1933
H. Chandler Egan
The front nine
The older and more open half — though open is relative on a course carved out of redwood forest. Larger greens than the back, reflecting Egan's different philosophy, and a gentler opening stretch.
Arcata · Humboldt County
Baywood Golf & Country Club
A private eighteen-hole course cut through the redwoods, with a front nine laid out in 1933 by the architect brought in to revise Pebble Beach. Baywood Redwood Retreat sits above the eighteenth green — and guests staying there can play it.
- Holes
- 18 · par 72
- Front nine
- 1933
- Length
- ~6,425 yds
- Access
- Private
The bit nobody mentions
A Chandler Egan nine, in Humboldt County
The front nine at Baywood was built in 1933 to a design by H. Chandler Egan. Four years earlier, Egan had been retained to revise Pebble Beach ahead of the 1929 US Amateur.
It is frequently described as one of the premier private clubs in Northern California. Egan was one of the significant American architects of the period, working up and down the west coast between 1911 and 1936 — Eugene Country Club, Rogue Valley, Pacific Grove Links. That he also laid out nine holes in Arcata is the sort of thing golf architecture people are quietly delighted by and everyone else has never heard.
The back nine came in 1957, designed by Bob Baldock, who built courses across California including the Shore course at Monterey Peninsula. Baldock then consulted on a renovation of Egan's front nine in the mid-1960s, and Robert Muir Graves made further changes in 1980.
1957
Bob Baldock
The back nine
Wooded, tighter, and built two decades later. The repeating oval bunkering across both nines is Baldock's hand, since he shaped the front as well during the sixties renovation.
The course
Narrow, tree-lined, and it grows teeth
Rye grass greens, bent grass fairways, and two ponds and a creek that come into play on six holes. The opening stretch flatters you and then the course starts asking questions.
| Tees | Yardage | Rating | Slope |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | 6,427 | 71.3 | 134 |
| White | 6,149 | 70.3 | 129 |
1–4
A generous start
Two par fives back to back, then two short par fours. A low or mid handicapper can genuinely be near par walking off the fourth.
5
The signature — 166 yards, par 3
Played from an elevated tee over a pond with swans on it. Widely called the easiest and the most beautiful hole on the course.
6 & 7
Where it turns
Two longish par fours that need good drives. This is the point where the flattery stops and the greens get harder.
8
A brutal par three
A long iron to a steeply canted green. The hole most likely to undo a good front nine.
9
The view, and a blind tee shot
A spectacular outlook to the distant mountains from the tee, then a blind downhill drive that makes the hole play considerably shorter than the card suggests.
10–18
Into the woods
The back nine is the tighter, more wooded half. Narrow tree-lined fairways, and the redwoods are genuinely in play.
The point of this page
How a visitor plays a private course
Baywood is a private club, which normally means you do not get on it. Guests staying at our house are the exception — we can arrange access.
The house sits directly above the eighteenth hole and the clubhouse. You watch the closing hole play out from the great room, the patio and the hammock deck up the trail behind the property — and deer graze the edges of the fairway most mornings.
If golf is part of why you are coming, tell us when you book and we will sort out access to the course for your stay. It is genuinely the easiest way for a visitor to play here.
- Tell us when you book, not on the day you arrive — arranging it takes a little notice.
- Give us your group size and rough dates so we can line up something that works.
- Bring your own clubs if you can. Rental options are limited out here compared with a resort course.
- Layers and a waterproof. Humboldt weather changes through a round more than most places you will have played.
- Check hours before you go. The club is typically closed on Mondays.
Baywood Golf & Country Club, 3600 Buttermilk Lane, Arcata · (707) 822-3686. Access arrangements, rates and hours are set by the club and can change.
If golf is not the whole trip
What else is out here
Baywood sits in Bayside, just south-east of Arcata — which puts a golf trip within easy reach of everything else on this coast.
Arcata Community Forest
793 acres of city-owned redwood with eleven miles of trail, ten minutes away and free.
Arcata Plaza
Restaurants, bars and a Saturday farmers market, three miles down the road.
Moonstone Beach and Trinidad
Tide pools and a cliff road, twenty minutes north.
Redwood National and State Parks
Thirty-five miles north.
Avenue of the Giants
Forty miles south, in the other direction.
Where to stay
The house on the course
Overlooking the eighteenth hole and the clubhouse, with redwoods behind — and the reason we can get you onto a private course.
Baywood Redwood Retreat
Seven bedrooms, three bathrooms and room for sixteen or more, looking down on the eighteenth green and the clubhouse from the great room and a twelve-hundred-square-foot patio. A hot tub, a gas fire pit, a pool table and a hammock deck up the trail behind the house.
- 7 bedrooms
- Sleeps 16+
- 3 baths
- Hot tub
- Outdoor kitchen
- Pool table
- Course frontage