It's a course that feels very authentic in this way.”īarona Creek’s golf course superintendent Sandy Clark and director of golf Don King kickstarted the project to renovate the course.Ĭonstruction began in early January 2019 and, despite a slow start due to unusually wet conditions, Eckenrode expects the first phase of work to be complete by April.

And on the other hand, as a course that was respective of its natural setting, and not trying to be something otherwise. “The result was a course that caught people’s attention as different on one hand, in that it made you think your way around, where risks and their subsequent rewards could be found. Every natural feature we could find was utilised in the design. Native oaks were transplanted from select locations and used as standalone specimens to create an oak savannah setting amidst native grasslands. At the outset, we tried to create something very unique to the area, with wide playing corridors and strategic design elements. “It was a springboard project for us many years ago.

“Barona Creek Golf Club has a special place in my heart,” said Eckenrode. The course opened in 2001 at the Barona Resort & Casino, while Eckenrode was working as a senior designer at Gary Roger Baird Design before branching out on his own towards the end of the project. Golf course architect Todd Eckenrode has returned to Barona Creek Golf Club in Lakeside, California, twenty years after he designed it, for a greens and bunker renovation project.

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