Goat Hill Park

Goat Hill Park in Oceanside is one of American golf's great grassroots revival stories. The property opened in 1952 as Center City Golf Course, the first golf course in San Diego County, and was redesigned in the early 1990s by Ludwig Keehn into an 18-hole short-course layout that locals nicknamed 'Goat Hill.' By 2014, years of deferred maintenance and a failing irrigation system had the city considering redevelopment. Local resident and golf-clothing icon John Ashworth led a community coalition to one of Oceanside's most historic town hall meetings, won the lease for his group, and on July 1, 2014 took over management with a volunteer corps of tradesmen and citizens. The course closed the second half of 2015 for full rehabilitation led by Ashworth and the Xtreme Golf restoration team, reopening February 1, 2016. It's now 'the People's Park of Oceanside', a short, walking-friendly, affordable muni where the regulars know each other and the vibe is closer to public parkland than private country club. Peak green fee $30-55. Fits a San Diego trip as the everyman's grassroots card, the anti-Grand-Del-Mar that most visitors come away loving more.