Brian Schneider of Renaissance Golf Design has been appointed to oversee a redesign of the golf course at San Diego Country Club (SDCC) in California.

William Watson laid out the original course in 1921, and it has been renovated multiple times over the ensuing century.

“The club is long overdue an update to critical infrastructure and in need of addressing some ‘big picture’ items across the property,” said Schneider. “Once I was appointed, I was encouraged to look beyond simply improving the existing layout and consider the potential of the property if significant changes could be made. The goal was to find the very best golf course.”

An aerial of existing golf course, which will be completely redesigned by Brian Schneider of Renaissance Golf Design (Photo: The Fried Egg)

Over the years, the course has had holes rerouted, and features like greens and bunkers have been redesigned. “Very little of the original design remains intact,” said Schneider. “That said, the native topography of the site is still very much as Mother Nature created it and that contour is pretty extraordinary. There is great variety in the scale and turbulence of the land movement, with certain portions of the property being very reminiscent of lovely linksland. My mission was to utilise the topography as well as possible and to allow the golfer to directly interact with those native features in impactful and compelling ways.

“The result is a new routing that maintains the existing corridors on roughly half the holes with the other half being entirely new. The course will get all new greens, bunkers and tees and we hope to relocate both the existing irrigation pond and the golf course maintenance facility, which currently occupies prime real estate in the eastern centre of the site. We’ll also be updating the irrigation system, improving subsurface drainage and regrassing the entire site.”

Construction will be executed in one phase and is expected to begin in autumn 2026 with the course anticipated to reopen in late 2027.

“Generally speaking, I am reluctant to make material changes to a course of historical significance, typically preferring true restoration to renovation,” said Schneider. “In this case, however, the degree to which the original design has been compromised and what I see as the substantial untapped potential of the property made me comfortable that changes to the routing were warranted. I should make clear that these architectural changes have next to nothing to do with ‘modernising it for today’s game’ – they are entirely aimed at finding the best collection of eighteen holes on that land.”

The bulk of the routing changes are in the interior and southern portion of the property. Holes three to seven and thirteen to eighteen will be new, though a few of those holes use portions of existing corridors. In addition to the 11 new greens, the seven existing putting surfaces will be rebuilt.

“The goal of rerouting was simply to take advantage of unused parts of the property and to use the most interesting topography in exciting ways,” said Schneider. “I also sought to get more golf near and in clear view of the clubhouse. The current practice area and maintenance facility occupy prime real estate; their relocation allows golf to dominate when looking over the property from the top of the hill.

“The new course will be laid very gently upon the ground. I have tremendous respect for the topography of the site and there will be absolutely zero earthmoving between tee and green, apart from areas where we will be undoing existing features to restore the natural contour. A good number of the new green complexes will be very much as we found them.”

Another project goal for Schneider is to reclaim and reintegrate the native Southern California landscape. “The property is currently maintained green grass wall-to-wall, and we will be converting large swaths to the plant palette that you would have found in the region at the start of the 20th century,” he said. “Outside the areas of maintained turf, which will play fast and firm to encourage links-style golf, the golfer will encounter a varied plant palette that adds colour and texture to the playing experience. ‘Rugged’ and ‘natural’ are words we’ve been throwing around.”