ALAMEDA, California (June 13, 2018) — The City of Alameda continues their strong heritage of public golf with the unveiling of the new Corica Park South Course on June 22, 2018.
The grand opening is the culmination of a three year project under the design hand of famed golf architect Rees Jones in collaboration with Greenway Golf Chief Agromomist Marc Logan. The new South Course will be one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly public facilities, while offering golfers an affordable chance to experience design elements of the renowned courses of Logan’s home country Australia, like Royal Melbourne and Kingston Heath.
The South Course is a walkable, world-class layout with a public course fee structure. Jones’ vision was to provide golfers ample landing areas off the tee, and a variety of ways to approach any green. Even shorter hitters will be rewarded with a short birdie putt if they use their imagination to roll their approach shots through the contoured openings in front of most greens. A well-honed “ground game” will save strokes on shorter shots around the green as well.
The Corica Park South Course was also built to withstand California’s weather extremes. Much of the investment was at the engineering level. For example, Logan and his team installed new drainage (25 miles of pipe worth); a high-tech irrigation system, plus 6-7″ of sand capping on each fairway to ensure that the course is dry under foot following even the heaviest of rains. Cart paths include recycled glass, whille the bunker liners are recycled turf from local football fields.
Drought-tolerant strains of Bermuda grass on the fairways reduce the amount of water required, while closely-mown areas around the greens and “run-up” ramps will give Corica Park an old school design aesthetic not previously seen in California.
Today’s golf executives shy away from discussions of “signature holes.” But Greenway Golf’s CEO George Kelley — a former Australian Tour player — loves a short par-4, and there are several on the South Course that have him beaming, especially the 8th.
“It’s easy to design a great long hole,” he said. “But it’s really hard to design a great short one. I think this is one we’ll all be really proud of.”
South Course architect Rees Jones was receptive to ideas about the new design. When Kelley pointed out spots he thought a bunker made sense, Jones agreed and designed them in.
“If you get in them,” joked Jones to Kelley during an early course walkthrough, “it’s your fault, not mine.”
A RICH HISTORY OF GOLF IN ALAMEDA
In their heyday, the courses at the Chuck Corica Golf complex were second in California (behind Torrey Pines) in number of rounds played at a municipal-owned facility. Alameda Recreation and Parks Commission Co-Chair Bill Delaney believes a comeback is in the making.
“During my tenure, it was frustrating to see the courses begin to deteriorate and to watch the decline in tee times. It was obvious that the City of Alameda did not have the expertise to manage a golf complex. We have been fortunate to have Greenway take on the responsibilities of managing the complex. I’m looking forward to what it will be in a few years!”
GREENWAY GOLF INVOLVEMENT
Golf maintenance and management company Greenway Golf won the management contract in Alameda after presenting a comprehensive plan that included the preservation of all three of Alameda’s historic courses. Shortly after taking over on September 1, 2012, Greenway rebuilt the fun par-3 layout known as the Mif Albright; soon after they renovated the popular Lucius Bateman practice facility, where an artificial grass fairway was replaced with a drought-tolerant strain of turf. A state-of-the-art short game area and premium grass tee at the back side of the range gave the always-busy facility new life.
With those “smaller” projects completed, Greenway began the much larger project of completely rebuilding the South Course. The architect selected was Rees Jones — who has developed a reputation not only as a designer, but also as the “Open Doctor” for his work prepping courses like Torrey Pines South and Bethpage Black for the world’s best players.
LINKSOUL LAB AT CORICA PARK
Greenway Golf was looking for something unique on the retail side, and they found it in the form of a creative space designed by apparel legend John Ashworth and his team.
The Linksoul Lab opened at Corica Park in May, selling apparel with the course’s new logo, plus all of the basic golf equipment and accessories golfers need. All this, plus artwork curated by the John Ashworth and his Linksoul team, and an ever-changing selection of items you won’t find in the typical golf course pro shop — a shuffleboard table, surfboards, bicycles, and even persimmon woods designed for Linksoul and handcrafted in the USA.
