On a Tuesday evening at Liberty Station, a foursome walks off the fifth green with the downtown skyline and the harbor laid out behind them, arguing about whose approach shot actually finished closer to the pin. Nobody in that group is thinking about the fact that Navy recruits once used this same stretch of turf for physical training, or that a young Sam Snead worked the pro shop here while he served. They're thinking about whether the bar still has the good IPA on tap.
That gap between what's underfoot and what people notice is the interesting part. Everything else on this stretch of the Peninsula has spent the last two years rebranding, redeveloping, or announcing what it's about to become. The nine-hole course at the corner of Liberty Station has quietly done none of that. It has changed its name twice and its ownership twice more, and the actual footprint, the actual golf, has not moved an inch since before the naval base that would later surround it even existed.
Nine Holes Older Than the Base Around Them
Most people who know Liberty Station's history know it as a former naval training center. Fewer know that the golf course predates it. According to The Loma Club's own account of its history, the course traces back to 1914, when the San Diego Country Club merged with A.G. Spalding's Point Loma Golf Club to form the layout that's still there today. The Naval Training Center itself wasn't established until 1923, meaning this patch of fairway was already nine years into its life before the Navy arrived to build a base around it.
Once the Navy moved in, the course became part of recruit life rather than a private club. The same source notes it was used through the 1920s for physical fitness and recruit training, a period that produced one of its better trivia questions: Sam Snead, who would go on to win seven major championships, held the post of head golf professional here while stationed at NTC. The clubhouse that anchors the property today dates to 1922, and golfers who've toured it point to details, like the black-and-white photographs lining the walls, that trace the building's use back to that same decade.
Three Names, One Green
The course didn't stay Sail Ho Golf Course forever, and it didn't stay under Navy control either. After NTC closed in 1997 and the land became Liberty Station, the course went through two civilian operators in the span of a decade. From 2014 to 2019, a local hospitality group called Good Time Design ran the property, renamed it The Loma Club, and remodeled the clubhouse bar and grill while adding the outdoor deck that's still there, according to Eater San Diego's reporting on the club's ownership history.
Starting in January 2020, a new team took over the lease: Laura Johnson and Luke Mahoney, co-founders of You & Yours Distilling Co., along with creative director John Levan and Oliver Mahoney. Eater's coverage of the handover reported that the incoming group planned to keep the existing managers and staff in place and hold off on immediate changes to the course, while eventually updating the food and cocktail program and the clubhouse interior. That's the team still running things today. Somewhere in that same stretch, San Diego architect Cary Bickler redesigned the fairways and greens, and the course kept the name it has now: The Loma Club, at 2960 Truxtun Road, open daily from 6:30 a.m., with hours running until 8 or 9 p.m. depending on the day.
Two ownership changes, two renames, and the nine holes never left the ground they were built on.
Everything Else Around It Keeps Changing
Set that against what's happening a few blocks away right now. The nonprofit that has overseen the Arts District portion of Liberty Station for years just went through its own identity shift. In 2025, the organization formerly known as NTC Foundation rebranded as Arts District Liberty Station, a change that Fox 5 San Diego reported covers the same 100-acre footprint of historic buildings the group has always managed, just under new branding.
Then there's The Admiral, the seven-acre, $15 million hospitality project that Mister A's owner Ryan Thorsen is developing inside a cluster of vacant 1920s officers' quarters near Rosecrans Street and Dewey Road. San Diego Magazine reported the plan calls for five distinct venues built around Point Loma's fishing heritage, and as of late July 2026, Times of San Diego's coverage of the project noted that "shovels are expected to hit the ground by early fall" for construction that has been discussed publicly since 2024. It's a project years in the making that still hasn't broken ground.
Meanwhile, the golf course a short walk away hosts a live band most weekends, same as it has for years under whichever name was on the sign.
A blogger who played the course a few seasons back put the posted clubhouse record at 22, shot twice. One of those rounds reportedly included a bogey.
What's Actually Happening There This Month
The current rhythm at The Loma Club is less about any single headline event and more about how often something is on the calendar. This weekend brought Mark Fisher to the patio Friday evening, the Summer Classic Tournament Saturday afternoon, and Laurel Canyon Revival Saturday night, with Westwinders taking the patio this Sunday afternoon. Another Sunday set with the band Role Models is already on the books for August 16.
Beyond the concert lineup, the weekly pattern includes:
- Live music most Friday and Saturday evenings, with recurring Sunday afternoon sets from 1 to 4 p.m.
- Midweek trivia nights at the clubhouse bar
- Screen on the Green, free outdoor movie nights with no ticket required
- Junior golf camps for ages 6 to 14
- Weekly league play and occasional Glow Ball tournaments after dark
- Tappers Mini Golf, two separate nine-hole putting courses on the property that allow dogs on the course, with one course seasonally redecorated for Halloween and the holidays
None of this requires a tee time reservation months out or a wait for a grand opening. The full events calendar lives on The Loma Club's site and updates week to week, which is a small but telling detail in a neighborhood where so much of the current conversation is about things still under construction.
Play the Fifth While the View Is Still Free
The course itself is short by design, a par-27 layout running just over 1,100 yards across nine holes, none of them longer than 204 yards. The hole players tend to single out is the fifth, a downhill par 3 of only 77 yards that frames a panoramic view of the downtown skyline and the harbor. Weekday adult rates for nine holes run around $14, and mini golf sits in a similar range per adult, per course, with family and child discounts available.
None of that is the point, exactly. The point is that in a stretch of San Diego where every few months brings a new name on a building, a new lease announcement, or a groundbreaking that keeps slipping to next season, the one piece of ground that's been doing the same thing since before the Navy showed up is also the one nobody bothers to write a press release about. It just opens at 6:30 in the morning and closes when the light runs out, the way it has for a hundred years.
If that kind of continuity, and the small, specific texture of a neighborhood that's easy to miss from a listing photo, is the sort of thing you want from someone who actually pays attention to this Peninsula, that's the conversation worth having. Schedule a Strategy Call with Justin Halbert to talk through what's changing in Point Loma, what isn't, and what that means for your own next move here.
