News & Events

Fee Hikes Coming August 23 to SF Muni Golf Courses

Aug 2, 2025

Higher greens fees and surcharges are coming August 23 to San Francisco’s municipal golf courses -- the result of a new Golf Cost Recovery and Fee Ordinance approved July 22 by the SF Board of Supervisors and signed into law July 24 by Mayor Lurie.

For an overview of this year’s highly contentious San Francisco Budget Process, see the July 22 SF Chronicle: Mayor Lurie’s $15.9 Billion Budget Approved Amid Criticism, and July 22 SF Standard: A Tax on Fun: SF Charging More for Playing in Parks.

With the addition of a new “cost recovery surcharge” of $6 per 18 holes / $4 per 9 holes and an increase in the “special maintenance fee” surcharge from $2 to $3 per 9 holes, the total new San Francisco Resident price for a Monday-thru-Thursday Muni round will be: Harding Park $103; Lincoln $48; Sharp $62; Fleming (9) $45; Golden Gate (9) $26; and McLaren/Gleneagles (9) $36. Weekend (Fri-Sun) rates will be higher all around, and an additional $19 per person fee will apply to reservations more than seven days in advance. Senior and Junior resident discounts are available Monday-Thursday. Non-resident fees at all courses will be much higher. All greens fees at all courses are subject to “flexible pricing,” similar to airlines reservation prices.

SF Public Golf Alliance opposed Rec-Park’s fee hikes as out-of-scale, and in letters to the Supervisors’ Budget and Appropriations Committee dated June 23, 2025 and July 9, 2025 objected to the Department’s lack of financial transparency and decades-long failure to develop a plan to update dilapidated golf infrastructure.

A Rec-Park June 20 Presentation to the Supervisors’ Budget Committee (i) backed away from the Department’s initial February proposal to completely eliminate its annual subsidy to the Golf Fund in Fiscal Year 2026-27, and (ii) publicly committed to “maintaining affordable access to municipal golf for all.” (June 20 Presentation, pages 9-10.) Instead, Rec-Park in the final week of June submitted its smorgasbord of immediate fee hikes and surcharges.

For comparison, here's a list of current Mon-Thurs fees at a handful of surrounding public courses: Presidio (San Francisco-resident rate) $80; Peacock Gap (San Rafael) $60; Poplar Creek (San Mateo) $44; Crystal Springs (owned by SF Public Utilities Commission, Hillsborough) $65; Baylands (Palo Alto) $99; Metropolitan (Oakland) $47; Monarch Bay (San Leandro) $46; Callippe Preserve (Pleasanton) $60; Boundary Oak (Walnut Creek) $45; Corica Park (Alameda) $70 (South), $80 (North).