California’s Revamped Corica Park North Course Recreates Golden-Age Golf Architecture

Nongolfers often complain that this 600-year-old sport is elitist, expensive and, well, difficult. But aficionados who’ve played overseas know that golf was designed as a game of the people. Most towns in the British Isles boast a public course that anyone can access. The famed St. Andrews Links Old Course, for example, is actually closed on Sunday so visitors can stroll the fairways.

So it’s refreshing to relate a tale of great municipal golf in the U.S., exemplified by the Corica Park North Course in Alameda, California.

Corica Park North Course in Alameda, California / Photo: Nadim Sabella Photography

Formerly a flat, featureless and unsexy layout built in 1927, the new Corica North will delight Bay Area golfers following a full renovation by Australian golf architect Marc Logan. Logan’s team brought in 15,000 truckloads of sand to raise the golf course four to five feet (simultaneously solving drainage issues) and contoured the fairways and greens to provide the open, rolling feel and firm and fast playing conditions of courses you might encounter in Scotland or Ireland. Logan added 21 steep revetted bunkers, and claims there’s nowhere else in California where golfers may be forced to play out sideways or backwards if they end up in the sand.

Corica Park North Course in Alameda, California / Photo: Nadim Sabella Photography

Wide landing areas surrounded by generous greens featuring corduroy-like ridges further enhance the sense of endless space. The course will prove friendly even to players who’ve brought an arsenal of golf balls they don’t expect to see again. Logan aspired to recreate the feel of golden-age golf architecture from the late 1800s, when no machinery was used in course construction. While meeting that goal, he has delivered a delightful and aesthetic playing field open—and affordable—to everyone.