The golf world remains focused on our slice of paradise, the locale of the game’s current and future stars.
The men’s and women’s NCAA Championships were held at Carlsbad’s Omni La Costa Resort and Spa for the first time, and Xander Schauffele is toasting his first major after his thrilling triumph at the PGA Championship.
Schauffele, of Carmel Valley, won Sunday’s match at the Valhalla Golf Course in Louisville, Kentucky, after a nail-biting finish. The former San Diego State and Scripps Ranch High School standout held off Bryson DeChambeau by a stroke for a win, which cements Schauffele’s status as one of the world’s top players.
Meanwhile, golf’s rising players have spent the past week breaking the seal on the North Course at Omni La Costa. The iconic resort revamped one of its two layouts to host college golf’s biggest event for possibly the next three years.
The men will tee off on Friday, following a women’s competition that featured several North County stars, including Long Beach State sophomore Jasmine Leovao, who graduated from Oceanside’s El Camino High with honors.
Leovao, the two-time defending Big West champion, capped her year by becoming just the second player from Long Beach State to qualify for the individual stage of the NCAA women’s event, which Texas A&M’s Adela Cernousek won on Tuesday.
Leovao finished tied for 114th among the 156 competitors.
Earlier in the season, Leovao, a four-time All-CIF selection for the Wildcats, notched an 8-under-par 64 at the Boulder Creek Golf Club, the lowest single-round score in Long Beach State history.
Oregon’s Karen Tsuru and UCLA’s Meghan Royal, both of Carlsbad, each helped their respective teams make the semifinals on Tuesday, where the Bruins advanced to the championship match against Stanford. The Cardinal went on to win their second title in the last three years.
On the men’s side, there’s a hometown player, senior Andi Xu of the University of San Diego.
Xu, a Torrey Pines High product who lives in Rancho Santa Fe, recently shot a 4-under par over three rounds at the Rancho Santa Fe Regional at the Farms Golf Club to place second and punch his ticket to the finals.
While the Toreros didn’t move on as a team, they’ll have a cheering interest in Xu, who notched four top-10 finishes this year.
The college’s elite are sharing the spotlight with the unveiling of the new North Course at La Costa, the site of so many big events with marquee names over the years. Everyone from Arnold Palmer to Jack Nicklaus to Tiger Woods has brought a club back to La Costa, steep in lore and challenging holes.
The fresh North Course was completely revamped under the guidance of Gil Hanse and Hanse Golf Course Design. Among its highlights is the par-3 No. 16 hole, which showcases a new green and has a new look that copies the course that delivers a green jacket every April.
In a tip of the cap to The Masters, No. 16 on the North Course is a facsimile of No. 12 at Augusta National Golf Course.
We say “amen” to that and “good luck” managing a pristine track loaded with risk-reward shots that will test the most steely golfers.
Measuring 7,538 yards, the North Course has two par-5 holes over 600 yards and a pair of par-4 holes over 500 yards.
La Costa welcomes golf’s future with a past that few can duplicate.
The Tournament of Champions, featuring the previous year’s winners from PGA Tour events, was a staple from 1969 to 1988. A seven-year run of the WGC-Accenture Match Play followed, with two LPGA tournaments as well.
But the pros skedaddled after 2012, with La Costa becoming the go-to spot for top-notch amateur and prep title events.
Among the competitions at La Costa was the 2014 California State Amateur, crowning a winner with a familiar name: Xander Schauffele.
Contact Jay Paris at [email protected] and follow him @jparis_sports
