BARONA Creek / Golf Club

A weekly look at golf courses open to the public in Southern California.

* Address: 1000 Wildcat Canyon Road, Lakeside

* Phone: (888) 722-7662; (619) 387-7018

* Web site: https://www.barona.com

* Green fees: $75 daily; $45 twilight.

* Tee times: Seven days in advance

The facility: The course, designed by architect Gary Roger Baird, is located 30 minutes east of downtown San Diego on the southwest corner of the Barona Indian Reservation. It is part of a $225-million expansion project that includes a 400-room resort hotel and a new casino. The course opened in January and already has hosted a women’s Futures Tour event. There is a clubhouse, snack bar and 10-acre practice facility that includes a driving range. The 7,008-yard layout features several elevation changes and prominent rock outcroppings, 170 mature oak trees and nearly 100 bunkers, lakes and streams, and slick but true greens.

The good: Many of the newer courses in San Diego County have begun to look and play alike. But Baird has designed a course that is pleasing to the eye and is surprisingly undulating given the naturally flat terrain. The fairways are wide open, like those at many resort courses, but the stream comes into play on the ninth, 13th and 17th holes. The 13th and 17th holes offer split fairways for different levels of play. The par-four, 472-yard 18th is a brutal finishing hole, uphill with a lake hugging the left side of the fairway and a tricky green.

The bad: The jagged bunkers might be aesthetically pleasing, but they are a nightmare to escape. If you land in a jagged finger, it might be best to take your lumps and blast away from the hole.

The score: It’s quite a hike from the Los Angeles area, but the price and the playability factor make it worth the trip. Once the hotel opens in late 2002, it will be a nice weekend getaway.