Bay Area golf is in the middle of a renovation boom. Over the past decade, some of the biggest names in golf architecture — Gil Hanse, Rees Jones, Tom Fazio's firm, Kyle Phillips and Todd Eckenrode — have rebuilt classic layouts across the region, restoring lost design features and modernizing agronomy. Here are the most significant recently renovated golf courses in the Bay Area, newest first.
Whether it's a full sandbelt-style rebuild or a careful restoration of a 1920s classic, each of these projects is worth a fresh look.
Sharon Heights Golf & Country Club — Todd Eckenrode's Origins Golf Design completed a comprehensive 2024 renovation of this 1962 Jack Fleming layout in Menlo Park, reworking bunkers, greens and tree lines.
Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club — Brian Costello and JMP Golf Design gave this hillside club a 2022 renovation, following earlier work by Robert Muir Graves on the original Clark Glasson design.
Lake Merced Golf Club — Gil Hanse — architect of the Olympic and Ryder Cup courses — completed a 2021 restoration here, the latest chapter in a lineage that includes Alister MacKenzie and Rees Jones.
Corica Park Golf Course (South) — Rees Jones and Marc Logan's 2018 rebuild transformed Alameda's South Course into a firm, sandy, Australian-sandbelt-inspired layout that's earned statewide acclaim.
Monterey Peninsula Country Club (Dunes Course) — A 2016 renovation by Fazio Design / Jackson Kahn refreshed this Seth Raynor–Robert Hunter classic on the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am rota.
Menlo Country Club — Kyle Phillips — of Kingsbarns fame — completed a 2014 renovation of this 1912 club, one of the Peninsula's oldest.
Poppy Hills Golf Course — Robert Trent Jones Jr. reimagined his own 1986 design in a 2013–14 renovation, removing cart paths and firming up the turf for a walkable, natural feel.
The Olympic Club (Ocean Course) — The Ocean was redesigned by Tom Weiskopf (2000) and reworked again by Bill Love (2012), the lower-profile companion to Olympic's famed Lake Course.
California Golf Club of San Francisco — Kyle Phillips' celebrated 2007–08 restoration revived the MacKenzie-era character of this South San Francisco gem, now ranked among the state's very best.
Bayonet Golf Course — Gene Bates' 2008 redesign modernized this former U.S. Army course at Fort Ord while preserving the muscular, tree-lined test it's known for.
Planning Your Round
Several of these clubs are private, but the public and resort courses — Corica Park South, Poppy Hills and Bayonet among them — let you experience the fresh work firsthand.
For the courses that never needed changing, see our guide to the Alister MacKenzie courses of the Bay Area and the oldest courses in the region.