Old Town San Diego · Established 1932
A gift to the city, waiting to be unwrapped again.
In 1932, George Marston, the merchant-philanthropist San Diegans called the city's First Citizen, restored a crumbling 1821 adobe and the grounds around it, laid out a short course with architect William P. Bell, whose other work includes Torrey Pines and Riviera, and opened it as Presidio Hills. For twelve years he ran it himself, at a loss through the Depression, because he believed the city needed a place to learn the game.
Then, in 1944, at ninety-three, in the last great act of a lifetime spent giving San Diego its parks, he handed the course to the City, the main tract for ten dollars. The deed asked for nothing in return. What has kept this land a golf course ever since is people choosing it, lease after lease, for eighty years. For decades under the Abregos the course held up its end. Over the past twenty years, the course has fallen into disrepair and irrelevance.
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Time immemorial
Kumeyaay land
Long before golf, before the Presidio, before the missions, this hillside stood beside Kosa'aay, a Kumeyaay village. The Kumeyaay have lived in this region for more than 10,000 years. Any second century for this ground starts by honoring its first ten millennia.
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1821
The oldest house in San Diego
Casa de Carrillo rises near the corner of Wallace and Juan. Today it is California Historical Landmark No. 74, and the golf course's clubhouse. Few courses anywhere tee off past two centuries of history.
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1932
Marston's course
Marston restores the adobe, builds the Bell-designed course, and opens Presidio Hills as his own club, running it at a loss through the Depression, "more than compensated… by the satisfaction."
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1944
Marston's gift
At 93, Marston conveys the course to the City of San Diego: the main tract, "commonly known as the 'Golf Course,'" for ten dollars. The first city lease follows in January 1945, "for the purpose of operating thereon a golf course," a promise every lease since has renewed.
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1968–2002
The cradle years
Presidio Hills hosts the 10-and-under flight of the Junior World Championships. The winners' board reads like a hall of fame: Phil Mickelson in 1980, Tiger Woods in 1984 and '85, Lorena Ochoa three years running. Generations of San Diegans hit their first real golf shots here.
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The recent decades
The long fade
Junior World moved on. Maintenance thinned. The turf went patchy and the crowds went elsewhere, even as golf boomed and Old Town's visitors streamed past the gate by the millions. The course never closed. It just faded, and neighbors who tried to rally a restoration found the door hard to open.
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2032
The second century
The centennial is our deadline. Green fairways, kids on the putting green, a course Marston would recognize and the whole city can be proud of.
