Fast Break

Golf

Nicklaus plays Idaho Club

The Idaho Club won’t open for a couple of more weeks, but designer Jack Nicklaus on Wednesday gave about 400 invited guests a sneak peek at the scenic golf course located just east of Sandpoint.

Nicklaus and Chuck Reeves, one of the owners, played 11 of the 18 holes. Nicklaus striped his drive down the No. 1 fairway and he eventually made two birdies, one with a 25-foot putt on the par-4 third.

“It’s going to be a good, fun course for the membership,” Nicklaus said of the first course he’s designed in Idaho. “There will be some holes people will have trouble with, sure, because they’re tougher holes, but we have some nice balance, some easier holes. It’s a good, balanced course.”

The course is scheduled to open to members Aug. 29 with a target of mid-September for the general public, Reeves said. Seven holes south of Highway 200 aren’t quite ready, but “it’ll be pretty good in another 30 days or so,” Reeves said.

Read more about Nicklaus and The Idaho Club in Saturday’s The Spokesman-Review.

Track and field

Held earns elite award

Franklin “Bud” Held has been named USA Track & Field’s Athlete of the Week after setting world and American age group records in the pole vault and hammer throw at the 2008 USA Masters Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Spokane Falls Community College last week.

Held, competing in the men’s 80-84 age division, set the world pole vault record last Thursday by clearing 8 feet, 8 1/4 inches. Two days later he set the U.S. record in the hammer throw with a toss of 112-0.

Inducted into the National Track & Field Hall of Fame in 1987, Held competed in the 1952 Olympics as a javelin thrower and was a decorated athlete, winning three national collegiate titles and six U.S. crowns, and holding the U.S. record on six occasions.

Held had competed in the pole vault in high school, but concentrated on the javelin event throughout his career as a collegiate and world class athlete.

Held did not start pole vaulting again until he was 60.