Finding Presidio Hills

The cradle of San Diego golf deserves a second century.

Presidio Hills is the little course where this city learned the game — eighteen short holes below the Presidio, wrapped around the oldest house in San Diego. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Lorena Ochoa all won here as kids. Its 100th birthday is coming. Let's make sure it gets there in glory, not in weeds.

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 pitch-and-putt with architect William P. Bell, whose other work includes Torrey Pines and Riviera, and deeded the whole thing to the City of San Diego. His condition was simple: it should be a golf course, and it should belong to everyone.

For seventy years it held up its end of the deal. Then, slowly, the city and its caretakers stopped holding up theirs.

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.

1821

The oldest house in San Diego

Casa de Carrillo rises near the corner of Wallace and Juan — today California Historical Landmark No. 74, and the golf course's clubhouse. Few courses anywhere tee off past two centuries of history.

1932

Marston's gift

Marston restores the adobe and grounds and gives them to the city as a public golf course — a first course for a city that would come to love the game.

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.

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.

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.

Small course. Outsized reasons.

The history is irreplaceable

A 1932 Bell course wrapped around an 1821 adobe, at the foot of the birthplace of California. There is no second one of these. Preservation deferred becomes preservation denied.

ii.

Kids need a first course

Golf is booming and tee times are scarce. A gentle, walkable, affordable eighteen is exactly where the next generation starts — it worked for Phil and Tiger, and it works today where short courses are cared for.

iii.

Old Town deserves better

Millions visit Old Town every year and walk right past a faded gem. A restored Presidio Hills is an hour of delight for visitors and a point of pride for neighbors.

Restore it gently. Fill it with kids. Honor the ground.

First

Green again

Turf and greens brought back to life, irrigation repaired, honest signage and a warm welcome at the gate. No bulldozers, no grand construction — just care, applied daily, until the course looks loved again.

Then

The cradle again

Junior lessons and leagues, twilight rounds, families and first-timers. The goal is simple: more kids holding a putter here than at any point since the Junior World years — with real competition back on the calendar by the centennial.

One day

The Juan Street welcome

The quiet corner facing Juan Street reimagined as a low-profile putting experience that interprets the deep history beneath this ground — something we would pursue only in consultation and partnership with the Kumeyaay community, whose story here precedes everything else on this page.

Be part of the second century.

We're gathering neighbors, golfers, historians, and families who want to see Presidio Hills restored. No money asked — just your name, and your voice when it counts.

Coming soon