In a possible indication that the NCAA Men’s and Women’s NCAA Division I Golf Championships could permanently move to the Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif., the NCAA announced on Wednesday that the venue has been extended to host through 2028.
La Costa hosted its first NCAAs this past May to mostly strong reviews from the coaches and players, and it was already set to stage the championships in 2025 and ’26. Now, with the two additional years, it will host five straight times—the most by any site in the history on both the men’s and women’s sides.
With Omni Resorts investing more than $20 million into a Gil Hanse redesign of La Costa’s North Course and an overhaul of the facility’s driving range—all with hosting the NCAAs in mind—a contingent of coaches and athletic directors, led by those at the University of Texas, have advocated for a “Road to Omni La Costa” that would put the championship every year near San Diego.
“I think we found a winner here, and I hope to high heaven that we can turn it into a permanent site,” Georgia Tech men’s head coach Bruce Heppler told Golf Digest at the conclusion of this year’s NCAAs.
Added Tennessee head coach Brennan Webb, “I think it’s incredible that after really only six months of growing that it was in the shape it’s in. It’s going to be a great venue for the next couple of years, and if we go further ahead than that, I think that’s great.
“If you’re going to have a neutral site, I think this is as good as any. Obviously, it’s going to be on the West Coast for the Golf Channel people, and that’s great for our sport.”
Stanford women’s head coach Anne Walker, whose Cardinal captured the team title at La Costa, said, “I thought it was really awesome. The officials, the course setup, it was all terrific, considering they had no reference point. … My players loved the golf course, and so did all of the other players and coaches we talked to.”
Some coaches have expressed concern about the championships not being alternated by regions, but for many it seems the predictable weather, on-site accommodations, optimal TV windows on Golf Channel, and an increasingly familiar course for the players and viewers outweigh any other factors.
Though La Costa North was a challenging test, further hardened by bouncy new greens that had only been growing in for a few months, there was no quibbling with the top-quality results. On the men’s side, top-ranked Auburn won the team title, and four of the six who finished behind winner Hiroshi Tai of Georgia Tech, at three under, were among the top eight in the World Amateur Golf Rankings. Beyond the No. 1 Stanford women winning, the individual champ was Texas A&M’s Adela Cernousek, who shot 12 under, while 14 women players finished at even par or better—the same as the men.
The “Road to Omni La Costa” is the brainchild of Texas men’s head coach John Fields, who, along with Longhorns AD Chris Del Conte, and Oklahoma State coaching legend Mike Holder, had the first meetings with Omni to mull the idea. When Hanse was on board, the project got a green light.
Texas raised its hand to be the host school at La Costa and Fields, calling this the project of his “dreams,” made numerous trips to California during the renovation process. “If we do a good job and raise our validity with the NCAA and the Golf Channel,” the coach said last winter, “then we could do it for 10 years. And if we can do that, we can do it permanently. That’s what I’m excited about.”
It’s looking more and more like Fields has reasons to be excited.
This article was originally published on golfdigest.com
