Barona Creek
The combination of golf and gaming is practically unbeatable, and if you can throw in terrific weather in appealing locales in which you can play almost year around that helps take away any anxiety that is associated with planning a trip.
That’s why visiting California for a golf trip that includes gaming should be on your short list of definitions. Playing in the Golden State is a winning situation, and the courses in the state will be in even better shape than in the recent past after rains brought needed relief to drought-affected areas.
We will look at four facilities near San Diego on this recap, but there are also golf and gaming facilities closer to Los Angeles, in Northern California and in the Palm Springs area to consider. You can’t go wrong with any of these options – with the choice perhaps coming down to what you want to do when you’re off the course and away from the tables.
There are a three renowned and wonderful facilities for golf and gaming in this region – the Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula about midway between Los Angeles and San Diego; the Sycuan Resort in El Cajon just east of San Diego; and the Barona Resort & Casino in Lakeside, about 35 minutes northeast of the Plymouth of the West.
Each of those facilities are owned and operated by Native American tribes and their golf courses are a direct part of their holdings.
Pechanga’s golf is likely the tops
Pechanga, which was developed and is run by the band of the same name, is the home of The Journey at Pechanga, a noted design by the team of Arthur Hills and Steve Forrest. It combines wonderful views of the Temecula wine country and the surrounding rolling hills with a very playable and challenging course that’s considered one of the premier public courses in Southern California,
The Journey was routed on land that is rugged and severe. Its front-nine plays through groves of old Oak trees and across rolling terrain with plenty of elevation change, including up to 300 vertical feet on one hole. The back-nine was fashioned through a desert-like, target-golf setting with forced carries across a handful of dry washes. There are lakes, canyons, and even a virtual “island” par-3 flanked by canyons and daunting and punitive native shrubs.
The Journey at Pechanga was ranked as the 34th best casino course in America in Golfweek magazine’s most recent poll.
Opened in 2002, Pechanga is one of the largest resort/casinos in the United States, with 200,000-square-feet of gaming space featuring the top table and slot games. It has been named the Best Casino in the U.S. and the Best Casino in the West by the readers of USA Today’s 10 Best.
Accommodations here include 1,100 rooms and suites and the resort sports a luxury, two -level 25,000-square-foot spa; The Cove, a pool complex the size of five football fields; 275,000-square-feet of indoor and outdoor event and meeting space; 12 restaurants; a 1,200-seat theater; and a 3,000-seat events center.
Pechanga
Sycuan has the most golf in the area
There’s only one 54-hole option in San Diego, the Sycuan Casino Resort, which offers the Singing Hills Golf Resort with a pair of regulation courses and a fashionable and fun 18-hole short course.
The first course was built in 1956, and the resort is now owned by the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation. The courses are the par-72 Willow Glen and Oak Glen courses both designed by Ted Robinson) and the 18-hole par-3 track Pine Glen.
Both Willow Glen (which plays at 6,654 yards from the back tees) and Oak Glen (6,594) are strong, classic parkland-style designs that regularly make the lists of the nation’s top casino courses. Sweetwater River runs throughout the courses and comes into play on many holes, providing dramatic scenery and difficult shots. The golf courses offer steep discounts for resort guests.
Willow Glen, rebuilt and reopened in 1980 after a massive flood in the area, features demanding, narrow fairways and strategically placed bunkers. The layout contains several dogleg holes, some elevation changes and water crossings that create a challenge throughout.
Oak Glen, the tougher of the two regulation tracks, also opened in 1980, was renovated by Dave Fleming in 1991 and recently received a needed facelift and updating. It boasts tight fairways, tricky putting surfaces, and testing hazards, all set among mature, landscaped surroundings.
Pine Glen plays at 2,508 yards from its back set of two tees, with holes ranging in length from the 206-yard opener to the 92-yard fifth. It’s considered Southern California’s most challenging par-3 golf course.
Sycuan’s lodging is in a 12-story luxury hotel tower with more than 300 guest rooms, 50 of them suites. Its casino has 2,400 gaming machines along with casino table games and Asian casino games.
Guests have a wide range of onsite amenities to enjoy, such as a swimming pool and cabana area with a lazy river and swim-up bar, a full-service spa with treatment rooms and sauna, and more than a dozen restaurants and bars.
Sycuan
Golf at Barona is making a comeback
Blending beautifully with the natural landscape of San Diego’s rolling foothills, Barona Creek Golf Club, an amenity of the expansive and fun Barona Resort & Casino, was once considered the area’s highest rated and most inviting golf courses.
Due to extreme drought conditions in the area, the course has been halved to a nine-hole track with holes 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 18 being used for play and being kept at their normally pristine and challenging condition. The facility offers golfers the option to play the nine holes twice, utilizing a second set of tees and holes that will be available at each putting surface.
Designed by Todd Eckenrode and Gary Baird and opened in 2001, Barona Creek Golf Club is a challenge, but good shots are rewarded. The greens are large and undulating and demand deft touch and the bunkers are country club, pillowy soft. Set on the reservation of the Barona tribe, Barona Creek stretches out over a rolling terrain with not a single home around.
The course was ranked 12th among the nation’s casino courses by Golfweek before it was reduced to nine holes. The good news is that the recent rains in the region have eased the drought, and that the nine holes that are now closed will be open again as soon as they can be brought back up to speed.
Barona Creek Golf Course was built to complement the nearby Barona Casino and a 400-room resort hotel, which features a business center, a fitness center, and a large, sparkling pool. Barona’s grounds are lush and beautiful, and guests can spot many California birds that populate the Barona Valley.
Near the resort’s quaint wedding chapel, there are waterfalls and a pond teeming with Koi. The Barona Rose Garden, selected as one of only 10 evaluation sites in the country for the world-renowned David Austin Roses, featuring 390 exotic and fragrant rose varieties, including many prestigious All American Rose Selection winners.
Barona’s gaming floor features 2,200 machines with wagers from penny up to high limit. There are also over 65 exciting table games, as Barona is home to Casino Player magazine’s Best Blackjack in the Country, the most liberal Blackjack rules in California, and Chipless Baccarat and Roulette in San Diego’s only Chipless Arena.
One of the cool things about this place is that its cashiers come right to where you play. It’s the only non-smoking casino in Southern California.
Barona Creek