Public golf facilities like Corica Park in Alameda, CA are incredibly important to golf’s long term health and success. They function equally as courses and community hubs where everyone is welcome—a green space to meet up, socialize, exercise, and grab some fresh air. They can operate as youth education centers with after school programming and caddie training, offering a safe space and opportunities for mentorships. We’ve been learning from our experience at Goat Hill Park that if you build it, and the vibe is right, they will come. Corica Park has been around since 1927, and over the past 90 years they’ve expanded from one course into a serious golf campus with two 18 hole courses, a 9 hole par 3 course, and a driving range. They don’t just provide their community with a place to play, they offer the full experience at a scale most public courses can only dream of.
George Kelley of Greenway golf management called Linksoul after visiting our Huntington Beach Linksoul Lab and asked us to take over Corica Park’s pro shop. We traveled up to Alameda to check out the site and knew immediately that Corica Park is exactly the kind of place for Linksoul. The grounds are in the middle of being brought up to date and the ease of access from all parts of the Bay Area means that this muni course can really service the whole metropolitan area. Their South Course was recently redesigned by architect Rees Jones and noted Australian agronomist Marc Logan, who created a Sand Belt inspired Championship course with state of the art drainage and high environmental standards for low-impact maintenance. The new track came out amazing and is playable for all levels. Greenway is also in the process of a renovating the original North Course. Alameda Island is in the East Bay, it’s a 20 minute drive from downtown San Francisco and a 3 minute drive from the Oakland airport.
The grounds are getting the love they deserve from Greenway but the shop was in need of some help, both the layout and the merchandising felt like afterthoughts. The building itself needed some TLC as well, but the bones of the shop, its show floor size and the stocking rooms, were promising. Auspiciously, there was a photo of our friend Ernie Els tacked up in the stockroom, in it he’s wearing in the first shirt we did with Old Tom Morris and the words ‘Links Soul’ on it at Fidra more than 15 years ago. So there’s Ernie on the back room wall of this worn down shop with the shirt that started it all, staring right at us, telling us that this is golf’s grassroots, this is what Linksoul is about, and to go for it. We cut the ribbon on the 3rd Linksoul Lab one year later.
This store gives us the unique opportunity to carry a wider array of golf specific product than in other Linksoul Labs. We have the privilege of working with our friends in the industry, and are proud to share and support the innovation and creativity they bring to the game. Some of the friends you’ll find at the Corica Park Linksoul Lab are True Linkswear, Seamus Golf, Jones Golf bags, Snell Golf Balls, Edel, Bettinardi, Kronos, Miura, and Louisville Golf.
For more info on our Corica Park location, including address & hours, click here.
