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In this coastal town half an hour north of San Diego, the Big Three are Callaway, TaylorMade and Acushnet (maker of Titleist and Cobra). Cobra arrived here first in the mid-1970s; today the Carlsbad Convention and Visitors Bureau says more than 6,000 employees at 34 companies ply the golf trade here.
Golf's best players periodically swing through town to play lab rats in the manufacturers' testing centers. Annually they visit the La Costa Resort and Spa (800-854-5000; www.lacosta.com; greens fees $175-$195). The resort staged the Tournament of Champions from 1969 to 1998 and now hosts the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship.
When La Costa opened in 1965, it was the first major U.S. resort to offer a full-service spa. (The town of Carlsbad was named for Karlsbad, Bohemia, home to a famous European spa in what is today the Czech Republic.) Dick Wilson, who designed Bay Hill and Doral's Blue Monster in Florida and Cog Hill outside Chicago, crafted La Costa's two courses, North and South. On paper the tracks are nearly identical. Both are par 72. North plays to 7,094 yards, South to 7,077. They have Slopes of 141 and 140, respectively, and Course Ratings of 74.9 and 74.8.
South is more compelling -- craftier, tighter off the tee, smaller greens. The 1st hole is no easy opener; driver invites danger on this 392-yard dogleg-left par 4 with trees, rough and a creek that cuts up the right side and across the fairway in front of a well-bunkered green. So much for working out the kinks. Only those who hit it long and straight (so much for the rest of us) can reach the front nine's two par 5s in two, as the holes dogleg in opposite directions. The 7th hole measures 501 yards and bends left, while the 9th plays 494 yards and favors faders.
The South's back nine is 429 yards longer than the front, and you'll feel it immediately with a 450-yard par 4 at hole 10 followed by a 210-yard par 3 and a 587-yard par 5. Take a breather -- and a photo -- with the petunias gracing the bridge at the 15th hole, for strength and fortitude are required at the par-5 17th, a 575-yard behemoth with water along the right side. "It is the toughest hole on the home stretch, known as 'the Longest Mile' because it plays straight into the wind," says Jeff Minton, director of golf.
The occasional muted roars aren't galleries, but tractors and backhoes. Purchased by KSL Resorts in 2001, La Costa is getting a facelift. One guest lodged a complaint about paying $140 (the summer resort rate) amid the construction, but the courses are perfectly playable. As posters near the hotel lobby read, "Spending $140 million dollars creates a bit of havoc in anyone's life."
The back side of the North course is easily its more memorable nine. Things get interesting at the 11th, a 384-yard par 4 from an elevated tee to a green wrapped by water in the shape of a question mark. A lake that haunts the right side of the 387-yard 13th snakes across the fairway at 14 then slithers through the right rough at the 15th before cutting in front of the green at 16. La Costa's best stretch of holes culminates at the 189-yard 16th, site of a playoff between Player of the Year Tom Lehman and Rookie of the Year Tiger Woods at the 1997 Tournament of Champions. After watching Lehman come up short and wet, Woods stiffed a 6-iron.
