Oceanside · October 21, 2026
In 2014, Oceanside considered redevelopment proposals that would have removed golf from Goat Hill Park. Golfers and neighbors rallied to keep the course. A management group led by John Ashworth took over that July and began restoring the Oceanside short course.
Ashworth and his nephew Geoff Cunningham cofounded Linksoul with family and friends. Linksoul’s 2017 anniversary post names them and David Emerick as founders of Goat Hill Park’s revival. The course’s future also depended on the wider Oceanside community. Today it is an 18-hole, par-65 public course with ocean views, a range and a three-hole children’s area called the Playground.
The golfer and the artist
Ashworth arrived with a long résumé in golf apparel. He and Jerry Montiel founded the Ashworth label in 1987, and he later worked with Quiksilver on Fidra, another attempt to connect golf and Southern California surf style. In a 2019 interview with Shop Eat Surf Outdoor, he described how the pressures of a public company had pushed decisions toward the next quarter. Linksoul gave him a chance to build on a different timetable.
Cunningham brought the visual side. Linksoul described Ashworth as the golfer drawn to art and Cunningham as the artist drawn to golf. As cofounder and art director, Cunningham shaped the brand’s creative work; a Goat Hill Park interview with him also credits him with designing the course’s goat logo. He has carried that interest in craft into projects such as hand-painted persimmon woods—golf objects that make room for an artist’s hand.
The clothing reflects the same crossover. Ashworth told Shop Eat Surf that the aim was comfortable everyday apparel moving between activities, and singled out the Boardwalker short. Linksoul still sells the Boardwalker as a land-and-sea piece. That is a clearer statement of the founders’ idea than calling the line simply golfwear.
The fight to keep golf at Goat Hill
Goat Hill began in 1952 as a nine-hole course called Oceanside-Carlsbad Country Club. In the early 1990s it was redesigned as an 18-hole short course, formally Center City Golf Course but known locally as “Goat Hill.” The land had been protected as public land in the 1980s, yet years of poor conditions and financial pressure still led Oceanside to seek new proposals for the site.
The restoration required infrastructure as well as enthusiasm. In a 2017 anniversary post, Linksoul reported that reclaimed-water irrigation had cut costs and that Oceanside had extended the course’s lease by 30 years. The course’s own history credits the golfers and neighbors who opposed redevelopment and kept golf on the site.
What Linksoul and Goat Hill share
Linksoul’s current description of the company puts golf alongside surfing, skiing, hiking and everyday life. The name is meant to carry the connection people find through golf beyond the round. Its headquarters is now in Carlsbad, while Oceanside remains central to its history.
Goat Hill gives that language a physical address. The course describes a relaxed setting without a dress code, welcomes dogs and calls itself “World Class / Working Class.” On paper it is a par-65 layout of roughly 4,600 yards; its hills and varied holes make the short yardage more interesting than a simple pitch-and-putt label suggests. The course’s own overview is the best place to check the current layout before a visit.
Junior golf is part of that culture. Goat Hill’s three-hole Playground gives children and parents a place to start. Its junior-golf page credits David and Marcia Emerick with founding the North County Junior Golf Association, which runs programs at the course. The Caddie & Leadership Academy offers paid work to teenagers ages 13 to 18 and teaches communication and leadership skills. These programs make the promise of public access tangible.
Make a day of Goat Hill
Start with the official Goat Hill Park site for tee times and current course information. The address is 2323 Goat Hill Drive, Oceanside, CA 92054. The property has an 18-hole course, a range, practice green, golf shop and the kids’ Playground. If you are coming from Los Angeles, treat it as a North County golf trip rather than a quick neighborhood stop.
If you want to see the clothing connection in person, Linksoul’s current store locator lists Goat Hill Park as a course pro shop. Check the locator or call the shop for current stock before making a special trip for a particular item. Older articles about a Linksoul Lab on South Coast Highway, including the brand’s 2017 opening post, describe an earlier chapter; use current listings to plan a retail visit.
The best way to understand this part of Linksoul’s history is to see Goat Hill as a working public course: kept in golf by Oceanside, then restored by a group that included the brand’s founders.
Sources and cover credit
Linksoul, The Love for Art & the Hill Street Country Club (2017)
Linksoul, Goat Hill Park three-year anniversary and founders photograph (2017)
Cover: Goat Hill Park photograph by Jed Villejo, used under the Unsplash License. Founder image based on a 2017 Linksoul photograph of David Emerick, Geoff Cunningham and John Ashworth at Goat Hill Park.