Women's professional golf has come to Circling Raven Golf Club this week, confirming what what we've already known about the scenic, challenging Gene Bates-designed course in Worley.

But it's not the first time the pros have been interested in this North Idaho gem.

"We always knew Circling Raven was an incredible golf course," Circling Raven director of golf Dave Christenson said the other day, as workers and volunteers prepared the grounds (on a sun-splashed afternoon, as skies were blue, not gray) to host the Circling Raven Championship, the 16th of 20 events this season on the Symetra Tour, which begins Friday.

"And we’ve been approached before, by what used to be called the Nike Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour, where the top players advance to the PGA Tour)," Christenson said. "They came out and looked at the site and were thinking about hosting an event here. It never really came to fruition, largely because the distance between the tees and greens. It’s pretty spread out, and they thought with that level of competition, it would be too disruptive to have a bunch of different shuttles out there."

Christenson helped Circling Raven open in 2003. The Nike Tour came looking a couple years later.

A COUPLE years ago, Dan Shepherd, who handles public relations for Circling Raven, the Coeur d'Alene Casino and Coeur d'Alene Tribe, thought the course could handle such an event as the Symetra Tour, in which the top 10 money winners at season's end advance to the LPGA Tour.

"He said this would be a great fit for the Coeur d’Alene Casino and Circling Raven," Christenson said. "And bring more national attention to the tribe, and to the resort."

"Working in the golf industry since 1998 — as editor of Golf Inc. Magazine, a national trade publication before becoming a PR professional — I’ve represented a lot of courses, resorts and destinations globally," Shepherd said. "Through those experiences, it became clear what is generally needed for places to successfully host professional tour events. The must-haves are a great golf course with superb conditions, a place where the high-profile exposure can be parlayed into driving more golfers to the course and guests to the casino resort, the infrastructure to support the endeavor, and the resources necessary to invest in a marketing strategy of this ilk.

"I had done public relations work for the Hannahville Indian Community’s Island Resort and Casino in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula for a decade," Shepherd added. "It hosted a Symetra Tour event for most of those years, and the similarities between the two properties were striking."

After Shepherd's suggestion, Christenson and Laura Penney, CEO of the Coeur d'Alene Casino Resort Hotel, had a conference call with the GM at Island Resort and Casino, then visited the site during the Symetra Tour event.

"They were really open and shared their marketing plan and strategies with volunteers and sponsors … we based our marketing plan largely on what they shared with us," Christenson said. "They kinda gave us the plan, and we just tweaked it from there to fit our property."

The Michigan event has gone on for more than a decade, "and they said after the first year, once the sponsors come out and play with the lady professionals, he said they call us, to make sure they’re signed up for next year."

After Christenson and Penney returned home and the idea was broached with the Tribal Council and Symetra Tour, the decision was made to move forward.

"We said, it’s probably the best value in golf to host a ladies professional event," Christenson decided.

CIRCLING RAVEN is scheduled to host the Symetra Tour event for three years. It was originally supposed to start last year, but the 2020 tourney was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic. So now Circling Raven will host the event through 2023.

Finding sponsors was difficult last year because of the pandemic, but much easier this year. Sponsors help cover much of the operational costs of putting on the tournament.

A total of 231 volunteers are signed up to help. There are 13 different committees, one of which arranges for host families for players. Of the 132 players, roughly 30 or so are staying with host families and/or in private houses.

"We see it as a win-win for everyone," Christenson said.

Practice rounds were Monday and Tuesday, with pro-ams Wednesday and today.

Symetra Tour officials decided to flip the nines for competition — the usual front nine will play as the back nine this week, and vice versa.

"They thought (the ninth hole) is more visible for the crowds — it’s a tougher visiting hole," Christenson said. "18 is kinda tucked around the corner. They came out last year and pretty much located the tee boxes they wanted to use, the pin placements."

Christenson said on three of the holes, the tee boxes may be moved up on certain days to give the ladies a chance to drive the green on a par-4.

The first and 10th tees are now part of the same, big, tee box.

"We changed that in the spring," Christenson said. "We expanded the putting green (to make it more capable of handling this type of event); it used to be 9,000 square feet and now its 12,500 square feet. And when we did that, the putting green kinda moved to the left, so we had to reconfigure the tee boxes on 1 and 10. We lowered them, and made them wider."

He said Circling Raven will play around 6,400 yards for this tournament. By comparison, it plays at 7,189 from the tips (gold tees), 6,578 from the blues, 6,108 from the white (men's) tees, 5,389 from the green tees and 4,708 from the red (women's) tees.

Walking is usually required in professional golf, but in order to keep play moving, shuttles will be used to transport players from green to tee on 10 of the holes.

"You couldn’t walk this course, it would just take too long," Christenson said. "They (tour officials) determined where the shuttles go by, they walked the course, and if there was anything over 5 minutes (walking from green to tee), that’s where the shuttles were used."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.