Golf and casinos are often a winning combination in Southern California, according to a report published last week in Golfweek.
Golf and casinos are an attraction for senior citizens, especially those taking trips. Often those trips stretch out for weeks and months, especially for senior couples known as “snowbirds,” which escape to Southern California during the winter months from states where snow reigns during that season.
One of the earliest gaming tribes to take advantage, or even to launch this trend was the Sycuan Band of Kumeyaay Nation, which purchased the Singing Hills golf course in 2001. Since that time Indian casinos have grown like mushrooms, and have frequently purchased nearby links, making Indian casino golf courses as common in Southern California as all-you-can-eat buffets.
Sycuan advertises itself as San Diego County’s only three-course golf resort, owning the Oak Glen, Pine Glen and Willow Glen courses. The latter course once hosted the San Diego Open.
A few miles north, in Riverside County, is the Pechanga Resort & Casino, considered by many to be the largest casino in California. It projects a Las Vegas casino feel, and nearby is the Arthur Hills-designed Journey at Pechanga golf course, which Golfweek describes as “a thinking man’s golf course.” It is also a course that the magazine describes as not being “friendly to walkers. You’d need a Sherpa to get to the sixth tee, which winds up and around a mountain.”
Back in San Diego County again, and 25 miles or more inland, lies the Barona Resort & Casino, which owns the Barona Creek Golf Club. The tribe didn’t buy this golf course, it developed it from scratch in 2000. Gary Roger Baird and Todd Eckenrode designed it and it is currently ranked 8th in Golfweek’s Best Casino Courses list.
A longtime resident of the area, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s golf correspondent Tod Leonard, told Golfweek that this course was the one course in San Diego that if he had to play one course for the rest of his life, he would choose.
