Aviara Golf Club in Carlsbad's Aviara district is the only Arnold Palmer-designed course in coastal California, threading 7,007 yards of par-72 layout across rolling hillsides and native wildflower landscaping overlooking Batiquitos Lagoon near Ponto Beach. The 18-hole championship layout has hosted the LPGA Tour's JTBC Classic and earned recognition from Golf Digest and Golf Magazine as one of the top resort courses in the country — a caliber of destination play that pairs with the post-round recovery treatments at Karma Spa elsewhere in Carlsbad. The on-site Kip Puterbaugh Golf Academy is the longest-running golf academy in the Western United States, staffing 7 of the top 50 instructors in California and offering private lessons, multi-day schools, and short-game clinics. Two Topgolf Swing Suites on the Park Hyatt Aviara resort campus supplement the championship course with simulator-based practice bays for foul-weather sessions or casual group play. The clubhouse's Ember & Rye restaurant — a Richard Blais collaboration — serves wood-fired steaks and seafood overlooking the 18th green, a 19th-hole dining caliber that matches 2051 Cucina Italiana on the Palomar Airport Road corridor. The course layout features multiple elevation changes, strategically placed bunkers, and water hazards with cascading waterfalls, sculpted around the Batiquitos Lagoon nature preserve across 200 acres of botanically landscaped terrain.