the overall miles you are putting on your golf shoes.  It would have been nice if they cut a path from tee box to tee box and open up some walking options, but catering to the walking golfer is rarely the priority out here in the Wild Wild West since walking isn't valued near as much here as it is back east; some of that is due to terrain but more of that is contributed to the overall mentality of the golfers here.  Even at very walkable courses, the vast majority of guys in casual rounds and tournaments will ride in a cart.

[Jason McNamara]

OK, the combined take of Bill and Rob seems to be:

"Great job by Kidd considering, but I (we) have no idea what they were thinking, using that particular piece of land for a golf course."

Guys, please correct me if I have misunderstood.

Seriously, $20M for a site out west that's not on the Pacific coast or the side of a mountain?  I didn't think the Bakken shale extended all the way across Montana to Idaho.

[Bill Satterfield]

Jason - for the most part that is a correct conclusion, but as much as I enjoyed what Kidd was able to do with the course I still think it has some unneccesary flaws.  In the Shooting Star thread Rob asked me whether I liked Shooting Star (Fazio course in Jackson) or Huntsman Springs better.  Below is my reply:

Rob - If I were picking a course that I would like to join I would take Shooting Star over Huntsman Springs.  Although Huntsman Springs touts wide fairways, there are so many bunkers in play that the lines you are able to take off the tee box are much more limiting then you would think they'd be.  For example, on the long par four 7th hole I took a 5 wood off the tee in order to avoid hitting it too long into the bunker deep on the right side.  I hit a draw right down the center line of the wide fairway that I thought would be perfect!  I was a bit disgusted to see that anything on the right 2/3 of the fairway would be kicked down to the massive bunker complex on the right side of the hole.  That fairway is effectively 15-20 yards wide when the conditions are firm and fast.  Otherwise I guess you could take a 5 iron off the tee and leave yourself 240+ yards into the green.

On the par three 5th hole you have to hit a PERFECT shot to get anywhere near most of the hole locations.  As you know, the green sits at a 45 degree angle and there is bunkering up the entire inside portion of the hole.  Short and left is another bunker and if you hit it straight at the green it will likely kick you forward into the junk since the angle is shallow.  For a 200 yard par three I'd like a little more foregivess than having to hit a perfect, high fade to a firm green with little room for error or recovery.

Another example is the 14th green.  The bank on the left side should be a bail out area in order to avoid the water to the right of the green.  However, we attempted several approach shots towards the bank from various lengths and found that balls would be kicked all the way over and across the green and stop in the rough found between the green and the water.

In the end, there are a lot of things I really like about Huntsman Springs.  My biggest problem with the course is the same problem I feel Tetherow has; it doesn't reward 'good' shots well enough, it demands too many 'perfect' shots, and the abundance of bunkering on firm fairways overly limits the corridors you can play before being penalized.

[Rob Rigg]

Mac - It is walkable and they did a decent job considering that walking was not a priority from the owners. However, all of the water and some of the bunkers, native veg, etc. require some time on cart paths, trailblazing, etc. as Bill mentioned. The walk would be fairly long regardless, but if they added some bridges over the creeks, etc. and through some of the wetland areas it would making walking easier. Overall, the terrain is fairly flat - it is definitely obstacles that make it tough, not elevation.

The walk is probably in the same zip code as Chambers, Tetherow, and Bandon Trails (at least into a summer wind).

Jason - As Kidd said - "the site was a 0 or 1" when they started and they worked from there. From an engineering standpoint it is very impressive and the course is good. There is a lot of water and I thought some of the "strategies" were repetitive, but it is a fun course to score on while certainly not being a push over. It was designed for an 18 handicapper not a scratch golfer (like Tetherow).

My favorite Kidd course is Tetherow - the changes they have made there over the past few years are excellent - it is more playable and a lot of the unnecessary noise has been removed but the interesting strategic bones are still there - and they have added a lot of walking paths to make it much more manageable (especially for a "housing dev" course).

The conditioning at HS is VERY impressive and I love how firm and fast it plays.

[Gary Daughters]

"Unnecessary noise" is a good description of what I think I see in these fotos.  Those sculpted bands of hay seem showy to the point of precious.  Or like a billionaire who really needs to get his eyebrows trimmed.  Or something.  Are we getting a little kitschy?