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The NCAA golf championships will never be as hot a property as March Madness or the College Football Playoff, but the event’s new host site is hoping to take a page out of one of its other wildly successful counterparts—the College World Series.
Omaha has hosted the CWS since 1950, a run that has organizers in Carlsbad, Calif., inspired to create a similar tradition for crowning golf’s national champions each year.
This week, the North Course at the Omni La Costa resort is hosting the men’s and women’s NCAA golf championships for the second time as part of what is now a five-year contract. The original deal to take the event to Southern California was for 2024 through 2026, but after finding success last year, that was extended to 2028.
“Everybody came away feeling like this has a real opportunity to continue to grow,” NCAA managing director of championships John Baldwin told Front Office Sports.
Northwestern won the women’s championship Wednesday, and the men’s competition begins Friday. Total attendance for both championships will likely be less than 10,000 (single-day tickets cost $8), and the event won’t make money this year, but the idea of annually having championship golf is still top of mind.
“That’s the vision,” Omni Hotels & Resorts corporate director of club and golf operations Spencer Cody told FOS. “And that’s ultimately what drove this conversation.”
The North Course underwent a $20 million–plus renovation between 2022 and 2024 ahead of hosting the NCAA championships, part of a $200 million project at the resort.
While Baldwin admits it’s premature to say Carlsbad will become a permanent host like Omaha or Oklahoma City (softball)—the “gold standard” of championship sites—he’s impressed with the resources at La Costa, and its uniqueness.
New rules have been enacted to make the course a true neutral site, as players are not allowed to play there any other week of the year. When the NCAA championships were played at Grayhawk Golf Club in Arizona from 2021 to 2023, that was not the case. Before that, the championships annually rotated to different courses around the country.
Typically, local universities act as host institutions for NCAA championships, but the new iteration of the golf championships are hosted by Texas, whose men’s coach, John Fields, has a strong relationship with the Dallas-based Omni.
Details about the next bidding cycle for golf and other championships will be released later this year, when the team at the Omni La Costa in Carlsbad will surely be interested in an even longer-term pact.
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