Saturday marks a rebirth for Poppy Ridge Golf Course, with its redesigned 18-hole track opening to the public after a remarkable 13-month overhaul.
Embarcadero Media Foundation East Bay editorial director Jeremy Walsh poses on the 4th green at Poppy Ridge Golf Course on May 23, 2025. (Photo courtesy Jeremy Walsh)
The Bay Area golf world is abuzz, for good reason. You’ll likely have to wait a few weeks to find a favorable tee time though – the guys in the clubhouse said they already had some 5,000 rounds on the books as of Friday thanks to advanced reservations.
“All new routing. Everything is 100% different. It’s a new golf course,” the project architect, Jay Blasi, told me last week.
“Very, very exciting. Now is the time to let the public have at it and tell us if they’re happy with what we’ve done,” Blasi said. “If they have as much fun playing it as we had fun building it, that will be success for us.”
This championship course is immaculate, a unique gem in the golf-rich Tri-Valley. Unlike anything I’ve seen in this area before, and certainly a contrast to the property’s predecessor.
Located among the vineyards and hills off Greenville Road in southeastern unincorporated Livermore Valley, Poppy Ridge is one of two golf facilities owned and operated by the Northern California Golf Association. (The famed Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach is the other.)
Poppy Ridge, which opened in 1996, had featured three separate nine-hole courses, dubbed Chardonnay, Merlot and Zinfandel.
A look at the old Poppy Ridge Golf Course layout before the redesign project commenced in May 2024. (Photo by Joann Dost / Courtesy NCGA)
But in the context of wanting to host more marquee competitive tournaments, a singular, flowing 18-hole layout is more desirable. That objective, plus the need to update the irrigation system looming, compelled the NGCA to look at redesigning Poppy Ridge.
Blasi said he was among more than a dozen golf course architects to answer NCGA’s call for applicants in fall 2021. His vision for Poppy Ridge rose to the top that next spring, and after being awarded the contract, he spent the rest of 2022 refining his plans that would need to be approved by Alameda County during the ensuing year.
Construction started on May 1, 2024, with crews taking over and taking out a majority of the original course property. Nine holes from the old Merlot layout remained open during the project and have been retained for a shortened, par-34 track now called The Ridge 9.
Crews moved an estimated 250,000 cubic yards of dirt, and shaped a lot more, to build the new Poppy Ridge 18-hole course between May and mid-October 2024, Blasi said. The rest of the time was the grow-in process and fine-tuning of the holes ahead of completion this month.
The result from that breakneck pace is a course that is playable for everyone, according to Blasi – fun, challenging and much more walkable.
Playing to a par-72 (36 on each side), Poppy Ridge can measure 4,225 yards to 7,010 yards depending on which of the five tees you use.
The ninth green at Poppy Ridge Golf Course, with the clubhouse and Ridge 9 in the background. (Photo by Joann Dost / Courtesy NCGA)
The turf on the tees, fairways and green-surrounds feature Santa Ana Bermuda; the new greens are Prestige Bengrass. Wide fairways are a hallmark of the new Poppy Ridge (most 40-60 yards, with some areas as wide as 100 yards), a particular help for the average golfer with the winds that typically whip through that part of the valley.
Throw in a newly renovated driving range, chipping area with two practice bunkers and 17,000-square-foot practice green, plus a new fleet of golf carts with the latest GPS technology, and the extensive project is now a wrap.
“We are extremely pleased with the collective improvements to the golf components at Poppy Ridge,” Steve Schroeder, chief operating officer for Poppy Holding, Inc., told me by email.
“In particular, the all-new 18-hole course should provide interest for golfers of all skill levels, and offer our NCGA members an untold member benefit to play a course of this quality for a reasonable cost,” he added. “The future of golf in the East Bay and Tri-Valley area has never been brighter with the addition of this outstanding layout, the enhanced practice facilities, and the ever-popular Ridge 9, as various options to enjoy the game of golf in its purest form.”
I was lucky enough to get an early look at the new Poppy Ridge last week, teeing it up in a shotgun with golf professionals and other reps from courses in the region, NCGA movers and shakers, and media members.
Scenic views are a calling card for the redesigned Poppy Ridge Golf Course. Here’s a look at the 4th green — unfortunately Jeremy Walsh missed the eagle putt and had to settle for birdie on the par-5. (Photo by Jeremy Walsh)
I’d never been on a course this new before. I played Yocha Dehe at Cache Creek within its first couple months open, Corica Park South in Alameda within its first year and even Pebble Beach Golf Links in May 2020 eight days after it reopened from its weeks-long COVID closure.
But pristine Poppy Ridge on Friday was unlike any other golf experience in my life. Barely a divot in sight, bunkers that had never seen a clubface, fairways impeccable and the truest rolling greens, including swaths without a single ballmark.
The views, breath-taking — a literal 360-degree panorama of the Livermore Valley and beyond.
Happy to say I held my own out there, despite it being one of the windiest days I’ve golfed in.
I had exactly the kind of feast-or-famine round Blasi said would be possible with his design: five birdies balanced against four double bogeys and a triple.
It was an 8-over-par 80 from the blues, including 1-under on my front nine. Not bad for this 4.9-index NCGA member who doesn’t get out as often as he’d like – and has been all over the place the few times he has in 2025.
Can’t wait for the next time I can play Poppy Ridge again … probably should start checking those advanced tee times soon.
Editor’s note: Jeremy Walsh is the editorial director for the Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. His “What a Week” column is a recurring feature in the Pleasanton Weekly, Livermore Vine and DanvilleSanRamon.com.
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