We were digging lush divots from the pristine practice turf at Circling Raven Golf Club. Hardwoods well outnumber humans in this part of the world, some 45 minutes east of Spokane, Washington in tiny Worley, Idaho. This rustic setting on the western edge of the Rockies is remindful of a magazine I’ve never actually read -- Field and Stream.

Next to me was "Shallow Hal" Quinn, one of my favorite writing colleagues/running buddies, whose wit might best be described as Canada Dry. Someone down the line commented that the practice facility was unique, in that there was a separate short game area adjacent to the regular range. Close at hand, there was an entirely different set of flags, located at 82, 97, 111 yards and the like, as if perpetually mediocre golf writing hackers like ourselves could ever calibrate our wedge play to such precise distances. We were banging drivers on the neighboring big range, naturally, and Quinn summed up the situation perfectly. "Of course they have two ranges here," explained the voluble Vancouverite. "That’s what you do when you have a huge state and not much to put in it."

Circling Raven is many, many things, most all of them good. But what it is above all else is big. Massive, really. It’s a large scale, links-style prairie-land course set on 100 cultivated acres. But more than 600 acres of fescue, wetlands and Palouse grasses, old-growth forest filled with Ponderosa pines and aspens, and shimmering, endless fields of meadow grass surround the fairways. Set as it is among 345,000 acres of the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, it’s still a relative matchbook on a football field. Turn your head right or left on most every golf hole and you’ll see room for a half dozen more in either direction.

Everything about this 7,200 yard Gene Bates design is oversized. The fairways are boulevard-broad, the bunkers gaping, greens generous. The one-shot holes are uniformly daunting, the entire quartet playing some 200 yards in length from the penultimate markers. From the tips they average closer to 220. There’s a bit of sameness in that they all play downhill, with each of the fourth, the seventh and -- in particular -- the 13th hole playing over gaping chasms of impenetrable vegetation. It's an overall heady experience.

Circling Raven is the pride of the Coeur d’Alene Indian Tribe, and has served as a bit of a booster rocket to what was a moribund tribal economy. It’s yet another superb offering in the nationwide expanse of Native American-owned golf experiences, now stretching coast-to-coast.

Of course, not everyone wanders to Worley for a day on the links, no matter how wonderful the venue might be. Circling Raven is one of the main amenities of the Coeur d’Alene Casino Resort Hotel, located a three minute shuttle ride away. Careful land-planning has resulted in a golf experience almost totally isolated from the gaming hall and hotel though, a welcome and far-too-rare experience. This vagabond golfer has played casino courses in Mississippi and Connecticut where the glass and brass moneymaker sullies the walk in the park sensibility that the golf experience is supposed to be. One of the most famous (and highly regarded) casino-adjacent courses is Edgewoo -- Tahoe, on the south shore of Nevada’s most famous lake. But even on this wonderful George and Tom Fazio design, the garish edifice is all-too-visible on three or four holes, which in this opinion, is three or four holes too many. Circling Raven, by contrast, is as quiet, natural, riveting and inspiring as, well, a circling raven.

The sprawling landscape and boulevard-broad fairways are some of Circling Raven's finest assets.

Many of the holes are lovely, though none as fine as the tumbling 15th hole, a par-4 with a skyline green. This 400-yard gauntlet is backed by a ferocious lateral hazard that compels even the boldest player to reach for one club less. Cloud cover had muted the landscape through our first few forays on the course. But some intermittent sunshine during our final round made the backdrop come alive. Suddenly it was a little bit of Ireland in Idaho, fifty shades of green on the hillsides, in the surrounding forests, through the meadows.

Half an hour away is Idaho’s most famous golf course, and one of the most popular resort courses in the west -- the Coeur d’Alene. This is the home of the honest-to-goodness floating green, sitting out there in that namesake lake, tugged around daily, so it’ll play anywhere from 100 to 200 yards, depending on the tee box selected or where the superintendent drops anchor. It sounds as cheesy as a Wisconsin dairy, but it’s a gorgeous hole, obviously very dramatic, and because the green is so large, a far easier tee shot than the famed 17th at the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, a far-more-famous island green. The fortunate few golfers among us might have had the previous opportunity to take a boat ride to and from a golf course. For example, it’s the most efficient way to access some courses in the Caribbean. But you haven’t done it all until you’ve taken a boat mid-round, puttering with your putter in hand, a two-minute trip to and from this unique novelty act in western Idaho.

The floater is a microcosm of the course itself, which, while beautifully conditioned and obviously very scenic, is just slightly contrived, bordering on kitschy. It’s also a complete contrast to the sprawling acreage at Circling Raven. The lake, the confines of the resort property and the adjacent suburban neighborhood in the town of Coeur d’Alene help to shoehorn this resort course into a piece of property that could be just a little larger in scope.

Independently, either venue is worthy of a visit, providing one happens to be in the region. In tandem, Circling Raven and Coeur D’Alene Resort are a compelling combination, among the finest one-two punches in the inland Northwest. Lewis and Clark passed about 100 hundred miles south of this rugged landscape during the latter stages of their epic cross-continent journey in 1805. Now two centuries later, avid golfers with a similar sense of exploration would be well served in making the far-off trek to Spokane and putting both courses on the itinerary. It’s a delightful stick-and-ball adventure in its own right.