PARADISE UNPAVED
“How a group of golf missionaries and movie stars moved to save a simple little Southern California golf track. ”
The Keys to the Kingdom! John Ashworth hits the high road to rescue a hilly little Goat.
Looking straight down on US Interstate 5 which runs from the Mexican border all the way to Canada, all 1381 miles of it,
Goat Hill Park is an unassuming, rough-around-the-edges, pint-sized 18-holer surrounded by high-density/low-rent apartments, a large laundromat, pizza parlours and auto body shops. Just an hour south of LA, space is clearly at a premium in these parts and it feels like this sandy little sanctuary just shouldn’t be here!
“It very nearly wasn’t! ”
Raising the plaque to Goat Hill Park
CITY CENTRE GOLF
Established in 1952 as a Par 36, 9-holer called ‘Center City Golf Course’, was later configured to a short 18-hole track laced between a group of sand hills and Cypress trees which locals, for some unimaginable reason called "Goat Hill”.
Throughout its life, the little ‘Goat’ had been avariciously eyed by land developers and overambitious politicians wanting to zone this green Elysium into yet another paved and partitioned source of civic revenue.
A CERTAIN BUZZ
As we pulled through the link fence gates, I didn’t know anything about the place and couldn’t help wondering why my long-time pal Pete Wlodkowski from AmateurGolf.com had brought me here!
The clubhouse, if you could call it such - sold beer and balls. That was about it!
I did notice there was a buzz about the place though with a few older patrons sitting drinking coffee at the bar while a bunch of kids got ready to play. It was certainly different from the exclusive San Diego properties I’d been sampling thus far in Southern California.
I played a few holes with Pete and his son Lawson. It was a bit noisy being so close to the highway but there was challenge enough playing through and over sandy canyons and in and out the Cypress trees.
CONDOS AND STRIP MALLS
And, as I’m sure you can imagine, there’s a story!
In 2014, Goat Hill Park and the local community made national headlines when they stopped yet another attempt to transform this woody, rustic copse into yet more SoCal condos and strip malls.
Local resident and clothing magnate John Ashworth of the Ashworth apparel empire along with a team of local volunteers including two top tour pros and two Hollywood A-listers stepped up to save ‘the Hill’ for the community. And so they did!
LOSING HIS SHIRT
Ashworth surveys his new kingdom
And as we stepped off the 18th, here was the very John Ashworth. Pete knows him and I suspect a call or text had gone out to say I was in town.
I met John briefly many years before when he was involved with a project in East Lothian, Scotland which is now basically an upmarket housing development with two golf courses and a club collectively called Archerfield.
“Oh, that!” John snorted when I mentioned it; clearly not his fondest memory. John had decided to put time and money into rediscovering an ancient links course right next door to Muirfield, Scotland’s celebrated Open Championship venue.
Having fallen out with the board of directors at Ashworth Inc. he decided to walk away from it all. But his venture into golf history hit further funding issues and John had to let go of that too!
LINKSOUL
I asked him why he got involved in Goat Hill Park. “I grew up in Escondido about 15 miles from here and always loved Goat Hill, played it as a kid in the 70s in junior tournaments.
When we launched our new clothing company, Linksoul, we set up shop just down the road here in Oceanside and Geoff, my co-founder and I played 9 holes probably 4 to 5 days a week. It was always a bit rough around the edges even then but the greens were generally good and the layout is a blast for shotmaking.”
Another Aussie golfer Geoff Ogilvy's momentous win (2006 US Open at Winged Foot) stands side by side with the Goat.gang!
Goat Hill ran into trouble back in 2012 when many of California’s local municipal courses were going by the wayside, subject to post-2008 local government austerity measures and the severe droughts that had plagued the entire state of California.
“The course I learned the game on called San Luis Rey had just been closed,” John went on. “The course I played high school golf called Escondido, the same!” I was beginning to get the picture. “And another local course named Los Penasquitos closed!”
“We felt we had to at least make an effort to save this historic little gem. Being in the golf industry and a golf nut my whole life, I couldn’t sit on my hands and do nothing. So Geoff and I put together a plan to save and fix up Goat Hill Park.”
Former World No. 1 golfer, Adam Scott joined in the effort to save The Goat
They were up against some big-time developers and a billionaire owner of a professional soccer team who wanted to flatten the ground for training pitches and a stadium. Meanwhile, the local Oceanside authorities responsible for Goat Hill Park had stopped spending money on maintenance and were only watering the greens. “The course went downhill badly,” reflected John.
SAVING THE GOAT
Deadpan actor/keen golfer, Bill Murray has a house near to Goat Hill Park and got behind the campaign
“We started a ’ Save Goat Hill’ campaign which included celebrities like Bill Murray and Mark Wahlberg wearing our ‘Save Goat Hill’ t-shirts along with PGA tour players Adam Scott and Geoff Ogilvy”.
“At the same time, we started getting support from the locals, whether they played golf or not who wanted to keep this historic green space in Oceanside. By the time we went to the City Council meeting, we had rallied the community behind us and it was looking pretty good in our favour.”
“How did that work out?” I asked. “Good news/bad news,” John answered. “The good news was we won the process and were told we could work out a lease agreement with the City. We partied all night that night! The bad news was - we had absolutely no idea what we were getting in to!”
On top of that, John’s new lifestyle clothing company, 'Linksoul' was picking up steam. “We never actually thought we would win,” confessed John. “We were just into fighting the good fight to keep a green space and not lose another golf course in the area!
“By the time we got the keys, the greens and tees were barely hanging on, there was no grass on the fairways, the greens mower was held together by baling wire and we had 8 golf carts that actually worked.”
The course meanwhile was doing about 10 rounds a day…!”
VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA
“But we had the energy and formed volunteer groups to do the early clean-up work. Believe it or not, we were actually lucky with the drought. We desperately needed a new irrigation system so we applied for a turf reduction rebate for 27 acres which is approximately 1,150,000 sq feet or a $2.3 million dollar rebate!!… “
“This was a huge help and gave the project life! They were able to redesign the irrigation system for the golf course and add in a reclaim water line to be socially and environmentally conscious.”
John put some of his own money into the venture and organized an equity founders club, getting a handful of local friends to invest in the project including actor and golf enthusiast, Bill Murray.
“We’ve been able to make amazing progress,” John told me as he looked around the unassuming clubhouse area. “We took a day-by-day approach, improving things little by little.
“And here we are 5 years later and still keeping the original low-level green fees yet operating in the ‘black’ and being sustainable. Every dollar we make goes back into improving our little 75-acre slice of heaven.”
Listening to John’s story, I looked at Goat Hill afresh. Kids were coming up the driveway and there was some nice reggae music coming from the bar. It was the end of the work day and golfers were showing up for a late afternoon round. I could well imagine this would be a nice place to hang out.
“We have an amazing community spirit here at Goat Hill Park,” John went on. “Our group is very eclectic; blue collar, white collar, tradesmen, military, retirees, kids, moms and everyone in between. I’m big on trading for anyone that wants to take on any building fix-ups or concrete work. Yes, the community does use ‘the Goat’ and takes pride in the fact that it was the community that came together to save their golf course and park.”
KIDS PLAYGROUND
It’s mainly to do with the kids of the Oceanside area having a golf course they can easily access and relate to…
One of the more interesting developments is a 3-hole kids course called ‘The Playground’ designed by Gil Hanse no less, whose long list of work includes the Rio (2016) Olympic Golf Course and the Castle Stuart course in the Scottish Highlands.
The purpose of ‘The Playground’ is to create an environment that is fun, interactive and welcoming for small children to spend time outdoors with their parents or grandparents so that they will be comfortable in and around a golf setting. “We hope they’ll begin to learn the subtle etiquette involved in how to behave on a golf course,” added John, “and develop their own game of getting the ball in the hole.”
BETTER PEOPLE
There seemed to be an interesting ethos behind the projects he was getting involved in so I asked John about his philosophy generally and how it applied to the game of golf.
“I feel golf is important,” answered John. “The game is holistic and transformative on so many levels. Core values and virtues are embedded in the game. I’ve always tried to expose all the good and beautiful things associated with golf so that more people will be attracted to it and in doing so might become better people.”
