Mike Crosthwaite La Quotations

The players and their wives were coming out raving about the place. You can't pay for that kind of advertising. They really wanted to put La Costa on the map and having a PGA Tour event, at the time it was potent stuff. It put them on the map quicker.

The only reason we played that hole was because there was no other fairway to play. Everything else was under water. It was an absolute mess. It was a monumental operation just to get the thing done.

When the tour first started (at La Costa), it was great value. You couldn't pay an ad agency for the kind of publicity it was generating. But over the years, costs kept going up because of purse structures, and eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns.

Now, you can put incense in a bottle and open a door and call it a spa. But back then La Costa had no competition. It had a mystique.

I don't think people realize the role that La Costa played in the history of the PGA Tour. It really was at the forefront of professional golf being a venue and what that offered.