The Championship Course, 18th Hole (Image: La Costa Resort and Spa)
A longtime favourite of West Coast golfers, California’s La Costa Resort and Spa is looking better than ever following a $50-million rejuvenation of a property famous as the site of 37 PGA Tour events.
Changes at the Spanish mission-style resort, nestled in coastal foothills north of San Diego, include a completely revamped Champions Course, a Dick Wilson-designed layout that has hosted everyone from Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods. In 2005, Woods memorably thrashed Canadian Stephen Ames 9 and 8 during the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, the most one-sided match in the history of a tourney hosted by La Costa from 1999 to 2006.
More than 12 hectares of turf have been eliminated from the original layout to conserve water use in the drought-threatened region. Other alterations included the repositioning of bunkers, the reshaping of fairways, and the introduction of subtle elevation changes throughout the course. Most dramatic of all, four completely new holes were woven into the routing.
The year-long project by Pascuzzo & Pate Golf Course Design also included significant changes to four holes on the resort’s second layout, the South Course.
Another popular attraction at the 611-room luxury resort is the refurbished 43,000-square-foot Spa at La Costa. And offering treatments of a more spiritual nature is the Chopra Center, where wellness guru Deepak Chopra’s body-mind healing techniques point golfers toward enlightenment — and, possibly, a smoother backswing.
