Corica North: A Review

The second 18 finally opens in Alameda.

For years, one of the more consistent, if underwhelming, public golf facilities in the Bay Area was Corica Park. It had two 18-hole courses, a driving range and a par-3 course. None of them were special, but they were there, and they were cheap.

The two courses were incredibly flat, with not a lot of spice to them, so they were great for beginners and locals, but otherwise fairly unmemorable. So, ten years ago a renovation was undertaken.

First up was the South course, and in 2018 a completely new South course - designed by Rees Jones and Marc Logan - opened up to total fanfare.

Evoking (apparently) the Australian sandbelt, it was immediately voted as one of the best affordable public courses in the country. Steph Curry lead an unsuccessful effort to bring a PGA or Korn Ferry stop to the course and play exploded.

Not a lot of public golf courses have green complexes like the 17th on the South.

It was hard to get a tee time, and it made it a no-brainer to start on the North course, which was soon torn up and work began on the front nine.

In late 2021, those holes opened and it was stunning - a completely different course, it evoked memories of a Scottish links course with pot bunkers, rolling fairways, etc. Many folks preferred to loop that nine holes twice rather than play the South. The plan was to finish the back nine by the end of 2022

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You can spend a good amount of time in some of these bunkers.

And then, nothing happened for the rest of the North. While the details of exactly what transpired are a bit of “he said, he said” it’s clear that the company that owns Corica and the designers had a falling out (many have said that’s because Corica stopped paying it’s bills), the city of Alameda got involved, and the second nine stayed as nothing more than a thought and a memory.

Until earlier this year, when finally, the full 18 was launched. While the first nine had been designed by Logan as well, Mike Gorman did the back. I’m not sure if this was just because Logan was busy, hard feelings or something else, but the difference is notable. I played it a few weeks ago and while you can see that in some cases they kept the bones of the prior routing, the two nines do feel unfortunately distinct and a bit clunky as a full 18-hole course.

The back nine starts off with three holes where water very much comes into play, something that’s only technically true on one hole on the front. What’s more, the first two holes are fairly long, requiring clubs with a lot more dispersion to be needed while still avoiding that water.

The 11th puts water so much in play that a bogey is a great score here.

I’m not going to go overboard about how Scottish links courses don’t really have a lot of inland water hazards - but they don’t, and this water was here long before the renovation took place. It’s an odd choice then, to emulate a style of golf with some fairly out of place hazards. The front nine feels like strategic golf, while the back is just penal. (Hat Tip: Designing Golf podcast.)

At one point, the idea was that after the last nine holes were completed, the course would be re-routed, with some of the current back nine holes being part of the front, and vice-versa. They play close enough to each other to make that possible, but it’s clear that it won’t.

That’s probably my only major quibble, however, with Corica North. The front nine is still just as delightful as ever and the back has some fantastic holes. 15 is a drivable par-4 (for some) and has taken the old 5th hole and made it so much better. Other holes that stand out are the other short par-4, the 12th and both par-3’s. The 13th is lined with pot bunkers in front but is a manageable 140-yards or so, while the 17th is 200 yards into the wind but in theory you could bump a shot up onto the green with a good strike.

Don’t be short on the 13th.

There are a LOT of fun shots out there. For a public golf course, it’s hard to expect much better and the combination of this and the South make it a true gem of the Bay Area.

I put a personal rating on every golf course I play, and it’s not meant to indicate what the “best” course is per se, but just my favorite. I care about the routing, the visuals, the vibes and the history, among other things. The courses are divided into tiers, and the last iteration I shared had them broken up here:

Corica North is a solid Tier 4 course - which sounds … bad? But the other courses around it are places like Corica South (which feels right), The Boulders, Fossil Trace, Encinitas Ranch and Pawley’s Plantation. (There are seven tiers - God Tier, then 1-6. Almost two-thirds of them are in tiers 4-6. It’s quite possible, I admit, that I need to introduce more tiers as I play more courses. But here we are.)

I expect over time that the North will get better as the green soften up. One thing that needs to change is the course rating and slope - every round I’ve ever seen played there has gotten a PCC adjustment, which all you need to know means that rounds played that day were disproportionate to what one would expect given the players index. If that happens every day, the rating is simply wrong. Let’s fix that.

In the meantime, a full welcome to round out a fantastic experience at Corica Park. Let’s hope the owners keep the prices fair so the public can continue to have a true gem in their backyard.