What Type Of Course Is Goat Hill Park?
By looks and yardage alone, it can be difficult to classify Goat Hill Park into the typical golf course size categories. Executive golf courses typically have around 4,000 yards or less for a full 18-hole course. Regulation golf courses on the other hand usually start at a yardage of around 5,200 yards or more.
Goat Hill Park would be considered a “Short Course.” Short Courses are a hybrid between an executive course and a regulation course. Goat Hill Park is an 18-hole Par 65 course with a yardage of about 4,600, fitting right in-between the yardages of executive and regulation golf courses.
History
One of the first golf courses in San Diego County originally built in 1952 as a regulation length par 36 9-hole layout, known as Oceanside-Carlsbad Country Club. The golf course was redesigned in the early 90‘s by Ludwig Keehn into an 18-hole short course and became officially known as Center City Golf Course yet affectionately known as “Goat Hill” to locals.
In the 80’s, thanks to the foresight of the Lacey family, ‘Goat Hill’ became protected as “Public Land.” It cannot be developed without the consent of a vote of the public.
Center City Golf Course thrived under the watchful eye of Lud until he passed away in 2004. Post Lud though the place struggled under mismanagement and then the extended drought in California plus the recession of 2008 brought on a crisis for the City Council of what to do with a failing City asset on such a prime piece of real estate. It was decided to put a ‘Request for Proposal’ to induce developers to come up with plans to generate revenue for the City. There were several mixed use schemes that did not include any more golf being proposed.
In 2014, at one of Oceanside’s most historic Town Hall meetings (view here), the local community and the golfing public made national headlines as they united to stop redevelopment one more time in an effort to keep and restore Goat Hill as “the People’s Park of Oceanside.” Since July 1st 2014 Goat Hill Park has seen a dramatic improvement in course conditions and overall improvements which continues to this day. The management group led by local resident and golf industry veteran John Ashworth asked to give a brief description of what makes Goat Hill Park so special, Ashworth says “First off, the 75 acres of rolling landscape and ocean views are exceptional. On top of that we’ve been able to put a lifetime worth of experience to good use by creating a relaxed vibe and an inclusive atmosphere at Goat Hill Park. Everyone is welcome, from the beginner to the tour player and all abilities in between, from age 3 to 103, any gender, race, religion, everyone is welcome and treated with the same respect. We built a 3-hole kids course called the Playground where kids and their parents can play free, and others can contribute to an honor box. We are dog friendly, we don’t have a dress code, we play music around the clubhouse. Our motto is “World Class / Working Class.” We’re proud of all the work we’ve done but we still have much more to do.
Today, Goat Hill Park is a beloved fixture to our local community for its ocean views, fresh breeze and authentic atmosphere. It’s a shotmakers paradise, quite simply, you will have a hard time finding a more challenging short course with as many unique holes anywhere in the country.