Team spirit

NCAA picks La Costa Resort to host trio of future national championships

The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Golf Committees have selected Omni La Costa Resort & Spa as the host site for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Division I Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships. Play will be conducted on the resort’s storied Champions Course following a planned 2022 renovation by golf course architect Gil Hanse.

The event’s debut at La Costa will mark the Division I Women’s Golf Championship’s return to SoCal after a 28-year absence. The Division I Men’s Golf Championship was last played in the region at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades in 2012.

The Men’s and Women’s Championships will be contested over consecutive weeks starting in 2024, the first year each culminating national championship will be played in combination at a neutral site. 

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While the University of Texas will serve as the official host school for all three sets of championships, no players – outside of those teams and individuals who advance each year to the championship – will be permitted to play La Costa’s Champions Course during that season. The 36-hole facility also is home to the Legends Course.

​“We are thrilled that the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships will return to California in 2024,” said Connie Hurlbut, senior associate commissioner at the West Coast Conference and chair of the NCAA Division I men’s golf committee. “The collegiate golf community is excited about the opportunity to play La Costa as a neutral site for the championships and we have complete confidence that it will prove to be a unique and challenging championship experience for all.”

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La Costa boasts a rich history of professional golf events. In 1965, shortly after the course opened, the original Dick Wilson-designed layout hosted the made-for-TV CBS Golf Classic. 

The PGA Tour’s Tournament of Champions was hosted there from 1969 until 1998 with a parade of Hall of Famers, including Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Tom Watson, Lee Trevino, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods further cementing their winning legacies. In 1999, the WGC-Andersen Consulting World Match Play Championship, won by Jeff Maggert, was played on the original course layout.

The NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Championship was first played in 1939 while the women’s tournament began its history in 1982. Past individual champions of college golf’s most prestigious title include Nicklaus, Mickelson, Woods, Ben Crenshaw, reigning U.S. Open champion Bryson DeChambeau, Annika Sorenstam and Stacy Lewis.

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