Gary Player was first. Others followed: Jack Nicklaus. Johnny Miller. Tom Watson. Lee Trevino.
For nearly three decades, a single tournament, played on the same course, produced a list of winners that reads like a Hall-of-Fame roster. At La Costa, fans could count on being treated to compelling leaderboards.
Built in 1965 on what had been an equestrian ranch just north of San Diego, the property known today as Omni La Costa Resort & Spa was conceived partly as a stage for the game’s best. In 1969, it was selected as the home of the Tournament of Champions — Player won that inaugural edition — a role it would retain for the next 30 years. When the event moved to Kapalua in 1999, La Costa remained in the televised picture, hosting the newly created WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship. Jeff Maggert claimed the first title. Tiger Woods won three times. He also suffered one of the event’s most memorable defeats in a finals upset at the hands of an unintimidated Darren Clarke.
You get the picture: Championships are part of the property’s DNA. But so is the recreational game.
La Costa has always been, first and last, a resort, designed for family trips, romantic escapes and every kind of getaway in between. More recently, that dual identity has been burnished by a multi-million-dollar restoration. Completed in the spring of 2024, the project refreshed nearly every corner of the property, from accommodations and event spaces to the spa and — natch! — the golf.
La Costa offers two complementary 18-hole layouts. The North Course, formerly the Champions course, reopened in 2024 following a renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, undertaken to ready the resort as it picked up the tournament thread once more. The work coincided with La Costa being named the site of the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Championships through 2028. Stretched to 7,500 yards from the back tees, the par 72 is fit for elite competitions, with risk-reward options well suited to match play. Notable examples include the drivable par-4 11th, a repositioned par-3 16th green that nods to the 12th at Augusta, and a closing par-5 that plays long and demanding into a prevailing wind.
The South Course, previously known as the Legends Course, poses a different kind of test, with fairways that bend gently past mature trees and humpback greens and tight-lie surrounds that call for a deft touch and creativity.
The courses anchor a property that has evolved alongside them. Omni La Costa Resort & Spa now encompasses more than 600 guestrooms, suites and villas of Spanish Mission-style architecture, with eight pools, expansive racquet sports facilities, a full athletic club and an award-winning spa. Families will find no shortage of diversions, from two 100-foot water slides, a Sandy Beach Family Pool and Kidtopia programming to s’mores roasting and dive-in movies by the pool. Even getting around has taken on a lighter touch: The same ground once walked by Nicklaus, Woods and Mickelson can now be covered on Golfboards and scooters.
La Costa also sits within a broader golf footprint. It is part of Omni Hotels & Resorts’ growing portfolio of 28 courses across 12 U.S. resorts, a collection that spans Golden Age architects and modern masters alike, from Donald Ross and A.W. Tillinghast to Tom Fazio and Hanse himself.
The next tournament chapter unfolds in May, when the NCAA Championships return. Until then — and long after — La Costa will remain what it has always been: a year-round destination, open in every season, and to anyone who wants to play.
