CARLSBAD, Calif. — John Fields’ eyes light up when he starts talking about the College World Golf Championships Foundation. He looks at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa like a little kid looks at an ice cream cone. Fields has visions of what’s to come. Now it’s just about making it happen.
Fields has seen plenty during his career. He has won multiple championships and been around dozens of world-class players during his tenure at Texas.
However, it’s this project that makes the 65-year-old golf coach jovial, beaming with pride.
Omni La Costa’s North Course underwent an extensive renovation by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner before the layout began a three-year contract hosting the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Golf Championships starting last Thursday with the women and beginning Friday with the men. Fields never wants the championships to leave, instead creating a “Road to Omni La Costa” similar to college baseball’s “Road to Omaha.”
The College World Series is one of the biggest sporting events in the world. By creating the College World Golf Championships Foundation, Fields believes he, his daughter April Workman, the foundation’s executive director, and the board of directors can do the same with college golf, making Omni La Costa a permanent venue for the NCAA Golf Championships and making the event feel like a PGA Tour or LPGA event.
“I want it to be an unbelievable experience from a player’s perspective,” Fields, the foundation’s president, said. “How do you get people to care about them? Get 10,000 people out here. We can have skyboxes around the 16th green. What a great place this is, and no one even knows it.”
The College World Golf Championships Foundation didn’t even get its 501(c)(3) non-profit status until April 26, which is when the foundation could begin raising money.
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The plan? Texas will remain the host institution for the future, as Creighton is for the CWS. However, it will be the College World Golf Championships Foundation which assists the NCAA in running the tournament and underwrite the costs of the tournament moving forward.
Fields said the foundation hopes to work with donors and former players, such as past college stars Sam Burns, Collin Morikawa and numerous others, to give back to the foundation. The idea for College World Golf Championships Foundation began more than four years ago, and now, it’s here.
“I’m hoping, God willing,…
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