News & Events

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2025 San Francisco Public Golf Alliance Alister Mackenzie Benefit Golf Auction

The 2025 SF Public Golf Alliance Golf Auction is Live!

Oct 29, 2025by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Great Courses! Other Great Golf Stuff! 

The Alister Mackenzie Golf Auction of 2025 is Open for Bidding HERE and NOW!

America’s golf writers call Sharp Park the US muni “most worth saving”. 

• Golf Advisor: “10 Munis Worth Saving”  
• Links Magazine: “Five Classic Public Courses Most in Need of Renovation Love”
• Golf Digest: "The Fight Over Sharp Park..."
• Golf Magazine: "Why the survival of this Alister MacKenzie muni means so much to golf." 

Our 2025 Alister MacKenzie charity auction gives you a win-win way to help Save Sharp Park, with great golf adventures from Coast-to-Coast: from top NorCal golf resorts and ultra-exclusive private clubs, to legendary Long Island and East Coast courses. CHECK OUT OUR CARD PILE ABOVE! Included are seven Alister MacKenzie gems, together with the work of his fellow Golden Age architect legends CB Macdonald, Seth Raynor, AW Tillinghast, George Thomas, Robert Hunter, Billy Bell, Robert Trent Jones Sr. (and Jr.), and modern masters Tom Doak, Coore & Crenshaw, and Gil Hanse.  All that, and top West Coast resorts, public access, and muni courses from the Monterey Peninsula to the Bay Area to the Wine Country to Tacoma.  Something for everyone and every wallet.

All proceeds go the non-profit, pro-bono San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and OUR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE AND RESTORE SHARP PARK. 

THE AUCTION IS NOW OPEN FOR BIDDING! Waste no time! Bidding will be open through November 13. Check-out the auction items, make your decisions, open your hearts and your wallets, submit your bids, and spread the word to your friends!  

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance
826 Stanyan St., San Francisco, CA. 94117
info@sfpublicgolf.org 

 

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Calling All Music, Food and Golf Lovers!

Something New,  Something Old, Something Saved.

Oct 19, 2025by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Something New

Our friends at San Francisco based DryveBox are long time supporters of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. This Friday, Oct 24, they're bringing something new to the world of golf - Boxworld Fest - “The first ever sim golf and music festival in the world” on the bayside plaza of the Ferry Terminal at the foot of Market Street.

"At BoxWorld, we believe golf should be accessible, exciting, and social. Our mission is to bring people together to celebrate the joy of golf through innovative simulator technology, while creating an unforgettable festival experience that combines the best of golf, music, and culinary excellence. We're breaking down barriers and reimagining what a golf event can be... BoxWorld is about connection, community, and creating unforgettable moments where diverse passions unite."

Reserve your spot at Boxworld Fest [LINK] with a 50% discount ticket using the code “LOVESFGOLF50” - courtesy of DryveBox for SF Public Golf Alliance members.

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Something Old

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” at the 11th Annual MacKenzie Tournament 

93-YEAR-OLD SHARP PARK was the scene October 10 of the 11th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament, a scramble-format fundraiser for the non-profit San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and the Save Sharp Park Cause. A nice mix of golf geeks, newbies and veteran muni players turned out on a perfect golf day – warm weather, cloudless skies – to celebrate at Dr. MacKenzie’s public golf shrine by the sea. Thanks to the 100 golfers, fifteen sponsors, donors and volunteers.  Look for a complete report of the fun event in the future, but in the meantime see Golf Magazines report on the MacKenzie Tournament and SFPGA’s long-running fight for public golf and Sharp Park -  "Why the Survival of this Alister MacKenzie Muni Means So Much to Golf":

"But while a handful of original holes have been lost, much of MacKenzie’s work remains. His imprint is clear in the deceptive hazards and artful doglegs, and the humps and bumps of the greens and fairways. With Pacific waves crashing in the backdrop and wind-coiffed cypress trees framing the grounds, the property has a mystic feel about it. The rustic clubhouse complements the atmosphere and reflects the price point."

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Something Saved 

Sea Ranch Tee Off  (Photo Credit - Leo Sens)

Sea Ranch Golf Course is a charming open-to-the-public seaside links in Sonoma County near the mouth of the Gualala River. It was closed early this year after several years of decline but has been resurrected and under new management by KemperSports, thanks to a save-the-course effort spearheaded by the course’s regulars.  Josh Sens has the story -  "How a shuttered seaside course in California came back to Life":    

"In conventional golf-operator terms, Sea Ranch made little sense. Nor did it make money. This past January, ownership decided that enough was enough. It shut down the course, citing “unsustainable” financial losses. The closure didn’t count as major national news. But for locals, it cut deep. A group of them rallied, and their nine-month campaign has now paid off. Sea Ranch is coming back to life."

Thanks again to all of our supporters. Keep in touch, keep the faith, and keep your eye out for notice of our fabulous upcoming (Oct. 30-Nov. 13) Alister MacKenzie Golf Auction!

 

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2025 US Amateur Championship at Olympic Club

Aug 19, 2025

It was old-time Fog City golf weather for the United States Amateur Golf Championship, August 11-17 at the Olympic Club. But the players were young and bright and up to the task. The winner of Sunday’s final match was 18-year-old Georgia high school senior Mason Howell, pictured above at the Lakeside Course 8th Tee. (USGA Photo)   CLICK HERE for Geoff Shackelford’s full story in The Quadrilateral. 

Fan favorite Niall Shiels-Donegan (center), Thursday, Aug. 14.  USGA Photo.

Great Scot!  The week’s biggest, most boisterous crowds, however, belonged to Mill Valley’s 20-year-old Niall Shiels-Donegan, a Glasgow, Scotland native who grew up in Marin, played varsity golf and football and graduated from Tamalpais High in 2023, and learned his golf at the 9-hole Mill Valley Muni and nearby Meadow Club, where he is a junior member.  Over six days and 128 holes of tournament golf at Olympic, Niall survived a 2-day medal play qualifying test, then won four tight matches in three days on the Lakeside Course before losing 1-down in Saturday’s semi-finals to an 18th hole birdie by Tennessee’s Jackson Harrington.  CLICK HERE for the full story.

Shiels-Donegan holes another crowd-pleasing putt at Lakeside.  USGA Photo.

Son of Scottish journalist and one-time pop musician Lawrence Donegan, Niall has for several years competed and won junior and men’s tournaments in Europe and the US and played two years of varsity golf at Northwestern before recently transferring  to University of North Carolina.  Before departing for Chapel Hill, and as the US Amateur final match was being contested 20 miles south at Olympic, Niall played a farewell Sunday game on August 17 with the Mill Valley regulars. (See photo, below.)

Blue Sky and Niall on the Tee at Mill Valley GC, Aug. 17.  Photo courtesy G. Shackelford.

Be of good cheer, golf fans.  Shiels-Donegan shall return to NorCal in the first week of September. The Scotland native was picked by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club on August 18 to be a member of the Great Britain and Ireland Team for the 2025 Walker Cup at Cypress Point.

Play away, please . . . .

 

Volunteer Spirit Supports National Championship Golf in San Francisco

By Emmett Berg

San Mateo’s Ed Knowles (holding sign) at Olympic Lakeside’s 18th hole on Aug. 13

The contestants and small army of spectators that descended on the Olympic Club for the 125th United States Amateur Championship over the week of August 11-17 were outnumbered, until the thrilling weekend semi-final and final matches, by the roughly 800 tournament volunteers on and around the golf course.

Volunteers (Olympic members and fans from the wider golf community) spotted balls, walked with players to score each hole and to aid shot tracer technology, or held standards aloft to mark progress in the match. 

And these on-course roles were only the most visible in a much larger effort that included ticketing, security, traffic and access control, refreshment stands, player and volunteer registration, and emergency teams, said Volunteer Services Director Bob Loback.  “We have volunteers flying in to help, apparently including a Super Bowl champion,” Loback said. “This event requires a lot of hands, and we’ve got them.”

Strolling the cavernous volunteer headquarters tent, I visited the canteen and registration area, looked at some live scores and then plopped down to eat next to some diehards. One of them, Pat Murphy, had been the standard bearer at  Lakeside  for the 1966 U.S. Open playoff between Arnold Palmer and Billy Casper.  Pat and his friend Dr. Patricia Cornett reminisced about volunteering in 2015 at the inaugural USGA Four Ball Championship at Olympic.  Around the room it became clear that things may change in tournament golf but the volunteer spirit – and some of the volunteers -- remain the same.

“I’ve been a volunteer for at least twenty or thirty years, mainly in rules. I do rules,” said Sandra Hinzmann, a rules official who watched over the Cooper Claycomb-John Daly II first-round match on Wednesday and gave her age as “in the 80’s”.   

On the 16th fairway, the first-round match between Davis Johnson and Kolton Crawford was, in the words of standard bearer Grayson Lawrence, “just a nice little walk” alongside talented, polite top-caliber amateurs. “It’s been a great match, and the players are really friendly.”

“I am having so much fun right now,” said Ed Knowles, standard bearer for the Daly-Claycomb match. He had just been stopped by spectators wanting to take their picture with him and his standard with the Lakeside Course 18th green and iconic Olympic Clubhouse looming above. “This was my first time,” said Knowles, 76, of San Mateo. “But I’m definitely volunteering again.”

Emmett Berg with Lily Achatz, Harding Park Women's GC 

 

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Sign Up For The 11th Alister MacKenzie Tournament at Sharp Park October 10, 2025!

Aug 13, 2025

Join the SF Public Golf Alliance on Friday, October 10, 2025 at the Good Doctor’s Historic Sharp Park Golf Course for the 11th Edition of The Alister MacKenzie Tournament!

CLICK THIS LINK TO REGISTER - Please send any questions to info@SFpublicgolf.org

The non-profit SF Public Golf Alliance has organized, informed, advocated, and successfully fought since 2007 for public golf and public golf courses in San Francisco, the Peninsula, and California. Our annual benefit tournament helps fund our Mission to nurture and defend affordable, eco-friendly, public golf. A special focus has been the landmark 90-year-old Sharp Park, MacKenzie’s only seaside public links outside Scotland, where our work over the years has included in-kind donations of course improvements, environmental consultants, and public education campaigns.

Whether you've participated and enjoyed our past tournaments, or if you are considering joining for the first time, you don't want to miss this one! We have fun additions and surprises planned for this year’s tournament and we can’t wait for you to see them..

Date and Place: Friday morning, October 10, 2025 at Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, CA
Golfing Time: 9:30am Shotgun Start (Check-in and breakfast starts at 7:30am)
Format: Foursome Scramble (Gross Scores) 

• If you are a solo participant or a partial group, that’s OK; sign up your players and we will get you a great pairing to complete your team!

Fee: $275 per player (50% tax deductible)

1. Includes hot buffet breakfast, post-round lunch, and a great tee prize
2. Sharp has 36 Electric carts. Priority goes to those who need to ride. Let us know if that's you or anyone in your group. Otherwise, electric carts will go on a first come, first served basis the morning of the tournament. Push carts are also available. That said, Sharp is mostly flat, and we recommend it as a great walking course. 
3. Additional tickets for non-golfer attendees can be purchased for $50

Post Round Festivities: Included with entry fee for all golfers.

• Lunch and hors d'oeuvres will be served.
• No-host bar will be open and available.

CLICK THIS LINK TO REGISTER - Please send any questions to info@SFpublicgolf.org

Sponsorship Levels: if you are interested in sponsoring the 2025 MacKenzie tournament, let us know at info@sfpublicgolf.org or by using the registration link!

• Ace Sponsors ($4,000) are entitled to bring TWO 4-person teams
• Eagle Sponsors ($2,000) are entitled to bring ONE 4-person team
• Sponsorships are tax deductible all or in part (depending on whether you bring a team/teams)
• Sponsorship includes publicity on the tournament program, website, and hole sponsorship signs with your name and logo (coordinated via email)
• Interested in a different amount? Got your own ideas? Let us know!
• Submit sponsorship registrations no later than September 10, 2025

We need your engagement and financial support. Please join us – and bring your friends – to Sharp Park on Friday, October 10, 2025.

• Calendar October 10, tell your friends, and recruit your teams!
• Register your team and players online [CLICK HERE] or use the mail-in paper entry form [DOWNLOAD HERE].
• Sharp now has 36 new electric carts. Not enough for all. Tell us on the Entry Form if you (i) want or (ii) need a cart. We aim to please.
•  Sponsors can register online [CLICK HERE] or e-mail us at info@sfpublicgolf.org.
• Entrants and Sponsors can pay online through Paypal [CLICK TO DONATE HERE] - be sure to note the donation is for the 2025 MacKenzie Tournament.

See you October 10 at Sharp Park!

 

 

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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).  

 

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Save The Date! 11th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament Friday morning, Oct. 10, 2025

Jul 25, 2025

Mark Your Calendars, Tell Your Friends, Gather Your Groups! Announcing the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance's 11th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament!

This year's celebration of SF public golf will be held Friday morning, October 10 at the landmark Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, CA.

Stay tuned for the tournament registration link and signup form (coming soon in early August).

Have any questions? Email us at info@sfpublicgolf.org. See you there!

 

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Lincoln Park - Then and Now.

Lincoln Park Reader: Historic Golf / Hallowed Ground

Jun 8, 2025by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

 “In the Midst of Life:  A Walk Through the Secret Graveyard of San Francisco’s Lincoln Park” Golfers Journal, May 2025, by Haight-Ashbury resident Arlo Crawford:

"The popularity of golf rises and falls, cities boom and bust, our own lives expand and contract over the decades, but one thing that humans have always needed - will always need - is a place to play. And, just as importantly at the end, a place to rest. Lincoln Park has offered both to generations of San Franciscans. Out here on the edge of the continent, watching a ball arc into the cool air against the green of the Monterey cypress and the blank, unending blue of the Pacific, time may stop for a moment. And the ball lands and rolls, and the round goes on, just as it always has." – Arlo Crawford

“The first golf holes at Lincoln Park were added during a “Golden Age” of USA golf course architecture... As Lincoln Park Golf Course developed over time, it is purported to be the site for some of the first “public” golf holes on the west coast. It is also the first regional course to offer affordable golf to the public. The first nine holes completed after 1913 were initially free to the public.. Eventually, a “Resident” card was provided through the City and County of San Francisco for discounted play for youth, general San Francisco residents and seniors. This level of accessibility to golf includes being the site of one of the very first and longest running amateur championship tournaments in the nation - affectionately known as “The City”. For these reasons, Lincoln Park Golf Course represents some accessibility qualities generally cherished in the San Francisco ethos and by the author of this essay.” – Paul Lord

“Perched on its towering sand dunes overlooking the Golden Gate, Lincoln Park is a jewel of San Francisco history. The earliest three golf holes appeared in 1903, making Lincoln one of the oldest public courses in the West. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was built in the early 1920’s by art collector Alma Spreckels as a memorial to California’s war dead of World War I. The car park oval across the street from the Legion of Honor is the Western Terminus of the Lincoln Highway – America’s first transcontinental highway, completed in time for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.  The San Francisco Holocaust Memorial rests on the north slope of the car park oval. Predating all these are the two monumental cemetery remnants – the Kong Chow funerary altar near the Hole #1 green, and the Ladies Seaman’s Friend Society’s bronze obelisk near the #15 green.” 

 

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The SF Public Golf Alliance vigorously objects to Rec-Park proposal to slash support for public golf.

Golf in the Time of Budget Crunch / Rec-Park Proposes a 1/3 CUT in its 2026-27 Golf Budget

Mar 7, 2025by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

TAKE ACTION:  WRITE LETTERS, SIGN THE PETITION, TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

On February 21, 2025 the San Francisco Rec & Park Department submitted a Proposed Budget for Fiscal Years 2025-26 and 26-27 to the Mayor’s Office which, among other things, provides: 

“Golf Courses.  The Department will initiate a request for qualifications and/or proposals process for golf course operations and maintenance, including leases. In FY 26-27, Rec Park assumes additional cost efficiencies and savings will be generated through this process and could provide capital improvements. This budget proposal eliminates the general fund subsidy of roughly $6M.” 

The proposed $6 Million “elimination of general fund subsidy” would effectively be a 1/3 CUT in Rec-Park’s 2026-27 Golf Budget.The proposal and its potentially devastating effect on the golf courses is the subject of a February 28 SF Chronicle article by Sam Whiting headlined "Golfers Grumble About S.F. Plan...":

"The golfers are mobilizing to fight back through the Public Golf Alliance, a nonprofit that formed in 2007 with the mission to keep golf accessible in the city. With 6,500 members, the group will be heard as the proposal moves through the budget process."

We vigorously object to this proposed slashing of support for public golf. Golf has been a Rec-Park core service since the first decades of the 20th Century when Rec-Park founding father John McLaren personally hired the architects, planted the trees, oversaw construction of the Lincoln, Harding, and Sharp Park courses, and turned San Francisco into a national beacon of PUBLIC golf. San Francisco public course golfers today include more women, more children, and a far more diverse racial mix than ever before – a direct result of the City’s historically inclusive golf culture. Sharp Park played an early and important role in the racial integration of golf when, in 1955, Sharp hosted the inaugural tournament gathering of the Western States Golf Association, one of the nation’s oldest and largest African-American golf organizations.  

In its mismanagement of golf over the 20-plus years since the 2002-2003 renovation of the Harding-Fleming complex, Rec-Park has disregarded key requirements of the San Francisco City Services Ordinance, Golf Fees provisions of the Administrative Code, and the recommendations of a 2006 San Francisco Budget Analyst Office Management Audit of Rec-Park.  The result is the deterioration of clubhouses and golf courses and their drainage, irrigation and other essential infrastructure, all as detailed in our letters to the Rec-Park Commission dated February 5, February15, and February 20, 2025, and February 15, 2022.
 
While the Department has now finally professed its intent to “initiate a request for qualifications and/or proposals process” to end its problematic practice of rolling-over decades-old month-to-month operating agreements at Sharp and Lincoln, and while we support the idea of new extended-term operating agreements, Rec-Park’s “process” will likely be difficult and slow, with as-yet-unknown results. So while we join in hoping for “cost efficiencies and savings” via new operating agreements with qualified golf operators, these are not done deals, not spelled out, and therefore we cannot join the RPD’s “assumption” that its “process” will offset the slashing of $6 Million – essentially a 1/3 CUT from Rec-Park’s  2026-2027 golf budget. So it appears to us that the City’s public courses – and San Francisco public golf itself – are endangered.  

Between now and June 30, the Rec-Park and other City Departments will engage with the Mayor’s Office, the Board of Supervisors and the Public in budget negotiations, hearings, and deliberations before a Final FY 2025-26-27 Budget is adopted. So we have written the Open Letter, below, and ask you to add your name [Click Here].

Open Letter to Mayor Lurie and the Supervisors: 

We are San Francisco public golfers, diverse in every way – of all ages, genders, persuasions, races, neighborhoods, jobs, and economic strata. We love our beautiful public golf courses – Harding, Sharp, Lincoln, Fleming, Gleneagles and Golden Gate -- where we play and socialize with old friends and meet new ones.  As a big and diverse community, we are dismayed that Rec & Park has proposed a Budget that would eliminate the Department’s subsidy for the municipal golf courses in Fiscal Year 2026-27—effectively a 1/3 CUT in the Golf Budget. This is extreme and unfair to golfers and unwise for Rec & Park and the City. We urge that you do not defund the golf subsidy in the Fiscal Year 26-27 Budget. Golf is physically and mentally healthful outdoor activity, a Rec-Park core service, and historically popular in the City since John McLaren hired the architects, planted the trees, and oversaw construction of Lincoln, Harding and Sharp in the first decades of the 20th Century. San Francisco, the Peninsula and Greater Bay Area are very high-profile golf areas and frequent hosts of major U.S. and international golf events -- including in 2025, when San Francisco will host the United States Amateur Golf Championship in August, and the Monterey Peninsula will this Fall host both the international men’s Walker Cup competition and the United States Women’s Mid-Amateur Championship.   We know these are times of budget crunch at Rec-Park and the City. And we will carry a fair share. But this is NOT FAIR and not a reason or excuse to single-out public golf as Rec -Park’s only recreational service to be completely cut off from its General Fund subsidy. We respectfully object. Rec-Park and San Francisco can – and must – do better.

We offer these Action Items for golfers, their families and friends:

1. Sign-on to our Open Letter Petition when you see our petitioners at local courses and ranges or add your name here.  
2. Write a Letter to Mayor Lurie and the Supervisors [Click Here]
3. Pass this on to your golfing and non-golfing foursomes, friends, families, and clubs
4. Volunteer by e-mailing us at info@sfpublicgolf.org
5. Join the SF Public Golf Alliance [Click Here] 
6. Chip in to the nonprofit SF Public Golf Alliance [Click Here]  

 

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Coming soon to a NorCal track near you!

2025 - Year of the Amateur in Northern California

Feb 2, 2025by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

2025 will be a big year for big-time national and international golf championships in San Francisco and Northern California, with the US Amateur Championship scheduled for mid-August at Olympic Club and the Walker Cup scheduled in early September on the Monterey Peninsula.  Both tournaments are administered with no gender or age restriction, subject to a 2.4 handicap limit by the United States Golf Association.

The USGA has announced Bay Area residents Joe Montana and Condoleezza Rice as honorary co-chairs for the Amateur, to be competed August 11-17 at the Olympic Club’s Lake and Ocean courses.  The Amateur is open to all amateur golfers, with no gender or age restriction, subject to a 2.4 handicap limit by the United States Golf Association.

Cypress Point, 15th Hole, Par 3

The biennial Walker Cup, a match between 10-man teams representing the US and Great Britain-Ireland. will be competed September 5-7 on one of the World’s greatest and most iconic courses – The Cypress Point Club, built in the late 1920’s by Alister MacKenzie. 

Alister MacKenzie (R), at site of 15th Hole Tee, Cypress Point (under construction, 1929)

Tales of Great Bay Area Amateurs and Golf Championships

Johnny Miller at 1976 Open Championship, Royal Birkdale

San Francisco and the Olympic Club previously hosted the US Amateur in 1958, 2007, and 1981 -- when the winner was 19-year-old Olympic Club Junior Member Nathaniel Crosby, a Burlingame resident and son of the crooner Bing Crosby.  In 1966 at Olympic Club, San Francisco native Johnny Miller, who was then a 19-year-old sophomore at BYU, was Low Amateur and 7th Place finisher in the 1966 US Open.  He had won the 1963 USGA Junior Amateur Championship at Eugene, OR. All of this preceded his World Golf Hall of Fame professional career (including wins at the 1973 US Open and 1976 British Open, and a 30-year star turn as a TV golf broadcaster). 

Juli Inkster with daughters Haley and Cori

A discussion of Northern California’s Amateur Golf champions would be incomplete without Santa Cruz native Juli Inkster, San Jose’s Kay Cockerill, and golf pioneer Marion Hollins. While a San Jose State student, Inkster won three consecutive US Women’s Amateur championships (1980, 1981, 1982) before going on to a World Golf Hall of Fame professional career with seven Women’s Major Championships, including US Women’s Opens in 1999, 2002 and LPGA Championships in 1999, 2000. Cockerill, now a San Francisco resident, won consecutive US Women’s Amateur championships in 1986 and 1987 while a UCLA undergraduate, followed by careers as an LPGA Tour player and a still-active career as a TV golf broadcaster. Marion Hollins was 1921 US Women’s Amateur Champion and playing captain of the inaugural Curtis Cup Team in 1932. She was founder of  Pasatiempo, and was golf developer for the Pebble Beach Company, including The Cypress Point Club, where she hired Alister MacKenzie as architect. 

Harvie Ward (L), Ken Venturi, San Francisco City Championship, Harding Park, 1956

Finally there are Harvie Ward and  San Francisco native Ken Venturi, the legendary San Francisco amateur golfers – and preeminent amateurs in the Country -- in the early-mid 1950’s.   Ward won the British Amateur at Prestwick in 1952, then won back-to-back US Amateur Championships in 1955 and 1956, and famously beat a young Jack Nicklaus in the second round of the 1958 Amateur at Olympic Club (a tournament ultimately won by Charlie Coe).  

Venturi played college golf at San Jose State, and was runner-up in the 1956 Masters Tournament (losing by 1 stroke – the best Amateur finish in Masters Tournament history).  As a professional, Venturi won the 1964 US Open Championship in dramatic fashion at Congressional Country Club in Washington DC.  Venturi’s and Ward’s personal friendship and amateur golf rivalry in the San Francisco City Golf  Championship, and their famous 1956 Cypress Point money match against Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, is the stuff of San Francisco golf legend.

Sign-up for the Tournament Committees at the 2025 US Amateur Championship or Walker Cup, anybody? 

 

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Alister MacKenzie wishes every public golfer a Merry Christmas!

Happy Holidays from the SF Public Golf Alliance!

Dec 7, 2024by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

San Francisco Bay Area public golfers must have ranked high on Santa's "Nice" list this year. We've been waiting for some of these "presents" for a number of years, and Santa delivered in 2024.

Ho! Ho! Ho! Thank you Santa (and SF Rec & Park) for the cart barn and carts!

New electric carts and cart shed, and repairs of cart paths at Sharp Park.  Construction of a new electric cart shed was completed in September 2024, a new electric cart fleet is now in service, and hundreds of yards of broken and dangerous cart paths were repaired and replaced.  All of this came after – and as a direct result of -- the combined urging of the SF Public Golf Alliance and the Sharp Park Men’s and Women’s Golf Clubs prodding an overworked and sometimes recalcitrant Rec & Park Department.   

Newly-opened view of 14 green and Mori Point from 18th Tee.

Sharp tree work clears views and shots. The tree crews were busy in 2024 at Lincoln and Sharp, opening light and air and clearing views and shot lines at both courses.  The women’s front tee at Sharp's hole number 6, long blocked by tree overhangs on the right, now has a clear shot line to the fairway.  More work is needed – including a new set of forward family tees throughout the golf course for seniors, children, and other short-hitters.  But 2024 saw a start at this needed work.

Harding & Sharp Park Women's Golf Clubs joined us for a preview at the renovated GGPGC.

Resurrection of the Golden Gate Park 9.   The 75-year-old Golden Gate Park 9-hole 3-par course reopened for public play in February 2024 with a new clubhouse and renovated golf course, under management of the San Francisco First Tee.  Since reopening, the course has been a hit with golfers and the national golfing press, including its ranking by Golfweek Magazine as the #1 municipal short 9-hole course in the Country. 

Lease extension at Gleneagles thru September 2025.   We are heartened by word from Tom Hsieh that Rec & Park has extended the golf operating lease at Gleneagles – the only municipal course in the Southeast quarter of the City.  It’s a one-year extension and will be the subject of a pubic “needs assessment” hearing process in early 2025.  We will keep the golf community updated on the “needs assessment”. 

10th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament and Auction. We enjoyed record participation at both the 10th Annual MacKenzie Tournament  in July and  the related online Alister MacKenzie Benefit Golf Auction in November.  The success of these events reflects building national momentum for the restoration cause at Sharp Park. 

And if you are looking for a unique gift for that muni golfer in your life... We still have a few of our classic red genuine leather driver covers in stock. Help spread the “Save Sharp Park” message, show you colors as a member of Clan MacKenzie, make your foursome jealous, and class up your golf bag. If you missed-out when we originally issued them in 2013 – or if you need a golf gift for a special golfer in your life, right now is your chance. Quantities are limited, so don't wait. They can be purchased through the website of our friends at State Apparel who are graciously handling fullfillment, passing the net sale proceeds to the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, and supporting our #SaveSharpPark cause. Price:  $100 plus postage.  The price includes a $50 tax-deductible charitable donation to the non-profit, all volunteer, San Francisco public Golf Alliance. 

More of this work remains to be done in 2025 and beyond. And we invite your support.  San Francisco Public Golf Alliance is a non-profit, 501.c.3 charitable organization, dedicated to educating, advocating, defending, and restoring public golf and golf courses in San Francisco, the Bay Area, and California generally.  And we invite your tax-deductible support by online Donation or by check payable to SF Public Golf Alliance, addressed to: 

                                                          
San Francisco Public Golf Alliance
826 Stanyan St.
San Francisco, CA. 94117

 

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Pasatiempo, Riviera, Spyglass, Troon North, Winged Foot, and more!

UPDATE: The 2024 Mackenzie Golf Auction has concluded. Congrats to the successful bidders!

Oct 29, 2024by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Great Courses! Other Great Golf Stuff! And Even More Great Courses!

UPDATE:  On-Line bidding for the silent auction closed November 11.  Congratulations to the winning bidders!

America’s golf writers call Sharp Park the US muni “most worth saving”. 

• Golf Advisor: “10 Munis Worth Saving”  
• Links Magazine: “Five Classic Public Courses Most in Need of Renovation Love”
• Golf Digest: "The Fight Over Sharp Park"

Our 2024 Alister MacKenzie charity auction gives you a win-win way to help Save Sharp Park, with great golf adventures from top NorCal golf resorts and ultra-exclusive private clubs, to legendary East Coast courses to Royal Melbourne. CHECK OUT OUR CARD PILE, ABOVE!

Included are eight Alister MacKenzie gems, together with the work of Golden Age architect legends CB Macdonald, Seth Raynor, AW Tillinghast, George Thomas, Robert Hunter, Billy Bell, Robert Trent Jones Sr. (and Jr.), and modern masters Tom Doak and Gil Hanse.  And the top resort, public access, and muni courses from the Monterey Peninsula to the Bay Area to the Delta to the Wine Country.  Something for everyone and every wallet.

All proceeds go the non-profit, all-volunteer San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and OUR CAMPAIGN TO SAVE AND RESTORE SHARP PARK.  

THE AUCTION IS OPEN FOR BIDDING HERE AND NOW!  Waste no time. Bidding is open thru Nov. 11. Spread the Word to your Friends, make your decisions, open your hearts and your wallets. 

 

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance
826 Stanyan St., San Francisco, CA. 94117
info@sfpublicgolf.org 

 

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Random Golf and “Mad Scramble” at Sharp Park

Sep 11, 2024

On September 11 the Sharp Park Golf Club and San Francisco Public Golf Alliance welcomed “The Global Community of Local Golfers” – also known as Random Golf Club -- and its charismatic founder Erik Anders Lang to Sharp Park, as part of the first Random Golf Classic. The event included two historic venues – a morning 18 holes at Stanford, and a late afternoon 50-person “Mad Scramble” around Sharp’s back 9, followed by dinner at the Sharp Clubhouse restaurant.   

WhatTheHell is a Mad Scramble?

SFPGA Director Oliver Boeckel leads off from the 11th tee, while others prepare to hit.

Random Golf and its “Mad Scramble” are the brainchildren of Lang, a photographer / filmmaker / podcaster / social influencer who about 13 years ago at the age of 30 found golf. He quickly became a golf nut and in recent years a passionate golf evangelist. The “Mad Scramble” is Random’s teaching vehicle to highlight the joyful communal nature walk and friendship-building aspects of golf. Like a perambulatory version of San Francisco’s famous Bay-to-Breakers run, the Mad Scramble is a zany community-building adventure that encouranges participants to make contacts and build friendships along the way.  

In the Mad Scramble, all players tee off from the same tee, then proceed together down the fairway to the best shot, then repeat the process thru the green.  Truly something to behold, as player after player take their shots. There is a degree of chaos as a dozen or more shots all fly at the same time, with warnings to folks to stay behind the line of play during each series of shots. Unlike on the tee, approach shots are taken pretty much anywhere in the fairway, along the line of the best ball.

Crossing the Bridge at #12

Sharp’s 12th hole – a 200-plus-yard 3-par playing into the wind -- acquitted itself well.  With only one of the 50+ tee shots on the green - and 50 feet from the pin at that, the 12th was the only hole to limit the Random “Army” to a par.  

Birdie try on Twelve.  (Nobody made the putt.)

The approach takes less time, as players effectively play from anywhere.

Except for the 12th hole, the greens were covered in successful approaches.The players, somehow remembering their golf etiquette, dutifully repaired pitch marks on the greens, then took turns putting until someone holed the putt. Then on to the next.

SF Public Golf Alliance Director Boeckel on #14 with EA Lang looking on.  

The event leads to excitement and low scores. As everyone is able to swing for the fences, any 5-par green remotely reachable will have makeable eagle putts. 

Focus on Fun!

The Random Army very quickly realizes that the score is not what the Mad Scramble is about. Rather, it's a celebration of a shared love of the game. Looking at the smiles and laughs makes it clear that people come to connect and spend time with each other and learn the Zen of Golf from Master Teacher Lang. 

Eric Anders Lang (left), proudly looks on at a Random Golf innovation - the practice green ice bath.

This is the second Random Golf Club visit to Sharp (the first was in June 2023). But this was the group’s first time around Alister MacKenzie’s classic original Back Nine layout near the Ocean and around Laguna Salada.

Sharp Park is one of only two public seaside links in the world designed by legendary architect Alister MacKenzie – the other is the Eden Course at St. Andrews. With this heritage, Sharp attracts golf history and architecture devotees from around the world.  Including Random Golf.  Preserving and restoring MacKenzie’s public masterpiece makes these types of unique visits possible for future generations. 

 

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Sign Up For The 10th Alister MacKenzie Tournament To Preserve Sharp Park - 6/22/24!

Apr 16, 2024by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

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UPDATE: The tournament is filled!

To maximize the fun, we've capped the participants in our annual fundraiser Scramble. We cannot express our gratitude enough to the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance friends, volunteers, and sponsors that help us fund our Mission to nurture and defend affordable eco-friendly public golf. You can still participate in the food and fun in the post tournament events (including a closest to the pin contest) or, to be added to a wait list, e-mail Oliver Boeckel at Oliver@SFPublicGolf.org.  

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Join the SF Public Golf Alliance on Saturday, June 22, 2024 at the Good Doctor’s Historic Sharp Park Golf Course for the 10th Edition of The Alister MacKenzie Tournament!

LINK TO REGISTER - Please send any questions to Info@​SFpublicgolf.org

The non-profit SF Public Golf Alliance has organized, informed, advocated, and successfully fought since 2007 for public golf and public golf courses in San Francisco, the Peninsula, and California. Our annual benefit tournament is how we fund our Mission to nurture and defend affordable, eco-friendly, public golf. A special focus has been the landmark 90-year-old Sharp Park, MacKenzie’s only seaside public links outside Scotland, where our work over the years and ongoing has involved in-kind donations of course improvements, environmental consultants, and public education campaigns.

Whether you've participated and enjoyed past tournaments, or if you are considering joining for the first time, you don't want to miss this one! We have fun additions and surprises planned for this year’s tournament and we can’t wait for you to see them.

Date and Place: Saturday, June 22, 2024 at Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, CA

Golfing Time: 9:30am Shotgun Start (Check-in and breakfast starts at 7:30am)

Format: Foursome Scramble (Gross Scores) 

• If you are a solo participant or a partial group, that’s OK; sign up your players and we will get you a great pairing to complete your team!

Fee: $250 per player (50% tax deductible)

• Includes hot buffet breakfast, lunch, post-round hors d'oeuvres, and a great tee prize!

Post Round Festivities: Included with entry fee for all golfers
Lunch and hors d'oeuvres will be served

• Closest-to-the-Pin competition to the 10th green will provide opportunities to win prizes, including incredible golf experiences provided by our generous SFPGA community
• No-host bar will be open and available
• Additional tickets for non-golfer attendees can be purchased for $50

LINK TO REGISTER - Please send any questions to Info@​SFpublicgolf.org

Sponsorship Levels: if you are interested in sponsoring the 2024 MacKenzie tournament, let us know at info@sfpublicgolf.org or by using the registration link!

• Ace Sponsors ($4,000) are entitled to bring TWO 4-person teams
• Eagle Sponsors ($2,000) are entitled to bring ONE 4-person team
• Sponsorships are tax deductible all or in part (depending on whether you bring a team/teams)
• Sponsorship includes publicity on the tournament program, website, and hole sponsorship signs with your name and logo (coordinated via email)
• Interested in a different amount? Got your own ideas? Let us know!
• Submit sponsorship registrations no later than June 1st, 2024

We need your engagement and financial support. Please join us – and bring your friends – to Sharp Park on Saturday, June 22nd.

• Put June 22 on your calendar, tell your friends, and recruit your teams!
• Register your team and players online [CLICK HERE] or use the mail-in paper entry form [DOWNLOAD HERE].
• Carts are limited, and the mostly-flat Sharp Park is a walker’s course.  
• If you ABSOLUTELY NEED A CART let us know on the form. 
• Sponsors can register online [CLICK HERE] or e-mail us at info@sfpublicgolf.org.
• Entrants and Sponsors can pay online through Paypal [CLICK TO DONATE HERE] - be sure to note the donation is for the 2024 MacKenzie Tournament.

 

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Save the Date and Save Sharp Park!

Save The Date! 10th Annual Alister MacKenzie Benefit Tournament on Saturday, June 22, 2024

Mar 12, 2024by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

The 10th Annual Alister MacKenzie Heritage Tournament, presented by the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, will be held on Saturday, June 22, 2024 at 9:30am PT at the historic Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, CA.  

Mark your calendars now! Stay tuned for additional details, including a link to register for the event, which will be posted in the coming weeks. Drop us a line if you have any questions and watch this space! 

Our annual benefit tournament is how the non-profit San Francisco Public Golf Alliance funds our Mission to nurture and defend affordable, eco-friendly, public golf in the San Francisco Bay Area. Whether you've participated and enjoyed past tournaments, or if you are considering joining for the first time, you don't want to miss this one! We have fun additions and surprises planned for this year’s tournament and we can’t wait for you to see them.

Save the Date, Save Sharp Park, and Stay Tuned! 

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UPDATE: Registration for the 10th Annual Alister MacKenzie Benefit Tournament is now live!

• Details Linked HERE
• Register HERE

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance 
826 Stanyan Street, San Francisco, CA. 94117
info@sfpublicgolf.org 

 

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Before and After Renovation: View from the 5th tee (old #9) looking west towards Ocean Beach

Golden Gate Golf Course Reopened: Let There be Light, Air, Sand and Fun!

Feb 25, 2024by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

San Francisco and its golfers on February 16-17 celebrated the reopening of the City’s smallest golf course – the Golden Gate Park 9 at the western end of the park near Ocean Beach.  The 20-acre course was closed since February 2023 for a renovation by a public-private partnership of the City’s Rec & Park Department and a philanthropic affiliate of the nonprofit First Tee of San Francisco.  

Clubhouse ribbon cutting, February 16. Mayor London Breed (center, w/ big scissors), Rec-Park Gen. Mgr. Phil Ginsburg (to her left), 
Flanked at far left by Public Utilities Director Dennis Herrera and First Tee CEO Dan Burke at far right.  

With completion of a $2.5 Million golf course renovation by a hybrid construction team of Rec & Park gardeners, the First Tee’s architect Jay Blasi, and golf contractors, the spectacular course is now the subject of unanimous rave reviews in the national golfing press.  (See list of press coverage, below.)  The Rec-Park Department contributed a $6 Million reconstruction of its clubhouse which was torched in a 2018 arson fire for which the City was uninsured.   

The 75-year-old course, built in 1949 by the City’s Director of Golf Jack Fleming, had become overgrown with unkempt trees and bushes, which blocked the sun and views, and kept the ground soggy and turf conditions poor.  Like renovations over the past 15 years at Harding Park and neighboring private courses – Olympic, San Francisco, Lake Merced and Cal Club in South San Francisco – the solution at Golden Gate Park was major tree thinning and brush clearance, combined with modern irrigation, drainage and new turf.

Hybrid Rec-Park and private golf contractor crew hydroseeding turf on new Hole 4 (old #8) 

The green fees have now been raised, but the golfers have accepted the new fees as a value proposition for what is already being called among “the finest par-3 courses in America.”  Reservations can only be made online on the golf course webpage --  seven days in advance starting at midnight.  Word from GGP management is  “each day’s times are usually gone in five minutes.”  So set your alarm and check out the latest San Francisco municipal gem!

New Hole #6 (original #1)

Press Coverage:

Golf Magazine, Dec. 11, 2023, “In a Golf World gone mad, this tiny par-3 has a story to celebrate”: 

On holes that max out at 160 yards, you can play the aerial game, testing the breezes, or bounce it along firmed-up, rumpled ground. The 4th green is now a punchbowl. The 7th has wild fingerlings and flanges that invite creative angles of attack. The tee shot on the 8th can be played with putter. It’s a layout fit for newbies and serious sticks alike. In the nuance of its shapes and the beauty of its surroundings, it is not absurd to rank it among the finest par-3 courses in the country... Reasonable. Refreshing. A real opportunity to ‘grow the game,’ free of any cynicism or spin. That’s Golden Gate Park for you: a bastion of sanity in a golf world gone mad.

Golfweek, Feb. 15, 2023, “Golden Gate Park GC Opens in San Francisco with Fresh Course, Big Plans”: 

"By opening up the property, golfers have more room to play and the turf has far better sunlight and air circulation. Golfers can now enjoy views of the ocean as well as the city at multiple spots throughout the round... We wanted the entire facility to be maintained at fairway height so a ball will roll. Now golfers can play the ball on the ground and make use of exciting contours that dance across the property."

Firepit Collective, The Rebirth of Golden Gate Park Golf Course (3-part video series):

"When you think about the best par-3 courses, whether it’s the Preserve at Bandon or the Sand Box at Sand Valley, more often than not they are at a destination golf course where the clientele is going to be wealthy golfers taking a buddies trips. Here, we feel we have an opportunity to offer an equal caliber of quality and excitement. And yet the folks who play here range from age 5-95, and come from all sorts of economic backgrounds. Many are beginners who will play their first round of golf here. It is truly a municipal golf course for the people of San Francisco, but we feel we can give them something that people will travel around the world to see...”

"In all of Burke’s public pitches, the First Tee was front and center. “Our demographics reflect the San Francisco Unified school district,” he says. “It has a high percentage of underserved kids and is a very diverse community.” The renovation at Golden Gate would give these kids the facility they deserve and secure their access for the next 15 years, while also serving the larger golf community and upgrading a city asset… all paid for with donor money. It would be a model of public-private partnership. Who could possibly quibble with such a win-win?"

Firepit Collective, Golden Gate Park Hole-by-Hole (Architect’s) Tour, Matt Ginella, Jay Blasi: 

 

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Aerial photo of the "new" Golden Gate Golf course - courtesy Andrew Harvie, Beyond The Contour

2023 in Review and Year of the Dragon Ahead

Jan 8, 2024by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

2023 was a good year for Bay Area public golf and golfers.  A few highlights:

Golden Gate Park Nine Restoration.  San Francisco’s smallest golf course – the Golden Gate Park Nine – made news early and late in 2023.   In February, the SF Board of Supervisors approved a long-term management agreement for the GGP Nine between the Rec & Park Department and an affiliate of the First Tee of San Francisco.   Under terms of that agreement, First Tee was required to complete a $2.5 Million restoration of the 70-year-old golf course, located 300 yards inland from Ocean Beach at the far west end of the Park. The City agreed to renovate the Clubhouse, which burned down in a 2017 arson fire.  The parties intended that both the clubhouse and the golf course would be ready for public opening by Fall 2023.  The golf course restoration came in on time, under budget and spectacular, and has garnered early rave previews in the golfing press including Josh Sens' Golf.com article "In a golf world gone mad, this tiny par-3 has a story to celebrate":

"Early last week, Blasi was back at Golden Gate GC, grounds he has visited a bunch in recent months as he and his design team were wrapping up a $2.5 renovation that didn’t cost the city a cent... In its reborn form, the course has been stripped to its more rustic beginnings, with layers of soil peeled back to expose sandy wastes. Trees have been removed to open ocean vistas. Fescue has been planted — the turf of classic links. Teeing areas have been expanded. Greens have been enlarged and energized with contour. And new irrigation now underpins it all... In the nuance of its shapes and the beauty of its surroundings, it is not absurd to rank it among the finest par-3 courses in the country."

But Rec & Park missed its Clubhouse construction deadline, and as of year-end 2023 the clubhouse remains unfinished and the course remains unopened to public play, with no completion / opening date announced.     

The History Corner at Sharp Park.

A permanent history exhibit was installed in March 2023 at the Sharp Park Clubhouse, with photos plaques and text describing Alister MacKenzie’s architectural career and his construction in the early 1930’s of the landmark Sharp Park Golf Course.   The history exhibit is a donation by San Francisco Public Golf Alliance to the SF Rec & Park Department.  In addition to MacKenzie, plaques memorialize Sharp Park’s role in the mid-1950’s in the racial integration of public golf, and honor the late San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee for his contributions to San Francisco public golf, including renovation of Harding Park, championing Women’s Golf, bringing back professional golf tournaments to San Francisco, and saving Sharp Park in 2011 from an ill-begotten attempt to close the course.

Pro Golf Returns to Harding Park!

The first week in May 2023 brought the top women professional golfers from around the world for a team golf competition – The International Crown Tournament  -- presented by Hanwa Life, a Korean financial services company.    This was the first professional tournament played in San Francisco since the 2020 Men’s PGA Championship, and the first time Harding has hosted a women’s pro event.  Seven of the world’s top 10 woman  pros competed in the event, which was won by Team Thailand.  There is talk that Hanwa is interested in returning the semi-annual event to San Francisco in the future, at either Harding or the Lake Merced Club.   

The MacKenzie Tournament is Back, and it’s Big!
 

On a remarkably warm and beautiful late Fall Sunday, the Golf Alliance brought back its annual Alister MacKenzie fundraising tournament, after a 3-year Covid break.  A full field, excellent course conditions, and a golf auction stacked with great golf clubs and resorts from Coast to Coast, The Ninth Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park was by far the strongest ever.  

2024:  Year of the Dragon

In the Chinese zodiac, 2024 is the Year of the Dragon: a year of prosperity and success. San Francisco Park & Rec’s 2023 long-term management agreement for the Golden Gate Park Nine sets the table for similar long-term agreements for management of the City’s other municipal Courses.  The City’s management agreements have expired at Sharp, Lincoln, and McLaren, and all three courses are now being operated month-to-month.  This irresponsible management practice has for years been noted and criticized by the Mayor’s Budget Office and every Rec & Park management consultant.  The Year of the Dragon, 2024, will be a propitious year for the City to follow-up on its successful GGP Nine lease with similar long-term management agreements at the City’s other public golf courses.  

 

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Teeing off on 11

Alister MacKenzie Tourney ‘23 – Friends in High Places

Nov 28, 2023by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Sunday, November 12 was bright and warm at Sharp Park.  Clear skies.  Little wind. Shirtsleeves weather. Like a Late Fall Day in San Diego or Santa Monica -- Torrey Pines or Riviera. The beautiful weather was propitious for the Ninth Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park – back from a 3-year Covid break.  

It was a remarkable day at the landmark Sharp Park Golf Course on many counts, starting with a full field of enthusiastic golfers, most of them young women and men – a new generation of Alister MacKenzie fans.

  
Early Morning, Ready to Scramble

Sharp Park Golf Club President Bob Downing called the course conditions the best he has ever seen -- thanks to an understaffed-but-hard-working greens crew.  

The Golf Auction was the strongest ever, featuring Top-100 courses from across the Country, from Winged Foot, Baltusrol. Camargo, and Somerset Hills on the East Coast to Monterey Peninsula, Spyglass, and Olympic Club’s Lakeside on the West.  

Af a luncheon after golf, architects Jay Blasi and Peter Flory described their excitement for a Sharp Park restoration.  Flory is a Chicago-based historic golf restoration specialist, who consulted with Tom Doak on the recent restoration of Charles Blair Macdonald’s fabled Lido Golf Club on a Wisconsin sandlot.  

But at Sharp Park on Sunday, November 12, the conversation kept returning to The Weather.  And the question most frequently heard by tournament organizers was:  “How did you get such great weather at this time of year?”

We have a theory:  ALISTER MacKENZIE HAS FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES.  

Golf is a game on many levels, including recreation, companionship, and competition.  Another level is metaphysical, even spiritual. The great architects – and MacKenzie is one of history’s greatest – built shrines where a structured walk in Nature becomes a labyrinth for contemplation and connection with Universal Forces.  The late USGA President Sandy Tatum spoke of this when he famously called Cypress Point “the Sistine Chapel of Golf”.  Sharp Park – built by MacKenzie right after he finished Cypress Point and just before he started work at Augusta National – is such a golf shrine. And it is public and affordable.  And the golfers are the shrine’s stewards.

The purpose and challenge of the non-profit San Francisco Public Golf Alliance is to advocate and defend public golf and MacKenzie’s shrine at Sharp Park, to see to its proper care and maintenance, to honor MacKenzie’s vision and preserve as much as possible his original design.  And we thank and welcome and need your support, your money, and your participation in this ongoing effort.  

We hope you will enjoy a few pics from the event as much as we enjoyed playing on this glorious day. We will gather again for the 10th Alister MacKenzie Tournament in early Summer 2024, and all are invited.  Let us know if you want to join the fun.

Sign-in table:  Jippy Pang, Barbara Petersen, Lisa Lacayo, Karen Larroche, Helen Duffy (L. to R.)

 
Wearables in the  History Corner, with SF Public Golf Alliance Board Member Jason Yip
and  the Tee Prize – A lovely blue embroidered “Sharp Park” hoodie modeled by Diego Ortiz

And they’re off:  Strolling down the 11th fairway, toward Mori Point 

Hickories Old Tom Smith, Conner Larson, Courtney Jamieson Larson, Jerry Stratford (L. to R.) 

The Scene Seen from the Starter’s Window: Teddy Collins tees off at Hole #1

The Boys of Fall: Jimmy Sakamoto, Andrew Sun, David Ishida, Rod Iwashita (L. to R.)

Tough Pin at Ten

Bar Then Par:  Anouk Ben-Tchavtchavadze, Erike Gliebe, Elaine Menn, Craig Menn (L to R)

Blue Sky at the 15h green (L to R:  Bob Feldscher, Brad Knipstein, Stuart Jones)

Auction table:  A-List Golf Courses from Coast to Coast

Special thanks to the hospitable staffs of the Sharp Park Golf Course and Restaurant and tournament volunteers from our co-hosts, the Sharp Park Men’s and Sharp Park Business Women’s Golf Clubs.  And thanks for the generosity and support of key Sponsors and benefactors,some of whose logos appear below. 

    

  

 

 

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Sign Up For The Alister MacKenzie Tournament To Preserve Sharp Park - November 12!

Sep 26, 2023by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Dr. MacKenzie Wants You!  

To join the SF Public Golf Alliance

For the 9th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament

At the Good Doctor’s Beautiful Sharp Park Golf Course.

Shotgun Start Sunday, November 12, 8 a.m.

Thanks to everyone who participated and supported this great event!  Check out the pics and story LINKED here!

The non-profit SF Public Golf Alliance has organized, Informed, advocated, and successfully fought since 2007 for public golf and public golf courses in San Francisco, the Peninsula, and California.  A special focus has been the landmark 90-year-old Sharp Park, MacKenzie’s only seaside public links outside Scotland.

The annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament – on Covid hiatus since 2019 – has been our main annual fundraising effort.  We are now back at it, and invite you to join the fun at Sharp on Nov. 12: a 4-some team scramble golf event, followed by golf auction and late lunch.  Sign-up to sponsor, bring a team, or just bring yourself. 

And do not miss the fabulous Alister Mackenzie #SaveSharpPark on-line Golf Auction! Fabulous private and public golf courses from across the Bay Area and the country. And theres more! PING putters and drivers, original golf art, golf lessons, and a compendium of Dr. MacKenzie’s writings. Open for Bidding HERE and NOW! 

We need your engagement and financial support. Please join us – and bring your friends -- to Sharp Park, Sunday November 12. It's always great fun, If you missed prior MacKenzie Tournaments, check out our photo essay of the 2018 tournament [CLICK HERE].

• Save November 12 on your calendar, tell your friends, and recruit your Teams.
• Sign-up Your Teams and players Online [CLICK HERE] or download, fill and mail-in a paper Entry Form [DOWNLOAD HERE], entering names and contact info. Add additional players on back or on an extra sheet.
• Carts are very limited. If you ABSOLUTELY NEED one let us know on the form. 
• Sponsors can  sign up Online [CLICK HERE] or e-mail us at info@sfpublicgolf.org.
• Entrants and Sponsors can pay online at CLICK TO DONATE HERE - be sure to note the donation is for the Mackenzie Tournament, or mail your cheque to address below.
• Make a silent auction donation of a guest 4-some at your golf course, golf lessons, or other goods. E-mail us at info@sfpublicgolf.org.

Join us on November 12 to celebrate and preserve the MacKenzie heritage at Sharp Park!

Thanks, Best Wishes, and See You November 12 at Sharp Park !

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance 
1370 Masonic Ave, San Francisco, CA. 94117
info@sfpublicgolf.org 

 

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The new Jay Blasi design Golden Gate Golf routing plan.

Golden Gate Park Golf Course - Reborn!

Jul 25, 2023by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

The 9-hole Golden Gate Park Golf Course, which closed for renovation in March 2023, is on track for a late Fall reopening under a 15-year Lease and Operating Agreement between the San Francisco Rec & Park Department and the Golden Gate Park Golf Development Foundation - a charitable affiliate of the non-profit First Tee – San Francisco.  The Agreement was supported by the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, and was approved in February by the Rec and Park Commission, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and Mayor London Breed.

Opened for play in 1949, the original course was designed by Jack Fleming, who in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s had been a construction assistant to the legendary architect Alister MacKenzie at Cypress Point, Pasatiempo and Sharp Park. First Tee has managed the property since December 2013 and conducted its youth golf and educational programs for over 8,000 San Francisco elementary school students annually, while also keeping the course open for play by diverse golfers of all ages.  

Moving sand for the new 6th hole in April

The Lease and Operating Agreement provides, in part, that the charitable Foundation invest $2.5 million to install a new irrigation system and enhance playability by renovating the golf course pursuant to a design by architect Jay Blasi that calls for hole distances between 103-166 yards.  As of July, the sandy soil has been cleared, the tees, fairways and greens shaped, planted, and the fairways are growing in nicely. 

 
That was then... This is now (soon).

For its part, the SF Rec & Park Department is in the process of rebuilding the clubhouse, which was destroyed by an arson fire in 2018.  The Department’s 2023-2024 Budget includes total projected clubhouse reconstruction expenses in excess of $5 Million. While a Late Fall 2023 reopening is targeted, an exact date has not yet been set while the clubhouse is completed and course "grow in" is established.  

Excitement is building for America's "newest" premier par 3 course as noted in this episode of the The Firepit Collective with Architect Jay Blasi, First Tee of SF CEO Dan Burke, and sportswriter Alan Shipnuck: “Golden Gate Park Golf Course Reborn”:

"Tucked into a corner of one of America’s greatest urban parks, hard by the Pacific Ocean, in the shadow of San Francisco’s celebrated windmills, the Golden Gate Park Golf Course has been a treasured local secret since 1951. The par-3 course is a community gathering place and portal into the game for many beginners. Now, under the stewardship of the First Tee – San Francisco and the city’s Parks and Rec Dept., the course is being reimagined."

Can't wait to check it out! 

 

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The Thailand team of Patty Tavatanakit, Atthaya Thitikul, Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn dominated.

LPGA Championship Golf at Harding Park in San Francisco

May 12, 2023by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

The LPGA’s Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, a unique team match play tournament featuring four-player teams from the world’s eight top-ranked golfing countries, was contested last week over San Francisco’s scenic Harding Park links.  Teams from the United States, Japan, England, Sweden, Thailand, Australia and China including seven of the world’s top 10 players led their teams in the competition. Among them Nelly Korda (#1, US), Jin Young Ko (#3, S. Korea), Lilia Vu (#4, US), Atthaya Thitikul (#5, Thailand), Lexi Thompson (#7, US), and Hyuo-Joo Kim (#9, S. Korea), and Minjee Lee (#6, Australia), who won the USGA Junior Girls Championship at Lake Merced in 2012. 

Tournament sponsor Hanwha LifePlus is a Seoul-based insurance and financial services company, part of the diverse South Korean manufacturing and commercial Hanwha conglomerate.

6th seeded Thailand won with a dominating performance:

"THAILAND TEAM TAKES TITLE AT HANWHA LIFEPLUS INTERNATIONAL CROWN"

"It was an impressive performance from the Thailand Team on Sunday afternoon at the Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown as they charged to a dominant victory over Australia, sweeping all three finals matches to emerge victorious for the first time in the history of the competition. Winning just 10 total matches in their first three appearances at the International Crown, Thailand went 11-for-12 in the 2023 edition of the event, led by MVP award winner Ariya Jutanugarn, who chipped in on the final hole to solidify the victory for her country."

Harding Park's storied 16th played as the International Crown's 12th hole for match play. 

This was the first appearance of an LPGA event at scenic Harding Park. Over the past decade, San Francisco and Northern California have emerged as world centers of women’s professional golf – hosting the US Women’s Open at Olympic Club in 2021, and the LPGA Swinging Skirts and Mediheal championships at Lake Merced between 2014 and 2019.  The 2023 USGA Women’s Open will be played July 5-9 at Pebble Beach on the Monterey Peninsula. 

World Number 1 Nelly Korda tees off on Harding Park's signature hole

The golfing world took note of this exciting event at our local municipal gem:

"Thailand sweeps Australia to claim the International Crown, convincingly outclassing the eight-team field"

"Dominant doesn’t do justice in describing the performance of Team Thailand at this week’s Hanwha LifePlus International Crown, capped fittingly by a 3-0 sweep of Australia in Sunday afternoon’s finals at TPC Harding Park. Over four days, the foursome of Atthaya Thitikul, Patty Tavatanakit and sisters Moriya and Ariya Jutanugarn made a litany of history as the team match-play event returned to the LPGA schedule for the first time in five years. They were the first team to sweep pool play. Their 11 collective wins (out of 12 overall matches) was the most of any country in any of the three previous editions of the event... The Thai quartet credited the bond formed throughout the week in providing a bedrock of confidence to win the Crown. It's another seminal moment for the country in terms of its golf ascendance, the players proving they belong alongside the rest of the world on an international stage. Tavatanakit says the victory will add more momentum to the growing popularity of the sport at home."

"Taking the International Crown From Good to Great"

"The International Crown might be the most unique tournament in professional golf. The format is that good. But there are still a few tweaks that could help the event reach its full potential. First and foremost, the LPGA Tour needs to get its schedule sorted out ASAP, as the International Crown is completely lost within a busy period on the calendar. The top players in the world had their hands full with the Chevron Championship and LA Championship the last couple of weeks. This logjam effectively relegated the International Crown, which should be one of the highlights of the year, to “just another week” status... But these are small tweaks to a winning format. This event is phenomenal. It deserves every chance to become a big deal."

"Take a Page from the Winning Hanwha LIFEPLUS International Crown Winners and Create a Team Environment"

"When a player represents their country, the play often reaches heights that far exceed what is seen in individual events. Take the International Crown, for example – the two teams that reached the finals, Thailand and Australia, came into the week ranked sixth and seventh out of eight teams. Ariya and Moriya Jutanugarn, Patty Tavatanakit and Atthaya Thitikul of Thailand were newly-minted champions by Sunday evening. It’s a perfect example of how playing as part of a team or for a cause bigger than ourselves, such as our country, raises the stakes."

"TPC Harding Park: The king of match play courses?"

 "TPC Harding Park always seems to turn the major professional events it hosts into a match-play showdowns. That legacy will only grow with the 2023 LPGA Hanwha Lifeplus International Crown on tap for May 4-7 at the "super muni" run by San Francisco Recreation and Parks. Isn't it time to give TPC Harding Park its due?  It's arguably the king of all public courses when it comes to match play...  TPC Harding Park has a nearly two-decade history of hosting prestigious events since its major rebirth following a restoration/renovation in 2002-03. That pedigree includes two designated match play events and two that became match play duels of sorts."

Despite some cold, wet, and windy weather for the early rounds, it proved to be a great event at a great venue and served as a counterpoint to negative recent portrayals of San Francisco in the national media. City leadership should take note and give these events the promotion and attention they deserve. 

 

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History Corner in the Sharp Park Clubhouse

History Corner:  Alister MacKenzie Exhibit Opens at Sharp Park Clubhouse

Apr 23, 2023by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

A permanent exhibit of photography and text memorializing and explaining the work of world-renowned golf architect Alister MacKenzie opened during the final week of March 2023 – 81 years after the April 1932 opening of the golf course – in the entry hall of the Sharp Park Clubhouse.  

Donated to the City of San Francisco by the nonprofit San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, the exhibit features photographs of MacKenzie and his collaborators Robert Hunter, Bobby Jones and Marion Hollins, MacKenzie’s original 1932 Sharp Park routing map, construction of Sharp Park and MacKenzie’s famous Cypress Point Club on the Monterey Peninsula, a MacKenzie-drawn map of the Old Course at St. Andrews, the Scottish ancestral home of golf, the architect's design principles, and a catalogue of his most famous golf courses around the world.  

Also memorialized are San Francisco’s late Mayor Ed Lee, a great golf champion who saved Sharp Park in 2011, and the story of Sharp Park’s role in the mid-1950s in the racial integration of golf.  

The Spanish Revival-style Sharp Park clubhouse is the work of the Willis Polk Office, one of San Francisco’s preeminent early 20th Century architectural firms.  Both the Sharp Park Golf Course and Clubhouse are recognized historically significant properties and landmarks by San Francisco and the City of Pacifica.  

For more on the history of Sharp Park Golf Course and Clubhouse, see:

• Bo Links & Richard Harris - “MacKenzie’s Sharp Park Under Siege”, Golf Club Atlas, 09/09  
• Richard Harris - Sharparkology 101, Footprints of Pacifica, 05/18   

 

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You know you want one!

Classic “Save Sharp Park” Headcovers are Back!

Apr 12, 2023by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

The Return of a Save Sharp Park Classic - Just in Time for Spring!

The skies are clearing, spring has sprung, and it’s time to add some class and color to the bag.  Classic red genuine leather driver covers and gold and green fairway wood covers are back in stock!

Help spread the “Save Sharp Park” message, show you colors as a member of Clan MacKenzie, make your foursome jealous, and class up your golf bag.

If you missed-out when we originally issued them in 2013 – or if you need a golf gift for a special golfer in your life, right now is your chance. Quantities are limited, so don't wait. They can be purchased through the website of our friends at State Apparel who are graciously handling fullfillment, passing the net sale proceeds to the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, and supporting our #SaveSharpPark cause.

Price:  $100 plus postage.  The price includes a $50 tax-deductible charitable donation to the non-profit, all volunteer, San Francisco public Golf Alliance. 

 

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Despite the record rain, there is a lot happening at our San Francisco Public Golf Courses.

A Late Winter Loop Around the San Francisco Munis

Mar 9, 2023by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Golden Gate Park: A New Lease and 6-Month Course Closure for Renovations

 
Golden Gate Park Golf Clubhouse Under Construction After 2018 Arson Fire

The biggest muni golf news of the winter comes out of the City’s smallest course – the 9-hole, 3-par course at the west end of Golden Gate Park.  The non-profit San Francisco First Tee youth golf and educational enrichment program has been operating the course under lease from the Recreation and Park Department since 2013.  In February, the Board of Supervisors approved a six-year lease with First Tee, with a nine-year extension if First Tee completes a $2.5 Million renovation of the golf course – including new automated sprinkler system – by 2027.  The First Tee operating agreements are Rec & Park’s only long-term golf leases since its 2003 lease and subsequent renewal at Harding Park.  Both Lincoln and Sharp Park have been on month-to-month extensions of underlying lease agreements that expired in the 1990’s.  The McLaren Park/Gleneagles lease will expire in mid-2023. 

Golden Gate Park GC closed on March 6th and is scheduled to reopen sometime in the Fall 2023, after the repair and maintenance work is completed. The golf course work coincides with a new clubhouse being erected by the Rec & Park Department to replace the old clubhouse which burned to the ground in a 2018 arson fire.    In the interim, Golden Gate’s regular clientele (SF resident card holders who have played the course six or more times within the past 12 months) will be eligible to obtain a Rec & Park voucher for discounted greens fees at Lincoln and the Fleming Nine.  Meanwhile, First Tee will move all of its Golden Gate golf and academic enrichment programs to the First Tee campus at Harding Park.  For more information, contact First Tee, at info@ggpgolf.org.

Harding Park, Presidio, Lincoln Park - SF City Golf Championship

Juli Simpson Inkster, SF City Women's Champion - 1977, 1979

San Francisco’s annual City Golf Championship got underway at Harding Park in late February, and will continue through the end of March.  See Tournament overview and starting times and scores at this LINK.  For the first time since the tournament began in 1917, none of the golf will be played at Lincoln Park.  There is no explanation for this change on the tournament website, but the course and clubhouse conditions at Lincoln have been deteriorating for years.  And it appears that tournament organizers simply reached the conclusion that too bad is too bad. 

Sharp Park Rain

Sharp Park from Mori Point, January 12, 2023

This year’s high winter winds and record heavy rains – combined with sea water flowing through the gap in Pacifica’s sea wall at the northwest corner of the course near the 16th tee – have downed several big trees and brought the highest levels of winter flooding at Sharp Park since the 1980’s.  (See photo, above.)  The good news is that the pump has worked, the sea wall has held, and Sharp Park’s kikuyu grass fairways are tolerant of both flooding and saltwater.  The greenskeepers are mowing the greens and doing their best to clean-up the downed trees, and the high school golfers and a few other hardy golf souls are playing the course now.  (They’re not getting a lot of roll, of course.)  By May (or whenever the rains abate for a couple of weeks), the course will be highly playable.  And beautiful as always. 

 

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Lyn Nelson

A Life in Golf: Lyn Nelson, Dec. 24, 1958 – Dec 9, 2022

Dec 16, 2022by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

The San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California, and California golf communities mourn the recent death of Lynda “Lyn” Nelson, a beautiful soul and a true and passionate friend of golf.  She died December 9, 2022 of natural causes in her sleep at her home in Half Moon Bay.  

Lyn was a rare bird – a woman golf executive in a traditionally male-dominated sport and business. From 2008-2013 she was Chief Executive Officer of the Northern California Golf Association, one of the Nation’s most prominent state golf associations.  

Lyn Nelson Executive Director / CEO of NCGA with Chris Thomas COO NCPGA in 2011

Before that, she had in the 1980’s been General Manager of Palo Alto’s University Club, and worked her way up from golf shop assistant at Palo Alto Hills Golf Club to its General Manager, where she served throughout the 1990’s.  From 2000-2008 Lyn was General Manager and Director of Golf at Half Moon Bay Golf Resort.  From 2017 to the time of her death she was at the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, where her titles were Golf Property Manager and Director of Golf Development. 

At NCGA, Palo Alto Hills, and Half Moon Bay, Lyn oversaw golf course construction and renovation projects, shepherding development through the permitting process, the Coastal Commission, and other regulatory agencies.  She was also a member of the design committee for the Olympic Club’s Ocean Course.  Lyn’s design philosophy was that the courses should be playable and enjoyable by “ALL players of any skill level" recalls Bruce Charlton, lead architect on the NCGA’s prize-winning renovation of Poppy Hills, completed in 2014.

Lyn was an outstanding all-sport athlete at Hillsdale High, San Mateo, Class of 1977, where she excelled at softball, basketball, and tennis. She had a softball scholarship to San Jose State, where she studied business management and took up golf in a PE class after a ski accident benched her for softball.  By 1980 she was a teammate of Golf Hall of Famer Julie Inkster on the Spartan Women’s Golf Team. A long driver and excellent putter, Lyn held several course records and club championships, and was a semi-finalist in the 2002 USGA Woman’s Mid-Amateur. 

Lyn Nelson with the late Mayor Ed Lee and the SF Mayor's Women's Golf Council at Harding Park

As a golf administrator, she was driven by a conviction that in order to survive, golf must broaden its public reach and embrace women, children, and diversity.  Her view was shared by San Francisco’s late mayor Ed Lee, who in 2014 appointed Lyn as a founding member of the San Francisco Mayor’s Women’s Golf Council, dedicated to making San Francisco a women’s golf-friendly City.  At San Francisco Rec & Park, she did her best to combat the decades-long deteriorating conditions at the municipal Lincoln and Sharp Park courses.  

   
Lyn Nelson at the "Save Sharp Park" Alister MacKenzie Benefit Tournament

A theme through Lyn’s life in golf was her deep personal knowledge and care for the people she served and worked with. She knew the pain of the PTSD-scarred Vietnam War vet in the country club maintenance yard.  And shared the joys of new and returning golfers.  Lily Achatz, President of the long-dormant Harding Park Women’s Golf Club, credits Lyn for that club’s recent resuscitation: “It was Lyn who gave me the confidence to start the club as President.”  

Lyn Nelson (L), Lily Achatz (center), and Harding Park Women’s Club Board of Directors

At the junior tournaments, Lyn made the effort to know the names, hometowns, and parents of the young players.  PGA pro Shelley O’Keefe, who runs Northern California junior tournaments through the U.S. Kids program, remembers Lyn’s frequent phone calls when Shelley was undergoing chemotherapy: “Anything I needed, Lyn was there.”  

It was the story of Lyn Nelson’s life. 

Lyn Nelson's Celebration of Life will be held at Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club on Saturday, February 25, 2023 from 2:00pm - 5:00pm.

In lieu of flowers, the family prefers that donations be made to advance the game of golf. The Lyn Nelson Golf Endowment for Women, Youth and Girls has been established at the Olympic Club Foundation, providing grants each year in Lyn's name to golf programs focused on young women, youth and especially girls in San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, as well as scholarships to high school seniors demonstrating the ability to compete at the collegiate level.

Gifts in support of the Endowment can be mailed to The Olympic Club Foundation, 524 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, with "Lyn Nelson Fund" in the memo. Online gifts can be made here: https://www.olympicclubfoundation.org/lyn-nelson-fund

San Francisco Chronicle Obituary, Lyn Nelson, December 29, 2022 [Link Here]

UPDATE

Pete Kowalski collected tributes and anecdotes from Lyn's Celebration of Life for the Global Golf Post:

Lyn Nelson Leaves Indelible Legacy

"She was a powerhouse at work with family and friends, and she was a trailblazer in the golf industry with a caring and engaging  personality." - Katherine Marren

"Lyn had a commanding presence but with dignity. I cannot express and do justice to what she meant to me as a friend and a mentor. And, what she meant to the golf community." - Shelley O'Keefe

The Harding Park Women's Golf Club sponsored a memorial bench for Lyn at Harding Park:

 
Tip your hat as you stroll from the clubhouse, past the putting green, on the way to the first tee. 

 

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View from the 18th Tee of the Lido "Home" hole, rendered by Peter Flory.

Lido Shuffle, Sharp Park and the “Ideal Two-Shot Hole”

Dec 11, 2022by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

First, apologies to Boz Scaggs. Our "Lido Shuffle" has nothing to do with his 1977 hit song.

Our Lido Shuffle starts in Long Island then shuffles off to England, Scotland, back to the US and in particular Northern California, on to Georgia, South America, Australia, Canada, takes a detour through cyberspace and most recently and improbably lands in Wisconsin. Along the way we are joined by fellow travelers C.B. Macdonald, Horace Hutchinson, Bernard Darwin, Alister MacKenzie, Roger Winthrop, Seth Raynor, John McLaren, Jack Fleming, Ray Haddock, Peter Flory, Michael Keiser, Tom Doaks, Jay Blasi, and our own San Francisco Public Golf Alliance co-founder - Bo Links.

Our Lido Shuffle does not start with a song. It starts with a contest. 

The Ideal Two-Shot Hole Contest

On August 1st,1914, in a column entitled "On The Green" bylined by Horace Hutchinson and Bernard Darwin, Britain's Country Life magazine published the winner of a "golfing architecture" contest to design an ideal "two-shot hole". The contest was sponsored financially by the dean of American golf architects - Charles Blair Macdonald. The winner was Dr. Alister MacKenzie, a golf architect of some reknown in Great Britain, but a relative unknown in the United States. 

Dr. MacKenzie explains his design:

"An effort has been made in designing this hole to produce the old type of golf in which a player has no fixed line to the hole, but has to use his own judgment in playing it according to varying conditions of wind, etc. In this respect it is somewhat similar to the long hole coming in at St. Andrews. The green is guarded by bunkers and a large hillock (15 to 20 feet high) on the right side of the approach, and is tilted up from the front to the back and from left to right, so that the approach from the left is an easy one and from the right necessitates such a difficult pitch that the player is likely to overrun the green into the bunker beyond."

The Lido Club Ideal Two-Shot Hole 

MacKenzie's ideal two-shot hole was realized at the Lido Golf Course when it opened for play in 1917. The course construction was financed by stockbroker Roger Winthrop, who gave C.B. Macdonald and his protoge Seth Raynar a blank check and a mission to build one of the greatest courses in America on 115 acres of Long Island marshland. It proved to be the most expensive course ever built at that time.  Macdonald utilized several of the submissions to the contest he sponsored, including the winning design by Alister MacKenzie which became the finishing 18th "Home" hole.  Golf writers and players deemed the cost worth it. Writer Bernard Darwin called it "the finest course in the world." In 1921 Walter Hagen assessed the Lido as "the greatest test in the world, with possible exception of Pine Valley .… The home hole was built after the design of the best of more than one hundred plans submitted in a prize contest conducted in England for the best two-shot stretch."

The Country Life contest and Lido Golf Club launched Alister Mackenzie's reputation and career in the United States and worldwide. In 1926 he moved to the United States. He was excited about the US being fertile ground for new golf courses and intending to leverage his new found fame at the finishing hole of the "finest course in the world". From 1926 until his death in 1934, MacKenzie was involved in the design and construction of 38 golf courses in the United States, England, Australia, Scotland, Ireland, Argentina, Uraguay, New Zealand, Mexico, and Canada. Of the 14 course in the US, 11 are in California, of which 8 are in the greater San Francisco Bay area. Among his notable courses worldwide - Augusta National, Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne, Royal Adelaide, Pasatiempo, The Old Course at Lahinch, Cork Golf Club, and Sharp Park in Pacifica. 

Sharp Park Ideal Two-Shot Holes

During this period of prodigous productivity the City of San Francisco approached Alister MacKenzie to design a golf course on 400 acres of land in Pacifica that was bequethed to the City by George and Honora Sharp. In 1929 the City contracted with Alister MacKenzie and Robert Hunter's firm - The American Golf Course Construction Company. MacKenzie's routing for Sharp was published later that year. Construction started in 1930 and was completed in April 1932. And in that routing were two holes based on the design of the "ideal two-shot hole."

Both of the "spectacular... ideal two-shot holes" at Sharp Park can still be played today, although the original "island" route has been reclaimed by a failure to control invasive plant growth in Laguna Salada. Here Jack Fleming's contemporaneous review of the original 5th...

"A lakeside hole and one of the most interesting holes on the course, similar to Dr. MacKenzie’s “ideal golf hole”. Three tees, four routes. Easy route probably will cost at least one extra stroke to get on while the other combinations of tees and routes give rewards proportionate to their respective risks."

And the 10th...  

"One of the best holes, two tees, four possible routes, sand and water carries optional. The ideal shot is an accurately placed ball on an island with a water carry on both first and second shots. If well placed on first, the green opens well for a pitch and run second. All other approaches to the green are guarded."

And an artist's conception of the original MacKenzie routing:

      
The orginal 10th hole is now the 14th, and the original 5th is now the 17th.

The 14th (original 10th) tee at Sharp with a classic MacKenzie camoflauged green in the distance.

Unfortunately the Lido Club with MacKenzie's original "ideal two-shot hole" did not fare as well as Alister MacKenzie's architectural successors at Cypress Point, Augusta National, Sharp Park and elsewhere. The Great Depression and two World Wars eventually doomed the course. As explained on  "Top 100 Golf Courses":

"Those plans hit the skids with the onset of World War I and the original investors had lost interest by the Great War’s conclusion. The next buyer was William Reynolds, a former senator who began the area’s real estate boom and built a hotel, putting the retitled Lido Beach Golf Club on the map for the wider population. At its peak, the club featured more than 1,000 members. Unfortunately, that peak ended with Reynolds’s death; between his family and other investors, the “all-engulfing rough” soon received less care. Even at its critical peak, Macdonald was disappointed in the upkeep... The U.S. Navy assumed control of the property during the next World War and it never returned."

Which brings us to...

The "Virtual" Ideal Two-Shot Hole and Lido Reborn 

Here the story of the the "ideal two-shot hole" takes an interesting twist. Some 80 years after the Navy commandeered and destroyed the Long Island Lido, the course rose from the dead. Well, virtually at least.  The image at the top of this post is a screenshot of a 3-D rendering of the 18th "Home" hole at the Lido course - the very hole that C.B. Macdonald built on the principles Alister MacKenzie outlined with his winning entry. Thanks to the work of golf historian and digital course hobbyist Peter Flory, you can virtually fly the hole (as well as all of the Lido holes) at this link. He relates how this, and more, came about in this "Golf Course Architecture" interview:

"As my skills grew, I eventually started to apply the technology to revive lost golf courses, experience them and understand them in a way that no living person could. I then started to get involved with some real course restoration projects on the side. So, while I never expected a course like the Lido to become a reality, I was already getting used to the idea of integrating digital renderings into actual projects."

As Flory explains, the story takes an amazing turn when he is approached by Mike Keiser and Tom Doak to help them rebuild a faithful reproduction of the Lido Course, in real life, at Sand Valley in Wisconsin. Erik Anders Lang at Skratch tells the story in this youtube video: "The Holy Grail of Lost Courses is Back".

The video is well worth 30 minutes of your time. But we're not done yet. Peter Flory is working with the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and Jay Blasi to render Sharp Park as it could be someday. Stay tuned. 

The Imaginary Ideal Two-Shot Hole 

We started this post with the "ideal two-shot hole" competition and now we come full circle. The Alister MacKenzie Society annually conducts a competition to honor golf hole design that embodies the spirit and principles articulated by Alister MacKenzie - the "Ray Haddock Lido Prize":

"MacKenzie’s great-grandson, Ray Haddock, headed original funding for the Prize. Dr. MacKenzie left behind a manuscript entitled The Spirit of Saint Andrews, whereupon Mr. Haddock had it published and proceeds from the sale were used to create a perpetual fund for the Lido competition. The competition began in 1998 and the success of the Prize is evidenced by winners who have gone on to become successful golf course architects. All of the winners and finalists have exhibited the ability to incorporate MacKenzie design features into their entries."

Our San Francisco Public Golf Alliance co-founder, Bo Links, is an accomplished lawyer who has argued and won before the Supreme Court, an author and poet (books “Into the Wind”, “Riverbank Tweed and Roadmap Jenkins”, "Golf Poems - The Greatest Game in Rhythm and Rhyme"), a painter and golf historian. But we suspect that he considers his proudest accomplishment is being a four time winner of the Ray Haddock Lido Prize, including last year and again in 2022. Frankly, we don't know why they don't rename this competition the "Links Prize".

This year's winning entry "Throttle" is a two-shot hole that channels Alister Mackenzie and all of his design principles. For the benefit of future competitors, we asked Bo what it takes to win. Excerpts from his essay:

"Like many others, I have attempted to distill the magic of MacKenzie’s architecture.  At bottom, a MacKenzie course or hole is fun, exciting and exhilarating for everyone...

Of course, there are a lot of subtleties that underlie the concepts of fun, excitement and exhilaration.  The main issue always relates the wide spectrum of golfers out there.  Thus, the question:  how do you make a hole exciting for players of different abilities?  One key is to create different hazards or challenges that affect different players differently.  The hole I designed this year illustrates the point.  Called “Throttle,” the hole tempts a long player to make a heroic carry (one of MacKenzie’s favorite terms, by the way), in order to gain an advantage.  But….after clearing the trouble, that player faces a shot  to a narrow, angled and undulating green.  In short, it’s not an “easy four” for the long hitter.

Now let’s have an average player traverse the same hole.  That player will lay up short of the trouble, hit a medium shot over it, and then likely be left with a short pitch for a makeable par putt.

The net result:  A challenge for the long hitter, while the short hitter also gets plenty of challenge, coupled with the excitement and thrill that his/her game can match up against a bomber.  Together on the tee, they can each hit their shots, go their separate ways, but the winner will not be decided until they meet up with each other on an undulating putting green.  It doesn’t get any better than that, in my opinion."

And on that note we'll wrap with Boz Scaggs and the Lido Shuffle:

"Lido, whoa, oh-oh-oh
He's for the money, he's for the show
Lido's a-waitin' for the go
Lido, whoa, oh-oh-oh, oh-oh
He said, "One more job oughta get it
One last shot 'fore we quit it
One more for the road"

 

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Last Chance To Contribute for 2022

2022 Year-end Report and Request for Support

Nov 24, 2022by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

This holiday season we look forward to the New Year and give thanks. Thanks for our historic Bay Area public courses and municipal gems. Thanks for our loyal San Francisco Public Golf Alliance members. Thanks for all who contribute financial and moral support to our fight for public golf. And thanks for those working with us to preserve Alister MacKenzie’s diamond in the rough at Sharp Park.

As we approach the end of 2022, this is to report on our continuing advocacy for public golf in San Francisco, the Peninsula, and statewide. We thank you for your participation in these efforts. And we ask for your charitable support – which makes our work possible.

Defeating The Most Damaging Golf Legislation in a Generation

• From April 2021 - May 2022, we played a key role defending California’s public courses against Assembly Bills 620 and 1910, The Golf Endangerment Act, an attempt by the powerful Housing Industry to convert golf courses to high-density housing. Working with the Northern and Southern California Golf Associations and other members of the California Alliance for Golf, we submitted legal arguments and 100’s of opposition letters, ultimately leading in May 2022 to defeat of the anti-golf legislation in the State Assembly.

Defending the Public Course -  A Few Examples:

• Sharp Park. At our urging, Pacifica’s 2022 Revised General Plan now recognizes both the golf course and clubhouse as historical resource properties. In 2021, we obtained San Francisco’s commitment to build a new electric cart barn. That hasn’t happened yet, but new gas carts are in service and we’re still on the case for the electric cart barn. In April 2022 the City approved a permanent Alister MacKenzie/Sharp Park photo history exhibit in the clubhouse foyer. We had to wait for repairs to damaged walls, and are hoping to install the exhibit by year-end. We never lose sight of our goal to restore Sharp Park, because "The fight over Sharp Park isn't just about saving one golf course, but muny golf overall". We have now completed a 3-D virtual restoration of Sharp Park, similar to the virtual resurrection of the long-lost Lido Course at Sand Valley, Wisconsin. You will hear more about this in 2023.
• Lincoln Park. When plans were announced in 2021 to landmark the old City Cemetery burial grounds which predated the golf course at Lincoln Park, we led the golfers’ advocacy to maintain and improve the golf course. We are pleased to report that the City Cemetery Landmark Ordinance, signed by the Mayor in October 2022, provides for continued repair and maintenance of the golf course.
• Mariners Point. We have been part of a broad community effort to preserve this great Midpeninsula night-lit golf practice center that serves the public and virtually all of the Peninsula’s high school teams, against a Foster City move to convert the property to housing. After 18 months of process, the prospects now look good for continued golf.

We are a non-profit, pro-bono, 501.c.3 charitable public benefit corporation, dependent upon your support to continue our work. And we ask for your generous tax-deductible year-end contribution.

You can donate via PayPal at our donation page: https://www.sfpublicgolf.org/donate

Or by check, payable to and addressed to:

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance,
1370 Masonic Ave.
San Francisco, CA. 94117

We can also accept donations of appreciated stock and/or RMD’s from retirement accounts. To discuss, e-mail us at info@sfpublicgolf.org.

Thanks for your support and very best wishes for the Holiday Season.

 

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Circa 1920. Golfer on the old #2 tee, Kong Chow funerary alter, a twosome on the fairway, and St. Ignatius Cathedral on the horizon.

Lincoln Park: Hallowed Ground above the Golden Gate

Oct 4, 2022by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Perched on its towering sand dunes overlooking the Golden Gate, Lincoln Park is a jewel of San Francisco history. The earliest three golf holes appeared in 1903, making Lincoln one of the oldest public courses in the West. The California Palace of the Legion of Honor was built in the early 1920’s by art collector Alma Spreckels as a memorial to California’s war dead of World War I. The car park oval across the street from the Legion of Honor is the Western Terminus of the Lincoln Highway – America’s first transcontinental highway, completed in time for the 1915 Panama Pacific Exposition.  The San Francisco Holocaust Memorial rests on the north slope of the car park oval. 

  Ladies Seaman’s Friend Society obelisk, near #15 green [photo credit - Allison Meier]

The historic cemetery was officially recognized on September 27, when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved an Ordinance to designate City Cemetery as a San Francisco Landmark.  At Sections 3(d) and 4, the Ordinance excludes the Golf Course and Art Museum from the landmark designation and enables ordinary maintenance and repair --including irrigation system repair, of both. The Ordinance was signed into law on October 4 by Mayor London Breed. 

Golf Holes and City Cemetery Plots

The Ordinance was authored  by First District Supervisor Connie Chan, whose district includes Lincoln Park. When Supervisor Chan first raised the landmarking issue In Spring 2021, San Francisco Public Golf Alliance called for assurances that cemetery landmarking would not prejudice golf course operations, maintenance, and improvements.  At preliminary public hearings on the matter – May 4, 2022 at the Historic Preservation Commission and at Supervisors’ hearings September 12 and 20, 2022 at the Land Use Committee and at the Full Board’s First Hearing on the Ordinance -- Supervisor Chan said the legislative intent is to honor the 19th Century immigrants, mostly poor, who built the City and who are still buried there -- not to limit or impair operation and maintenance of the Golf Course, the Art Museum, or the children’s playground. 

At the Board’s September 27 hearing, the Ordinance was supported by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (“Six Companies”), San Francisco Heritage, and the Rec and Park Department and the Art Museums. Spokeswomen for both Departments said they are satisfied that the Ordinance will not restrict their ability to maintain and operate the museum and the golf course. Supervisor Chan expressed hope that the City's Chinese community will use the newly-landmarked Kong Chow altar as a gathering place to observe Chung Yeung and other traditional festivals of remembrance. 

 
Golf at the Golden Gate 1935

 

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Play on...

California Assembly Bill 1910, “Golf Endangerment Act,” dies in the State Legislature. Again.

May 23, 2022by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

California Assembly Bill AB1910, a proposed law targeting the State’s public golf courses for housing development, died last week in a May 19 Suspense File Hearing of the State Assembly’s fiscal watchdog Appropriations Committee.   Thus ended an 18-month anti-golf campaign by California’s powerful development industry, its cheerleaders, lobbyists and Assembly Member Cristina Garcia, author of AB-1910 and its precursor, Assembly Bill 672.  

Both bills – AB-1910 and 627 – were unanimously and vigorously opposed by the golf community, which dubbed the bills “The Golf Endangerment Act” and wrote thousands of objection letters to legislators and over 250 individual and organizational letters to the Assembly Housing, Local Government, and Appropriations committees.  Objections to AB-1910 included:

• Golf is a broadly and diversely popular and physically and mentally healthful recreation enjoyed by millions of Californians, and has enjoyed record-high popularity during the Covid pandemic.
• The public courses are the most affordable and accessible to youth, seniors, women, and racial and ethnic minorities, and are the home courses for high school teams and valuable youth mentoring and support programs.
• The golf courses are parks that provide open space and related environmental benefits to their communities – trees and native vegetation to provide habitat for birds and small animals, absorb urban heat and cool and freshen urban air, sequester carbon and groundwater, and drain stormwater.
• The policy analysts for both the Housing and Local Government committees noted that inconsistency with provisions of the Surplus Land Act means that  AB-1910 may not result in any new public housing being built.  

The parks and open space advocate non-profit Trust for Public Land joined the objectors to AB-1910, pointing to recent fierce Southern California open space battles between developers and park activists, and objecting that AB-1910 would impede the public’s future ability to protect open space.    

Play on...

By contrast, the Assembly committees received less than 20 letters supporting AB-1910, mostly from YIMBY chapters.

In 2021 an early (April 6, 2021) version of the precursor Assembly Bill 672  targeted virtually all California golf courses – both public and private – for a mandatory zoning change, exempt from California Environmental Quality Act review -- to enable affordable housing development. That version of the bill was subsequently modified, and ultimately died in January 2022 at an Assembly Appropriations Suspense File hearing. The AB-1910 that was Held by Appropriations on May 19 envisioned a State Government-driven program to pay cities to voluntarily convert their publicly owned golf courses to dense housing developments, reserving 25%  of units for low income, and only 15% of the land for open space.  

This was not the first time golf has been attacked by political leaders.  In fact, such attacks have been part of golf since its first mention in the English language: a 1457 Act of the Scottish Parliament banning golf and football, because these sports diverted young men from their archery practice.

Nor is AB-1910 likely to be the last such attack. The bill’s author Assembly Member Cristina Garcia is retiring from the Assembly at the end of the 2022 Legislative Year. But she is hoping for someone to “pick up the mantle.”  

If and when that happens, we’ll notify and ask you to write another letter. Again. 

Resources:

Southern California Golf Association Letter to Appropriations Committee, 5.15.22

California Alliance for Golf Letter to Appropriations Committee, 5.6.22

United States Golf Association Letter to Appropriations Committee, 5.17.22

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance letter to Appropriations Committee, 5.9.22

Bay Area Golf Club of Northern California letter to Local Government Committee, 3.1.22 

 

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The Golf Endangerment Act is Back! It’s Time to Write Your Opposition Letter

Mar 24, 2022

Assembly Bill 1910  – the “Golf Endangerment Act” – which would turn the policy, the money, and the administrative powers of the State of California against municipal golf courses – is back to life in the State Legislature.  Officially titled “Conversion of Publicly Owned Golf Courses to Affordable Housing”, AB-1910 on March 23 sailed through the Assembly Housing Committee on a party-line 6-2 vote.  This is the same margin won at the Housing Committee in January 2022 by the identically worded predecessor Assembly Bill 672, which died in January 2022 in the Appropriations Committee.  Next stop this time around for AB-1910 is a hearing at the Assembly Local Government Committee in mid-to-late April, though no hearing date has yet been set.

Authored by Assembly Member Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), it would create a new program (whose details and budgt are not yet set), administered by the State Department of Housing and Community Development, to induce and help cities convert their public golf courses to housing tracts.  

Attacking golf is an old political attention-grabbing trick.  But scapegoating golf hardly offers a serious solution to California’s housing shortage -- a complex problem decades in the making, as analyzed by the Public Policy Institute of California in a December 2021 report.

AB-1910 is based on arguments that golf is now “in decline,” that golf is only for the elite, that public golf courses are inaccessible to “low-income communities and communities of color,” and that public golf courses are not parks and have no use or value to non-golfers.  But these stereotypes and untruths are all debunked in detailed letters to the Assembly Housing Committee from the California Alliance for Golf , the United States Golf Association and the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. 

Big developers have long coveted the wide-open spaces of California’s golf courses and other parklands. Under the sympathetic flag of “affordable housing,” developers are first going after the golf courses. And this bill is filled with goodies for the development industry:  (1) Paragraph 20871(a) and (b) of the bill only require that 25 percent of of the housing be "affordable" to "lower income households"; (2) the bill's targets are not just urban and suburban courses, but all publicly owned courses in the State; and (3) only 15% of the property must be kept in public open space.     

One thing is clear about AB-1910:  it picks on exactly those golfers – African Americans and other racial minorities, women, seniors, and schoolchildren – that National Golf Foundation says are golf’s fastest-growing groups - and the most benfitted by the affordability and accessibility of the municial courses. In effect, Assembly Member Garcia and AB-1910’s advocates are saying people shouldn’t play golf if they can't afford the resorts and country clubs.  

As muni golfers, we have a big problem with this.  If you agree, please send a comment to your State Legislators. AND write a letter ASAP to the Assembly Local Government and Housing Committees (Download the form letter by clicking HERE).  Put it on letterhead, personalize it, date it and put an electronic or Word font signature on it, and e-mail us a pdf copy. We'll file it for you with the Committees. Any questions? Ask us.

And Thank You. 

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance    info@sfpublicgolf.org     

 

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Bill Spiller at the 1948 Los Angeles Open

Black History Month, California Golf Chapter, 2022

Feb 10, 2022by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

In 1955 the Western States Golf Association – one of the Country’s oldest and largest African American golfing organizations – held its inaugural championship tournament at Sharp Park.  The host club was San Francisco’s Bay Area Golf Club, which in 1954 was a founding member of Western States, along with clubs from Seattle, Portland, San Diego, Phoenix, and three Los Angeles-based clubs.

Western States and its member clubs were part of a national movement which gained strength following World War II and was symbolized by baseball’s Jackie Robinson, to end racial discrimination in sports and public recreation.  At that time, the PGA of America had a “Caucasians Only Rule,” which it famously invoked in the Bay Area at the 1948 Richmond Open to exclude Los Angeles professionals Bill Spiller and Ted Rhodes, who had both qualified for Richmond by making the cut in the preceding Los Angeles Open.  

Ted Rhodes, U.S. Open (Riviera CC, Los Angeles), 1948

This provoked Spiller, a railroad baggage porter at Los Angeles’ Union Station, to lead a 13-year legal fight with the PGA in which he enlisted Rhodes and other African American golfers, including boxing champion Joe Louis and Charlie Sifford. After repeatedly breaking its promises to integrate, the PGA in 1961 finally dropped its Caucasians Only Rule and admitted Sifford as its first African American member -- but only after then-California Attorney General Stanley Mosk threatened to prohibit all PGA tournaments in California, at both public and private courses. Mosk later became a California Supreme Court Justice, and Sifford in 2004 was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

The PGA admitted Spiller and Rhodes as members in 2009 – but only after both had died. By 2009, Tiger Woods had won the Masters Tournament and the PGA Championship four times apiece and the U.S. and British Open Championships three times each.  In 2012 former U.S. Secretary of State and Stanford Provost Condoleezza Rice was one of the first two women admitted as members of the Augusta National Golf Club, home of the Masters Tournament.

By 2022, Western States Golf Association has grown to over 30 member clubs, including women’s clubs, in Washington, Oregon, Northern and Southern California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, and Texas.  Also in 2022 Tiger Woods will enter the World Golf Hall of Fame as a new member.

Tiger Woods and Charlie Sifford at the 2009 Bridgestone Invitational

From CBS Sports: "Tiger Woods on a life without Charlie Sifford: 'I probably wouldn't be here'"

"Charlie Sifford was a hell of a pioneer in the world of golf and on Tuesday he passed away at the age of 92. This was just a few months after President Obama awarded Sifford with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.On Wednesday Tiger Woods paid his respects. "It's been tough. Very tough," said Woods. "He’s like my grandpa that I never had. And it's been a long night and it's going to be a long few days."

For more of this story, see “One Man’s Mission,” Al Barkow, Golf Digest, Jan. 7, 2008  

"In 1960 Spiller was caddieing at Hillcrest CC for an old friend, Harry Braverman, who asked why Spiller was not teaching or playing the tournament circuit. Spiller explained the tour's limited access to blacks. Braverman recommended Spiller tell it to California attorney general Stanley Mosk, who he thought would lend a supportive ear. He did. Mosk, who would eventually sit on the California Supreme Court, told the PGA of America that if it did not amend its Caucasians-only clause it could not stage tournaments on California's public courses. At that time there were some nine events held yearly in California, including tour events and association sectional tournaments -- almost all on public courses. The PGA's initial response was that it would then play on private courses. Mosk said he would put a stop to that, as well, including the 1962 PGA Championship, which was scheduled for Hillcrest CC. What's more, Mosk contacted state attorneys general around the country, telling them of the situation, and got positive responses in almost every instance. As a result, in November 1961, the PGA of America quietly expunged the Caucasians-only clause."

 

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AB672 fades into the distance, but the threat is still out there.

AB 672 Update:  Anti-Public Golf Bill dies in State Assembly, but the Threat to Golf Remains

Jan 31, 2022by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

After speeding through the California State Assembly Housing and Local Government committees on January 12, Assembly Bill 672 – to provide State Taxpayer funds for cities to convert their public golf courses to housing developments – aka "The Public Golf Endangerment Act" officially died on January 31, after the financial watchdog Assembly Appropriations Committee on January 20 put a “hold in committee” on the fiscally and legally uncertain bill.  

Bradley Klein’s First Call report on the Appropriations Committee’s January 20 action:  

"California bill targeting public courses stalls — for now"

"A legislative initiative that would have enabled municipally owned golf courses in California to be plowed under for redevelopment into housing has stalled in committee. The battle over the bill that could threaten 177 of the state’s golf courses is not over, however. Supporters and opponents expect a revival of the bill in one form or another in the California State Legislature in the near future...

Concern about the bill included the vague language of the proposal, providing no clear threshold for what counts as “affordable housing,” nor for “low income.” Moreover, claims about the value of municipal golf courses to the community have focused narrowly on whether they are self-sustaining or a drain on public revenues and exclude entirely their value as environmental greenspaces, habitats and ambient cooling zones for densely built up urban areas where open space is at a premium. Nor have supporters considered the value of public access to golf as recreation accessible to minorities, women and youth that these courses provide. There has been strenuous opposition to the bill by public golf groups representing minority, youth and female golfers who disputed the bill’s underlying assumption that golf ground was being misused... 

The idea, for example, of plowing up open space for paved-over hardscape housing makes little sense in the face of so much other, already paved-over areas (shopping malls, parking lots, office buildings) that are moribund and could much more readily be converted to affordable housing. Meanwhile, the constructive role that golf courses play in storm water management, providing tree coverage and much-needed urban space enclaves for flora, fauna and pollinators needs to be made known more widely."  

Josh Sens’ January 17 Golf Magazine report on the Housing and Local Government committees’ January 12 votes to support the bill:

"Controversial California bill targets muni golf — and that’s missing the point"

"AB672 still has a way to go to make it into law, with a winding path through various committees before it could even get to the governor’s desk. But most golfers understand the perils of complacency. You post a few good scores, reel off a few straight birdies—just when you think you’ve got a handle on the game, the fates conspire to knock you down.What’s true on the course applies in the political arena, too... Since so much of politics is perception, the battle around AB672 will hinge in part on the game’s ability to present a fuller picture of itself...

Nate Jackson is 81, and like most Black golfers of his generation, he wasn’t welcomed to the game through the front gates of a country club. His introduction came as a boy at a muni. And munis remain central to his life even now... “Of course, we know that California has a housing problem,” Jackson wrote. “But the state does not have to—and shouldn’t—purport to fix a housing problem with the misguided gesture of closing public courses.” Doing so, he noted, “would be a slap at African American and other ethnic minority golfers and would be a death blow to programs like First Tee and Youth on Course.”

The bill’s author, Southern California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), has vowed to “try again”. 

Very disappointed my bill #AB672 was held in Asm Appropriations Committee today. It’s not over yet though! I will try again. pic.twitter.com/BKBKNkOzfq

— Cristina Garcia (@AsmGarcia) January 21, 2022

The many strong objections from golfers in reply to Assemblywoman Garcia's tweet came as no surprise to the Assemblywoman.  She is picking on municipal golf intentionally and strategically.  When she says she will “try again”, believe her, and expect to soon to see a renewed effort.   We’ll be watching.  Thanks, BTW, to those who submitted letters and e-mails to the Legislature objecting to AB672.  Your voice counts.  Your efforts matter. 

 

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Oh No! Not again!

ACTION ALERT: OPPOSE AB672 – “The Public Golf Endangerment Act”

Dec 16, 2021by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

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UPDATE 20-Jan-2022: After passing in the Local Government & Housing and Community Development Committees, AB672 failed to pass the Appropriations Committee. Updated Report Linked HERE.*

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A radical anti-golf attack in the guise of an “affordable housing” bill, California Assembly Bill 672, will be considered in January 2022 by two committees of the State Assembly – the Housing & Community Development and Local Government committees. The proposed law would appropriate $50 Million from the State General Fund as a bounty to entice cities to replace existing municipal golf courses in “densely populated areas” with high-density “affordable housing” developments. This appears intended as just the first step towards dismemberment of the State’s great network of municipal golf courses.

The bill is unanimously condemned by the State’s golfers and their organizations, including the California Alliance for Golf, the Northern California Golf Association, Southern California Golf Association, and San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. (See full text of the SFPGA position statement, below.)

We urgently request golfers – muni and private club players of all ages, abilities, genders, persuasions, and ethnic and social backgrounds -- and their groups and clubs (1) to submit, not later than January 5, 2022, letters opposing AB672 to the Assembly committees, and (2) send e-mails to individual committee members at their separate offices.

1. Letters to the committees should have a letterhead, should be dated and signed, and submitted at least a week in advance of committee hearings.

Click Here to download a form letter adaptable for individual, group and club use. Customize to add to your own personal reasons for objecting to AB672.

Letters can be submitted by mail or electronically through the Legislature’s Advocates Portal to the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee and the Local Government Committee. If you need help with this, contact us at Info@SFPublicGolf.org.

2. E-mails to individual legislators’ offices (see customizable forms below). Especially important to send e-mails to the individual offices of Housing and Local Government committee members, including in Northern California: Housing Committee Chair Buffy Wicks (Oakland-Berkeley-Richmond-Hercules);Ash Kalra (San Jose); Kevin Kiley (El Dorado, Placer, and eastern part of Sacramento County); Local Govt. Committee Chair Cecelia Aguiar-Curry (Napa, Davis, Woodland, Vacaville); Robert Rivas (Salinas, Gilroy, etc)

Form e-mail For Golfers    Find Your Representative

Please send us, by e-mail to info@sfpublicgolf.org, copies of any letters or e-mails that you submit to the Committees and/or to individual legislators.

Open Letter from the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance in Opposition to AB672:

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December 10, 2021

Assembly Housing & Community Development Committee
Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, Chair
Legislative Office Building, 1020 N St., Room 156
Sacramento, Ca. 95814

Assembly Local Government Committee
Assembly Member Cecelia M. Aguiar-Curry, Chair
Legislative Office Building, 1020 N St., Room 157
Sacramento, CA. 95814

Re: OPPOSITION to Assembly Bill 672 – “Conversion of Publicly-owned Golf Courses to Affordable Housing” -- from the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Dear Chairpersons Wicks and Aguiar-Curry, and Committee Members,

The non-profit, public benefit San Francisco Public Golf Alliance strongly opposes California Assembly Bill 672, and urges you to not pass it out of Committee. AB 672, re-written in September after it failed to clear the Housing and Community Development Committee in April 2021, appears designed to be the first step towards dismemberment of California’s wonderful municipal golf network, by offering a $50 Million inducement from the State Treasury to encourage cities to replace their existing municipal golf courses with high-density residential development.

This would be very bad public policy and a misuse use of public funds because it effectively targets and scapegoats a single popular recreational open-space use - golf - to solve California’s complex, decades-long problem of insufficient housing. Rather than attempting to bring people together to solve a mutual problem, AB672 offers a divisive, disruptive, faux solution that is certain to provoke anger, division, controversy, negative publicity, and years of litigation. AB 672 therefore cannot possibly bring about its professed goal of a relatively simple and easy near-term increase in housing of any kind, low-income or otherwise.

The redrafted AB672 would incentivize cities to replace rare green open space in already park-poor “densely populated areas” with yet more high-density residential development – further reducing the amount of green open space in affected areas by 85%. (Section (b)(1)(B)(2). In times of climate change and ever-warming urban cores, elimination of large green open spaces in the inner cities would be a move in exactly the wrong direction. Other than setting a 25% “affordable” minimum and imposing new administrative obligations on cities for housing voucher, compliance monitoring, and equity-sharing programs (Section 50870 [b][1] [A] and [B]), AB672 is vague as to exactly how it would achieve its “affordable housing” goals: Section (e) sets no uniform standards or criteria to clarify housing and development standards, but rather would leave it to the Department of Housing and Community Development to set standards at some unspecified future time. Many more grounds for opposition to AB672 are enumerated in this California Alliance for Golf memo.

Most California golf is played on public courses -- municipal courses in particular, which host the high school teams, junior leagues, and most of the state’s large numbers of senior, retired, and ethnic minority golfers. Golf is an outdoor activity and inherently socially distanced. Combined with large increases in work-from-home over the past two years, golf play has increased 25-30% on municipal courses throughout the state since courses reopened in May 2020 following the initial COVID shutdowns.

The 6,500-plus members of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance reflect the broad range of California’s several million public course golfers of all ages, genders, persuasions, colors, ethnicities, languages, and economic and social strata. As a group, the golfers are passionate about their recreation. And they have friends and families who sympathize with their passion and who will join their opposition to AB 672.

By scapegoating golf for California’s housing problems, AB 672 would antagonize a broadly-based, and highly motivated population of golfers and their networks, and a large sector of the sports and recreation world. AB 672’s controversial and polarizing approach is not a productive way to get our society to effectuate positive solutions for the complex and difficult issue of housing supply. In fact Assembly Bill 672 would have just the opposite effect.

So we urge your Committees to reject AB 672.

Respectfully,
San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Richard Harris

Richard Harris, President

cc:
Assembly Member Cristina Garcia
James Ferrin, President, California Alliance for Golf
Kevin Heaney, Executive Director, Southern California Golf Association
Joe Huston, CEO, Northern California Golf Association
Nikki Gatch, President, Southern California PGA
Len Dumas, Executive Director, Northern California PGA

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  *UPDATE 20-JAN-2022: AB672 passed the Local Government and Housing and Community Development Committees via a rushed, prejudicial process that failed to acknowledge many of the letters of objection from golfers and golf organizations. The San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, with many other organizations, continued to press our case before the Appropriation Committee hearing and the bill failed to clear that committee. Although this bill was stalled, it's proponents are promising to bring it back. We'll be watching. 

 

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Our fairway turkey is still wearing a mask.

2021 Year-End Appeal: Giving Thanks, Seeking Support

Nov 22, 2021by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

It's that time of year. We give thanks for what we have, for the historic public courses and municipal jewels in our City, for our loyal San Francisco Public Golf Alliance members, for those who contribute financial and moral support to our many years-long fight for public golf in San Francisco, and those working with us to preserve Alister MacKenzie’s public golf diamond in the rough at Sharp Park.

And, for those who can, we ask for your contributions to support our efforts, to step up again for the cause, and Donate.

Again in 2021 (as in 2020), our main annual fundraiser, the Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park, was scratched due to ongoing COVID concerns.  Because our fights for public golf and to preserve Sharp Park require money, we are announcing our second annual year-end fundraising campaign (We expect in 2022 to resume our MacKenzie Tournament – look for a detailed announcement early next year). 

First some notes of what we were thankful for in 2021... 

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In June our members stepped up for a Volunteer day at Sharp Park in coordination with San Francisco Rec and Park personnel:

"A 15-person team of Sharp Park golfers celebrated with three hours of volunteer work with the Rec & Park maintenance crew, clearing 20-plus pickup truck loads of accumulated debris from the forest floor between the first, ninth, and tenth holes. Then they shared a picnic behind the 3rd Tee."

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Sharp Park continues to be top of mind for national golf writers as the muni most worthy of restoration.

Writing in Golf Digest magazine, Derek Duncan leads off with co-founder Richard Harris at Sharp Park in "The revival of these muny courses is an inspiration for public golf":

"Richard Harris stands on the 16th tee at Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, Calif., and gestures west toward a high embankment, a sea wall that separates the course from the Pacific Ocean. People stroll and jog on it, daubs of color moving in each direction, taking in views of golf holes on one side, the crashing water on the other. Harris is indicating where a proposed green might go, that of a par 3 playing to the base of the sea wall. The hole would be part of a long-imagined recreation of the greens and bunkers architect Alister MacKenzie designed, just before he began work on Augusta National, that have been worn away in the decades since the course opened in 1932..."

Golfwriter Tom Coyne includes a rainy round at Sharp Park in his 50 State, 300 round golf touring opus "A Course Called America":

“The map said Sharp Park would be near the ocean, but I didn’t believe a muni would ever be set so close to the waves; it was, and those waves had reclaimed a handful of MacKenzie’s holes. Twelve of his originals remained . . . As a city course, Sharp Park had no equal when it came to location and holding on to those acres had proved an arduous task—an eight-year legal battle saved the grounds from being closed off as habitat for a garter snake and a rare frog, yet another example of conservationists failing to embrace golf ’s protective capacities. It was a subject Scotsman David McLay Kidd had stamped into my psyche: Lay out some golf holes and fragile terrain is instantly preserved and protected, because it now has purpose, both commercially and recreationally."

Writing in Links Magazine, Tony Dear includes Sharp Park among the public Bay Area Alister Mackenzie tracks in his article "The Best Public Golf in California":

Eight miles south (of San Francisco) is the municipal Sharp Park, an Alister MacKenzie design opened in 1932 and badly in need of a renovation of its own. Despite opposition from environmental groups, the work is likely to happen, but even now you can still see the bones of MacKenzie’s layout. Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz is another MacKenzie masterpiece and opened in 1929. Full of magnificent bunkers and amazing green complexes, the course tips out at 6,500 yards but demands all the golf you have. One more Mackenzie creation in the region that you can play is located 75 miles north of San Francisco in the town of Monte Rio. Covering 70 wooded acres, Northwood has nine holes lined with towering redwoods.

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Getting to that restoration remains a continuing core project for the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance. Writing in the SCGA magazine FORE, our co-founder Bo Links maps out a path in "The Old College Try - A Path Forward for Muni Golf":

"We need to aggressively reach out to the “golf alumni” to give back — in particular, by asking successful folks who grew up playing muni golf as kids to come to the rescue of the places that gave them a start in the game... That is why we need to call on golfers to support their local munis in the same fashion that college alumni are called upon to support their beloved schools. We need to do this now, for it may well be the only way that the muni courses we love can stave off asphyxiation when local officials turn to other, more pressing financial and recreational needs."

And, while we are at it, don't miss Bo's winning design for the Alister MacKenzie Society 2021 "Ray Haddock" Lido Prize competition for golf hole design that best embodies the spirit and architectural philosophy of Alister MacKenzie: 

“My goal was to make a hole that’s exciting and invigorating for every level of player, to find that classic MacKenzie value of ‘pleasurable excitement...The concept of the green was that if the hole is cut up on the championship level, you’re hitting right over the lower level with the chasm in between, and it’s a mini-heroic carry. And even the front-of-the-green hole location, at just over 100 yards, can give the shorter player the same thrill.”  - Bo Links

Note that Alister MacKenzie's career was launched with his winning design for the "ideal two-shot hole" (aka the famous "Lido Hole") and Mackenzie himself pointed to two of his Sharp Park holes as inspired by his "ideal two-shot" design:

“The municipal courses in San Francisco are far superior to most municipal courses. The newest, which we constructed at Sharp Park, has a resemblance to real links land. Some of the holes are most spectacular. Two of them are of similar type to the plan of the ideal two-shot hole. One of them has the island on the right and the other on the left. In designing and constructing the course, we had the greatest assistance from Mr. John McLaren, the designer of Golden Gate Park. John McLaren is an artist, and his help not only in the artistic planting of trees but in creating other delightful features was most valuable.” - Alister MacKenzie

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Finally, we've been busy during the pandemic. Over the last two years we:

• Instituted a hole-name and sign project at Sharp.
• Donated new (relatively) attractive trash cans.
• Worked with Rec and Park maintenance on tree-trimming to open key historic vistas.
• Helped restore the size and shape of MacKenzie’s original 10th and 18th greens.
• Designed a historic photographic display for the Clubhouse entryway walls to be installed next year.
• Spearheaded a successful 6-week campaign to limit ground squirrel damage at the 12th, 13th, 16th, and 17th holes.
• Retained a leading hydrology consultant to develop a drainage plan. 
• Persuaded the SF Rec & Park Department to bring a fleet of new golf carts to Sharp Park and to commit to construction of an electric cart barn.
• Joined with California Alliance for Golf in opposing California Assembly Bill 672, which we’re calling the “Public Golf Endangerment Act”.

We have much more work to do, and we need money to do it.

Your non-profit, 501.c.3, all volunteer, unpaid, San Francisco Public Golf Alliance invite your tax-deductible support by Online Donation, or by check payable to SF Public Golf Alliance, addressed to:

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance
1370 Masonic Ave.
San Francisco, CA. 94117

Thank you for your consideration and have a great holiday season!

 

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Support Your Local Muni

The Old College Try: A Path Forward For Muni Golf

Sep 29, 2021by - Bo Links

[Previously published in Fore - The Magazine of the SCGA. Reprinted with permission.]

Golf comes in many varieties, from private clubs like My Golf Holidays in Portugal to commercially operated public facilities to municipal courses owned and operated by local government. It is the last two that need the most help if they are to survive. And local muni courses are well worth saving. But only if you think it’s important to save the game.

Every golfer knows what we’re talking about. It’s the local muni where their mom dropped them off when they were a kid. Or the local muni that captured their attention when they were just out of school and looking for an affordable recreational activity, one they might be able to enjoy for the rest of their life.

It’s also the local gem, and every city has at least one. Indeed, many California cities have more than one. Their proliferation has done more to grow the game than any other single factor. Golf always has been and always will be more a participation sport than a spectator sport, and participants need affordable, accessible places to participate, particularly when they’re trying new activities on for size and fit.

Over the years, many of these facilities have fallen into various stages of disrepair, and they need our collective help if they are to survive for future generations.

Although there have been some heroic breakthrough restoration efforts in places like Chicago, Washington D.C., Palm Beach, and Madison, they have been isolated “one off” projects that are dependent upon the kindness of a handful of charitable champions who possess the requisite money and passion to fund them. They are very few and far between.

Sadly, there has been no sustained national funding campaign to rescue municipal golf generally — nothing of an organized, sustained, institutionalized nature. While we would never counsel golfers and golf organizations to cease making the case for the societal value of the municipal golf courses, or suggest the pursuit of only one rescue strategy, the hard truth is that local governments are financially overburdened with other pressing needs and golf has done little to burnish its credentials with the nation’s public sector.

Preserving a muni golf course may not occupy a high place on a local politician’s agenda, especially in the post-COVID-19 years. But it does occupy a central place on our agenda. And while there may be no one answer to our dilemma, there is an overlooked philanthropic paradigm that has been staring us in the face for a long time.

The fact is that America’s colleges and universities survive because of alumni support. Every year, massive funding drives take place on every campus, engaging alumni to contribute to the educational institution that launched their careers and lives. That’s exactly how new buildings are funded, not to mention the laboratories and research facilities inside them, as well as the endowed professor-ships that ensure vibrant teaching.

We’ve seen in real time how alumni rise to the challenge of being socially responsible philanthropists by contributing the resources necessary for their beloved schools to fulfill their educational and social missions. It happens annually from coast to coast in the United States, and as state governments continue to reduce funding of their state colleges and universities, alumni of those colleges and universities give more to make up the difference, as do many of the industries that derive benefit from the graduates they produce.

Government-owned golf courses need the same type of assistance to survive. A local muni, for example, may have more potential to improve the lives of “at risk” kids and their families than other municipal aid programs; witness the myriad amateur association, PGA Section and First Tee programs that have emerged around the country.

These crucial enrichment programs need venues in order to succeed, and that is precisely why we need to aggressively reach out to the “golf alumni” to give back — in particular, by asking successful folks who grew up playing muni golf as kids to come to the rescue of the places that gave them a start in the game.

Each of us who has written a check to our favorite college or university knows what it feels like to make such a gift. It is an uplifting experience for both the giver and the institution(s) they support, because there are few better causes than providing something meaningful to the next generation.

That is why we need to call on golfers to support their local munis in the same fashion that college alumni are called upon to support their beloved schools. We need to do this now, for it may well be the only way that the muni courses we love can stave off asphyxiation when local officials turn to other, more pressing financial and recreational needs.

Golfers must understand that nothing is free. So too must the businesses that derive revenue from the game and the organizations that purport to represent those golfers (or govern them, as the case may also be). If golfers want to see their favorite muni golf course endure and flourish — just like they want their college or university, not to mention other valued local institutions such as art museums, opera/ballet companies, symphony orchestras, even the zoos our children visit, to endure and flourish — they have to join in the collective effort to preserve these special places. And the game’s governing institutions and commercial beneficiaries have to participate in the effort as well, if not directly then at least as facilitators, aggregators and organizers of golfers’ contributions.

Given the impressive demand stimulated by COVID-19, now is the time to figure out effective ways to accommodate and support increased participation, including outreach programs to golf’s “alumni,” lest the game lose its best opportunity in decades for meaningful growth.

 

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Bo Links at 2017 "Save Sharp Park" Benefit Tournament

International MacKenzie Golf Design Prize for 2021 Goes to Our Own Bo Links

Jul 12, 2021by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Bo Links, co-founder of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, is winner of the 2021 "Ray Haddock" Lido Prize for golf architecture design, awarded by the Alister MacKenzie Society and Golf Digest Magazine, which announced the award in its June 19 issue:

"The winner of the 2021 Ray Haddock Lido Prize is Bo Links. His entry, the reverse C-shaped green, is titled “Sahara.” The front section of the green is a short iron or wedge shot and the back elevated lobe, still just 155 yards—the same as the 12th at Augusta National—is the tournament pin position. The miss to either the lower or upper greens is left or right—long or short is in the sand—while flags along the right side cannot afford to miss left or right. Each hole location offers variety and calls for a different shot, with slopes and bumpers helping to move the ball around the putting surface."

A San Francisco lawyer, Bo is a three-time winner (previously in 2007 and 2008) of the annual design competition for the amateur golf architect who submits a golf hole design that best embodies the spirit and architectural philosophy of Alister MacKenzie – history’s most famous golf architect.  

The Alister MacKenzie Society is a fraternity of international golf clubs -- from California to Buenos Aires to Australia to the British Isles -- whose courses were built by MacKenzie during the 1920’s and ‘30s – considered by many the “Golden Age of golf architecture.”  Northern California member clubs include Green Hills in San Bruno, Meadow Club in Fairfax, Claremont in Oakland, Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, and Cypress Point on the Monterey Peninsula.  

In addition to being a noted attorney who has won at the United States Supreme Court, Links is a golf historian, author, and artist who has been a driving force in the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance’s decade-long campaign to restore MacKenzie’s muni golf masterpiece at Sharp Park.  He illustrates and explains his 2021 Lido Prize winning design of a medium-length three-par hole in his entry submission:

“My goal was to make a hole that’s exciting and invigorating for every level of player, to find that classic MacKenzie value of ‘pleasurable excitement,’ ” says Links, a longtime San Francisco attorney who now lives in Oregon. “It’s not based on any hole I’ve ever seen. The concept of the green was that if the hole is cut up on the championship level, you’re hitting right over the lower level with the chasm in between, and it’s a mini-heroic carry. And even the front-of-the-green hole location, at just over 100 yards, can give the shorter player the same thrill.” - Bo Links

Congratulations Bo!

 

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Sharp Park Volunteers

Volunteer Pickup and Picnic Day at Sharp Park

Jun 21, 2021by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Juneteenth Morning – two days after President Biden declared June 19 as the nation’s newest national holiday – a 15-person team of Sharp Park golfers celebrated with three hours of volunteer work with the Rec & Park maintenance crew, clearing 20-plus pickup truck loads of accumulated debris from the forest floor between the first, ninth, and tenth holes. Then they shared a picnic behind the 3rd Tee.

As the U.S. Open was being contested 500 miles south at San Diego’s Torrey Pines, another municipal seaside links, our hearty Sharp Park volunteer squad – Jason Yip, Grant Ewald, Tom Snow, Teddy and Hector Collins, Pete Shoemaker, Max Stillman, Betty Wong, Lisa Villasenor-Volosing, Helen Duffy, Leslie Davis, Laurie Fox, Matt Regnart, and Richard Harris -- cleared downed branches, limbs, small logs, twigs, and assorted trash and stray golf balls and loaded it all into trucks driven by Rec & Park greenskeepers Craig Stover and Dennis Dias, all under the direction of Rec & Park Supervisor Mike Catanzaro with help from Natural Areas specialist Chris Campbell and Rec-Park Volunteer Coordinator Jennifer Gee.

Matt Regnart, Tom Snow, Mike Catanzaro, Max Stillman, Pete Shoemaker, Lisa Villasenor-Volosing at Hole 1

Leslie Davis, Tom Snow, Jason Yip, Grant Ewald, Pete Shoemaker, Matt Regnart, Betty Wong, Christopher Campbell at Hole 9

This one's full

There’s more debris to clear, more room in the dump, more good times, and we will rinse-and-repeat the operation in August.

Any volunteers? Let us know at: info@sfpublicgolf.org.

 

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Photo Credit - Main Line Today

From Shinnecock to Sharp Park -  A Review of “A Course Called America”  By Tom Coyne

May 25, 2021by - Richard Harris

Review: A Course Called America
By Tom Coyne
Simon and Schuster
Publication date: May 26, 2021

Golfwriter Tom Coyne (“Paper Tiger,” “A Course Called Scotland,” “A Course Called Ireland”) is a one-time suburban Philadelphia high school golfer and caddy who in 2019 took a sabbatical year from his day job as Professor of Creative Writing at St. Joseph’s University to play golf – 300 rounds on 294 courses from Maine to Alaska to Hawaii – and research his new book, “A Course Called America,” set for release May 26, 2021.  

The book is not a coffee table anchor with pretty pictures and architectural detail of famous courses.  Rather it is a travelogue of American golf towns and courses, bits of golf history and sociology, Coyne’s road adventures with caddies and golf pals old and new, stories of famous, near famous, and unknown golf pros, architects, and developers, and the Professor’s reflections on all of it.  With the occasional nod to the wisdom of the ages, such as this one from Lao Tzu:  “’A journey of one thousand golf courses begins with a single hole.”  

Coyne’s golf odyssey begins traditionally enough on the East Coast, with rounds in the company of stockbrokers at Newport (site of the first U.S. Open in 1895) and the A-list of exclusive old-line clubs on Eastern Long Island, where one day he “felt a tug at my heartstrings. . .  that such quality was shared with so few. . . a sensation . . at so many premier courses that hosted less than a dozen rounds a day.”  

Early on he finds an antidote at Shennecossett, a Donald Ross-designed muni in the New York suburb of Groton, CT., where by the magic of social media he assembles a half-dozen young public course golf wonks, leading him to reminisce about learning to play golf from his father, who as a young working-class Irish enlisted man from Scranton PA. had in the early ‘50s acquired the golf habit at a 9-hole Navy base course in San Diego.  

Coyne is an artist and storyteller, who then proceeds from east to west exploring the complex personality of American golf at private and public courses, famous and little-known, in all 50 states and the Navajo Nation (where he plays Rez Golf at Lonesome Pine, a literal dirt track on a bluff outside of Flagstaff, AZ.), winding-up in California and finally Hawaii.

 The Professor showed up at Sharp Park one rainy weekday afternoon in the first week of December 2019 to play with a course historian and architect Jay Blasi, one of the architectural forces (with his fellow-Upper-Midwesterner Tom Doak)  supporting the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance’s Save Sharp Park efforts.  Coyne identifies Sharp Park as “MacKenzie’s only other seaside course after Cypress,” and continues:  

“The map said Sharp Park would be near the ocean, but I didn’t believe a muni would ever be set so close to the waves; it was, and those waves had reclaimed a handful of MacKenzie’s holes. Twelve of his originals remained . . . As a city course, Sharp Park had no equal when it came to location and holding on to those acres had proved an arduous task—an eight-year legal battle saved the grounds from being closed off as habitat for a garter snake and a rare frog, yet another example of conservationists failing to embrace golf ’s protective capacities.

“It was a subject Scotsman David McLay Kidd had stamped into my psyche: Lay out some golf holes and fragile terrain is instantly preserved and protected, because it now has purpose, both commercially and recreationally. Leave those lands to the whims of absent government agencies or to the wishful benevolence of neighbors and dunes quickly became cut-throughs to the beach or spots for bonfires and keggers. Done right, golf development could be a great green shield for protecting those rare spaces, with course superintendents serving as caretakers who were more efficient and knowledgeable than overstretched municipal agencies. Jay Blasi explained that . . . conservationists . . . didn’t understand that a course thrived only when its setting thrived, and that a conscientious golf architect was really offering to do the environmentalists’ work for them.”

The day after Sharp Park, Coyne is at the Olympic Club’s 9-hole Cliffs Course for a 100-hole Youth on Course fundraiser.  Halfway through that marathon he meets Lynda, a 60-something member of Sistas on the Links, an African-American women’s golfing society. Lynda is a golf-loving retired businesswoman and PhD, who a few years before had returned to school at Napa Valley Junior College with three of her girlfriends to support a Little Sista who needed a junior college golf team to pursue her university golf dream. That Napa Valley team went to the State Championship, Lynda made the All-League Team, and the Little Sista went on to play university golf.  

A sampler of other Coyne commentary from his Northern California swing:

Olympic Club’s Lake Course. 

“You know you’ve played a lot of courses when you’re at the home of five US Opens and the primary attraction in your golf-weary mind is a tube of ground beef,”  Coyne says by way of introduction to the halfway house beside the 10th green.  “Back in the 1950’s, Hot Dog Bill’s had decided they could save on buns if their burgers fit into hot dog rolls when they set up shop next to Olympic.  They were soon invited to move their food stand onto the Lake Course, where Brendan and I got the last burgerdogs of the day and discovered they were a savory blend of fat, spices, and fried onions.”  

Cypress Point: 

“ . . . a busy day at Cypress was forty golfers, and with a small membership of mostly nonlocals, the empty fairways and silent clubhouse were a reminder of our good fortune. . .  The holes were challenging but not I’ll-just-drop-one-here hard. . .  When it came to variety of holes and shots, Cypress had no peer, and the fact that it was all so damn beautiful – we went into the day knowing it could never match our expectations.  We were right because our expectations had not been grand enough.” 

Pasatiempo: 

“. . .  it wasn’t cheap at $295, but it felt reasonable for the chance to play MacKenzie’s greatest daily fee course and the one he considered his favorite design, . . .  Pasatiempo gave you your greens-fee’s worth on every shot, from barrancas to ravines to audaciously shaped bunkers by the former camouflage artist . . .  Mackenzie used every idiosyncrasy the land gave him and molded them into golf shots you’d never quite considered before.”

If you want more of Coyne’s insights and stories – including Tom Doak’s amazing reversible 18-fairway/36-hole The Loop at an earstwhile Detroit Mob resort in Upper Michigan, the game-changing influence of Mike Keiser’s Bandon Dunes Resort, a sociological history of America’s exclusive private country club model, to name a few – you can find A Course Called America on Amazon.

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Also, coming soon to bookstore near you, check out Tom Doak's latest Must Have addition to your golf library...

In this book Tom Doak, one of the 21st Century golf’s premier golf architects, tells the story of the design and construction of his most famous course, Pacific Dunes, at Oregon’s Bandon Dunes Resort.  Among other things, Doak is an architect, critic, author, MacKenzie expert, and a consulting architectfor the renovation of Sharp Park.  This new volume, with a mid-June publication date, contains Doak's journal entries, sketches of greens, and memos from his client, Mike Keiser, combined with stunning photography [before and after] to supplement his recollections of how the course was built, and what it's meant in the twenty years since it opened.  At a pre-publication order price of $40, The Making of Pacific Dunes is available from Doak’s Renaissance Golf Publishing.

 

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California Public Golfers... We have a problem.

California Assembly Tees Up “The Most Damaging Golf Legislation In A Generation.” UPDATE II: Undead AB672 Rises From the Grave.

Apr 19, 2021by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Assembly Bill 672 Threatens California Golf – in particular Public Golf. A radical statewide zoning law change to grease the skids for high-density residential development on all municipal and virtually all urban golf courses – both public and private – is the goal of California Assembly Bill 672, authored by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, D - Bell Gardens.  The bill is pending in the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee, chaired by San Francisco Assemblyman David Chiu. [UPDATE I*: 5/1/2021 BELOW] [UPDATE II**: 12/16/2021 - IT''S B-A-A-A-CK]

Among other provisions, AB 672 would impose top-down statewide zoning on municipal courses and all courses in "high density" or "park poor" areas, encouraging high-density residential development, requiring that one-quarter of that residential development be low-income, exempting the zoning change from the California Environmental Quality Act, and exempting development from California's Public Park Preservation Act.  

California Alliance for Golf, including the Northern and Southern California Golf Associations and leading trade groups, filed an Opposition, April 7, 2020, with the Assembly Housing Committee and has been joined by an Opposition filed by San Francisco Public Golf Alliance dated April 15, 2021. 

Southern California Golf Association, the state’s largest and most politically active, calls AB672 “the most damaging piece of golf legislation to be filed in a generation”. 

Of course attacks on golf are nothing new. Various governments, Puritans, and other scolds have been attacking golf for the entire recorded history of our ancient game. Nor is this the first time that the issue of closing West Coast urban golf courses in favor of housing development has been floated.  Seattle’s Mayor in Summer 2019 raised the issue, but it died in the face of that city’s “no net loss of parkland” law. 

In 1457 the Scottish Parliament banned golf because it distracted young men from archery practice and in 1592 Scottish golfers were prosecuted for playing golf on the Sabbath. In more recent times, golf has been unfairly and inaccurately targeted by those with an axe to grind as an elitist "rich man's game".

The truth is that Public Golf offers a healthy, outdoor activity that is patronized by a diverse community of retirees, students, men and women from all economic and social segments in our society. Correcting the false impressions of the game and defending our historic legacy courses in San Francisco is The Mission of our organization.

We need your help defeating this very bad bill. 

No hearing has yet been set in the Assembly Housing Committee for AB 672, which must also clear the Assembly Local Government Committee.  If it clears the State Assembly, AB 672 would next go for consideration to the State Senate, where San Francisco State Senator Scott Wiener chairs the Housing Committee.

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance urgently requests golfers – individuals, groups, and clubs -- to send letters by mail to the Assembly Housing and Local Government committees. 

CLICK HERE to download a form letter that you can adapt, for either individual, group, or club use and please send a copy to San Francisco Public Golf Alliance by e-mail, at: Info@SFPublicGolf.org.

Letters can also be submitted electronically through the California Legislative Portal website - a bit more complicated, but if you need help with this, contact info@sfpublicgolf.org. 

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*UPDATE I 5/1/2021: California Assembly Bill 672 failed to clear the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee by the Legislature’s April 30 deadline for consideration in the 2021 legislative year.

Individual golfers and golf organizations flooded the Housing Committee with opposition letters, including objections from the Northern and Southern California Golf Associations, California Alliance for Golf, San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, San Francisco Mayor’s Women’s Golf Counsel, Mabuhay Golf Club, Century Golf Club of San Francisco, First Tee chapters from Silicon Valley, the North Coast, and Contra Costa County, Youth on Course, and hundreds of individual objections. Thanks to all who responded to our request for opposition letters.

According to Garcia’s office, the Assemblywoman plans to resurrect AB 672 in the 2022 legislative session at the beginning of 2022.  California’s housing crisis is not likely to abate by then. Nor are the professional Scolds or the Fun Police who have hectored golfers since the sport first appeared in Fifteenth Century Scotland. So golfers, Semper Paratus!

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**UPDATE II 12/16/2021: While the earlier version died in committee, California Asembly Bill 672 has, zombie-like, risen from the grave.  Help us put a stake through the heart of this unfair, polarizing legislation!  The latest iterartion of the radical anti-golf measure AB 672 puts a $50 Million bounty of public funds on California’s municipal golf courses to entice cities to replace golf with high-density housing. Help us save the only available venues for millions of students, retirees, and socially and ethnically diverse men and women of all ages, incomes, and abilities who play the muni courses. 

 

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Holiday Fundraising Appeal: Thanks, Giving, Muni Golf, and Sharp Park in Interesting Times

Nov 22, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

First we give Thanks. For golf – a port in the storm of 2020 – inherently socially-distanced recreation in nature.  In a time when we can’t safely go to restaurants, bars, movies, church, or gather with family for a holiday feast, we can safely play golf. With our friends – at a distance, of course. And the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance thanks you – our members – for your financial and moral support and activism over our 10-year fight for public golf in San Francisco and to preserve Alister MacKenzie’s public golf shrine at Sharp Park.

Which brings us to Giving. Our main annual fundraiser, the Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park, was canceled this year due to the Coronavirus.  Because our fights for public golf and to preserve Sharp Park require money, we are announcing our first-ever year-end fundraising campaign. Our Board and a few generous supporters have agreed to match the first $20 thousand in donations.  Please step up again for the Cause, and Donate.

This is important work.  Sharp Park is at the very top of the national golf press lists* of munis most worth saving. The Pandemic is putting great strain on local government funding.  Because of its inherent social distancing, golf is a rare public resource for safe socializing and healthy outdoor recreation.  We are helping to fill the gap.

Hole Naming Project

In 2019, the non-profit, 501.c.3, all volunteer, unpaid, San Francisco Public Golf Alliance instituted a hole-name and sign project at Sharp. We donated new attractive trash cans, and worked with Rec and Park maintenance on tree-trimming to open key historic vistas.

Cleared view from the practice green

Using a 1931 construction map, architects Tom Doak and Jay Blasi advised the Rec & Park maintenance crew in restoring the size and shape of MacKenzie’s original 10th and 18th greens.  

Tom Doak and Jay Blasi, reviewing original 1931 construction blueprint of 10th &18th greens to restore Opening Day contours 

For 2020 we have designed a historic photographic display for the Clubhouse entryway walls – to be installed next year when the Clubhouse reopens (stay tuned!). We also spearheaded a successful 6-week Fall campaign to limit ground squirrel damage at the 12th, 13th, 16th, and 17th holes. 

17th Tee and 16th green and fairway newly cleared of ground squirrels and their damage

We have retained a leading hydrology consultant to develop a drainage plan. 

Sea wall maintenance and beach access stairways and storyboard, work completed Fall, 2020

And our good friends at Hart-Howerton donated their world-class design services on the soon-to-open Sharp Park sea wall Coastal Trail improvement and beach access project.  

There is much more of this work to do in 2021 and coming years.  And we invite your tax-deductible support by online Donation, or by check payable to SF Public Golf Alliance, addressed to:

Very Best Holiday Wishes.  
San Francisco Public Golf Alliance
1370 Masonic Ave.
San Francisco, CA. 94117

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*The National Golf Press Continues to clamor for Sharp Park restoration:

• Golf Digest, Nov. 5, 2020 - "Nine Muni Courses that Deserve a Facelift"
• Golf Magazine, Aug. 5, 2020 - “14 best muni golf courses you can play in the US”
• Golf Advisor, May 14, 2019 - "10 Municipal Golf Courses Worth Saving"
• Golf Architecture Magazine, April, 2019 - “The Future of Muni Golf“
• Golfworld, Mar. 18, 2017:  "The fight over Sharp Park isn't about saving one course, but muny golf overall"

 

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Lto R: Arnold Palmer, Bob Hope, Grant Spaeth

Remembering Grant Spaeth, a Great Golf Soul, on All-Souls Day

Oct 29, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

November 2 - All Souls Day – is a fitting time to remember one of Golf’s Great Souls:  Grant Spaeth, a San Francisco Public Golf Alliance charter member and former USGA President, who died July 28, 2020 at his home in Los Altos.  He was 88 years old.

Grant was golf royalty, with a common touch.  The son of a Stanford law professor, Grant was a 1953 national championship golfer at Stanford, a Harvard-educated lawyer, founding partner of a major Silicon Valley law firm, Palo Alto Mayor, U.S. Under Secretary of Education in the 1970’s, General Counsel and President of the US Golf Association in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club at St. Andrews and San Francisco Golf Club.  He was also a member at Palo Alto Muni and a mover in the 2018 rebuild of that course, now called Baylands.  In 2000, he was a key player in saving the Stanford Golf Course from a university housing development.  And he was member from the early days of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and strong supporter of its battles to save Alister MacKenzie’s Sharp Park.  

During his years in the national leadership councils of the U.S. Golf Association, Grant  championed the formation of the U.S. Men’s and Women’s Mid-Amateur Championships – extending the reach of national championship golf beyond the proto-professionals of collegiate golf.  He was an expert on the Rules of Golf, and many stories are told of Grant encouraging men and women to become rules officials.  “I want more people exposed to the game of golf,” he said.  “Those who do it will be lucky and should be thankful.”

Grant had the great politician’s interest in individual lives, and an easy, natural manner of making personal connections.  The stories are legion of Grant taking an interest, giving advice, and encouraging people at all stages and levels of life. 

Grant Spaeth shares a story about Tiger Woods at the 1995 World Cup  

His was a life well and fully lived.   He made the world a better place and golf a better game.
 

PRESS

Golf Digest, July 29, 2020 - "Grant Spaeth, former USGA president and visionary, dies":

"Spaeth, who played for Stanford’s national championship team in 1953, served the USGA in several capacities before his elevation to its presidency in 1990-’91. He had a role in creating the U.S. Mid-Amateur and U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, recognizing that those 25 and older represented the heart of amateur golf. Spaeth’s biography was blue blood through and through, yet he often was said to have had a common touch and “humanized the USGA,” his friend and long-time starter at the U.S. Open, Ron Read, noted in a Tweet."

USGA, July 29, 2020 - "Remembering C. Grant Spaeth: USGA President in 1990-91":

"During his USGA presidency, Spaeth confronted the issue of segregation at golf clubs stemming from Shoal Creek hosting the 1990 PGA Championship. This led to a significant policy change barring USGA championships from clubs with exclusionary practices. Just prior to Spaeth’s election as president, the USGA settled a lawsuit with Ping over the size and shape of golf-club grooves."

SF Chronicle, July 29, 2020 -  "Grant Spaeth, former USGA president and NCAA champ at Stanford, dies at 88":

“We lost a titan of the game,” Stanford coach Conrad Ray posted on Twitter. Spaeth sought to expand the game during his time with the USGA, which culminated in two years (1990-91) as the organization’s president. He helped create the U.S. Mid-Amateur and U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur, annual national championships for amateur players age 25 and older."

Golf Club Atlas interview with Brian Murphy -  May 2008: 

GC ATLAS: Do you think the USGA should be more involved in renovation of municipal or public golf courses?

SPAETH: "Certainly its [USGA] focus on public courses for many of its Championships gives it the occasion to work with owners and superintendents to improve playing conditions. I am told that after the USGA leave the the quality of play is ineviaby improved. Although it is not in the remodel business, through its green section consultations, it can be enormously helpful."

Grant Spaeth at Lincoln Park, 2005, with San Francisco Boys Junior Golf Champion Spencer Fletcher (R) and runner-up Travis Peterson.

 

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HAPPY 150th Birthday Dr. Alister MacKenzie -  Born Aug. 30, 1870

Aug 30, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Alister MacKenzie was born to Scottish parents on August 30, 1870 in Normanton, Yorkshire, east of Manchester in Northern England.  His world-famous courses, biography and standing in the World Golf’s Hall of Fame are well-known.  Especially so in the Bay Area and Northern California, where he spent an ultra-productive final eight years of his illustrious career, designing and renovating outstanding courses including Cypress Point, Pasatiempo, Meadow Club, Green Hills, Claremont, Cal Club, Northwoods, and the public Haggin Oaks and his only seaside public links Sharp Park.  While living in Northern California, MacKenzie traveled the world, designing courses in Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Uruguay, Ireland, England, Scotland, and university courses at Michigan and Ohio State in the American Midwest.  His final course, designed in 1932-1933 with Bobby Jones, was Augusta National, home of the Masters Tournament.  His Royal Melbourne is regarded as the world’s greatest course in the Southern Hemisphere.  

In addition to his brilliant artistry, MacKenzie is a seminal figure in golf history because his architecture connects modern golfers with the Scottish roots of their game and with the builders of the sport’s greatest playing fields.  MacKenzie’s architectural tutor was H.S. Colt, the leading English architect of the early 20th Century, with whom MacKenzie in 1913 built the Eden Course at St. Andrews.  In 1914, MacKenzie won an architecture contest to design a hole for the new Lido Course on Long Island, then being built by Charles Blair Macdonald, the acknowledged father of Golf in America.  In 1924, while serving as consulting architect at St. Andrews, MacKenzie surveyed and mapped the Old Course – generally regarded at the birthplace of golf.  MacKenzie regarded the Old Course at St Andrews as the essential golf course, and from his intimate knowledge of St. Andrews MacKenzie developed 13 General Principles of design which he proclaimed in two books:  Golf Architecture (1920), and The Spirit of St. Andrews (1933, but published posthumously in 1995).

Several of MacKenzie’s General Principles are much in evidence at Sharp Park, including: “The course should have beautiful surroundings, and all the artificial features should have so natural an appearance that a stranger is unable to distinguish them from nature itself.”  When in 1930 he announced his contract to build Sharp Park for San Francisco, MacKenzie promised a course “as sporty as the old course at St. Andrews and as picturesque a golf course as any in the world.”  

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance’s Honorary Chairman Ken Venturi called Sharp Park “Dr. MacKenzie’s great gift to the American public golfer.” 

Happy Birthday, Dr. MacKenzie! 

And thanks for your great gifts to golf.

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Resources:

The Alister MacKenzie Institute, a project of Josh Pettit, a Marin County golf architect and MacKenziephile, has published a new book marking the Good Doctor's 150th birthday, "The MacKenzie Reader: Writings on Golf Architecture and More by Dr. Alister MacKenzie."  The 5.5"x8.5" book is available online. Pettit describes his book as  "A compendium of Dr. MacKenzie's lost writings accompanied by photographs and routing maps [including] 29 articles and essays written by MacKenzie, originally published in disparate publications between 1915 and 1935, as well as ten foldout page routing diagrams, and eleven additional essays by noted MacKenzie experts from around the world."

Alister MacKenzie Society: The Dr. Alister MacKenzie Chronology (2018)

Tom Doak: The Life and Work of Dr. Alister MacKenzie (2001)

Geoff Shackelford: The Golden Age of Golf Architecture and Alister MacKenzie’s Cypress Point Club

Loon Hill Studio: Dr. Alister MacKenzie in 65 Photos (e-book)

Golf Club Atlas: MacKenzie’s Sharp Park Under Siege (2009)

Richard Harris: Sharp Park Golf Course - A Jewel in Pacifica (2018)

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance: Alister MacKenzie's Legacy of Public Golf at Sharp Park

 

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Venturi winning the 1964 U.S. Open

Ken Venturi - San Francisco Favorite Son, Hall of Fame Champion and Defender of The City’s Public Links

Aug 16, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Ken Venturi (1931-2013) left his heart on San Francisco’s public golf courses, where he grew up and learned to play at Harding Park, attended nearby Lincoln High, and won City prep golf championships in 1948 and 1949 before college at San Jose State.  He won the San Francisco City Championship at Harding in 1950 (he was 19), then again in 1953 and 1956 (separated by a couple of years in Korea and Germany with the US Army). He could win tournaments at other golf courses, too – the 1951 and 1956 California State Amateurs at Pebble Beach, and the United States Open in 1964 at Congressional Country Club in suburban Washington D.C.  He won 14 PGA professional tournaments, the last one coming in 1966 in the old Lucky International -- at Harding Park.  In 2013 he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

After carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists ended his tournament playing career, Venturi in 1968 began a 35-year career as CBS TV golf broadcaster, ending in 2002.  He returned to Harding Park and the San Francisco public golf scene in October 2009 as the President’s Cup was being played at Harding.  As Honorary Chairman of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, he circulated a stirring public letter praising Harding, but warning that “The glorious restoration of Harding must not be at the expense of Sharp or Lincoln,” and exhorting San Francisco and its golfers to defend the City’s golf heritage and its public courses. “Defend them with your time, your money and your passion,” he urged. “Without the public courses, golf becomes inaccessible.  The game shrivels and dies.”

That’s the quick summary.  Now for the stories:    

Ken’s parents Fred and Ethyl ran the Harding pro shop for years. His most famous San Francisco City Championship win came in 1956 when he beat 1955-1956 U.S. Amateur Golf Champion Harvey Ward in the finals in front of a gallery of 10,000. Ward and Venturi were good friends, and both were salesmen for San Francisco car dealer Eddie Lowery.  

Venturi (R), being congratulated by Ward (L), 1956, photo courtesy of Bo Links

And there’s a further story in that:

Lowery came to San Francisco from Boston, where he had been the 10-year-old caddy in the 1913 US Open for Francis Ouimet, who famously beat British champions Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, to become the first American to win the US Open championship. A story memorialized in the book by Mark Frost and the movie starring Shia LaBeouf.

Eddie Lowery again figured prominently in Venturi's story when the San Francisco car dealer "told his friend and fellow millionaire, George Coleman, that the two young amateurs, his employees, could beat anybody." The two of them partnered in a legendary private best-ball match in January 1956 at Cypress Point against Ben Hogan and Hogan’s Texas childhood golf adversary Byron Nelson, immortalized by author Mark Frost in “The Match:  The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever”. 

A month later in April, 1956, Venturi played as an amateur in the Masters Tournament at Augusta, led the professionals after each of the first three rounds, then shot 38-42=80 to lose a 4-shot lead and finish second in the tournament to Jackie Burke.   

But Venturi flipped the script of his Masters collapse at the 1964 U.S. Open, at Congressional Country Club.  Trailing after the third round, and suffering heat exhaustion, Venturi continued to play accompanied by a medical doctor (the third and fourth rounds were played in those days in a single 36-hole day).  He shot the tournament’s low rounds in both of the final rounds, and won the 1964 Open by four strokes, exclaiming when his final putt dropped on the 72nd green: “My God, I’ve won the Open”.  

Venturi’s distinguished 35-year golf broadcast career as CBS TV ended in 2002.  Those watching the 2020 PGA Championship on CBS TV this year heard much about Venturi’s talent and grit, and how golf helped him overcome a stammering speech defect, from his longtime CBS broadcast partner Jim Nantz. 

Which brings us to the Epilogue:

In the twilight of his life, Venturi brought his grit and determination to the fight for public golf. As Honorary Chairman of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance he penned an October 2009 letter urging golfers to defend San Francisco public golf and golf courses. For Venturi, golf had been his identity, his salvation, and his cause. Through golf, he had overcome personal handicap, and in competition he had overcome not only his competitors but also his own failings.  So he wanted to preserve for the common people of San Francisco (of which he was one) both the game and the beautiful shrines where the game is played.  And he was dismayed at the disrepair and political jeopardy of both Lincoln and Sharp Park.        

Just a few months before he died on May 17, 2013 Ken Venturi dropped-by unannounced on a Thursday afternoon at Sharp Park, and shared some cheer and a few stories with a group of regulars in from their round. It was his final visit to the golf shrine that he called “Dr. MacKenzie’s great gift to the American public golfer.”

Photo (L to R):  Louis Kwok, Wing Lai, Ken Venturi, Donald Chinn, Frank Low, Richard Harris

“Sharp is an unpretentious place, where golfers enjoy a scenic walk in the salt air, then a sandwich and a beer in an old-fashioned pub.  In these ways, Sharp connects golfers to the Scottish public course roots of the game.”  - Ken Venturi

 

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A Reader’s Companion to the PGA Championship at San Francisco Munis

Aug 5, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Watching a major played at San Francisco's municipal jewel is exciting for the entire Bay Area and in particular our local public golfers. It's a disappointment that we can't be in the gallery for this historic event, but that makes the national press attention on our local track and golfing history even more compelling. For your reading (and viewing) enjoyment, a  compendium of links and articles to the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park.

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Jaime Diaz of The Golf Channel kicks us off with a nostalgic look back at what it was like to grow up a NorCal kid during the heyday of amateur golf and muni courses in The City.

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Tiger on 18th tee at 2005 Amex Championship (Photo Credit: Lance Iversen / SFC)

“Return to Glory” by golf historian and San Francisco Public Golf Alliance co-founder Bo Links on the 2004 renovation of Harding Park and an exciting blow-by-blow account of the unforgettable 2005 American Express Championship at Harding Park:

"Woods hit first and he crushed another perfect drive. He was out there another 346 yards, almost on top of where he’d hit it in regulation. Daly took no time to answer Tiger’s blast. He put his peg in the ground and hauled off with his driver. He hit an even better shot, if that were even possible. It measured out at 357 yards and this one, unlike his poke in regulation, found the fairway. It would now be battling wedges for all the cash."

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Local golfer Jason Scott Deegan writing in The Golf Advisor offers his reviews of the top 10 affordable public courses in the bay area in  "A local's guide to the top golf courses in advance of the 2020 PGA Championship." ranking San Francisco munis Sharp Park at number 10 and TPC Harding Park at number 1:

"I want to play with my buds on a decent course that doesn't dent the wallet. That's hard to do in the San Francisco Bay Area... The last six years I've explored the region for the best combination of affordability against the quality of the course. With the 2020 PGA Championship coming to the TPC Harding Park, I'm diving deep into the Bay Area golf scene to identify its best public courses."

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2009 USA Presidents Cup Team with honorary captain Michael Jordan (Photo Credit: AP)

“More than a Game” Another Bo Links offering, on the playing of the 2009 Presidents Cup tournament at Harding Park featuring the extraordinary pairing of Steve Stricker and Tiger Woods to lead the U.S. team to victory.

"Fred Couples and Greg Norman, flanked by Jay Haas and Frank Nobilo, led the two teams. One could not have asked for an ounce more style and dignity. The captains displayed for the world what golf is all about... Harding Park, too, came out a winner. Once again, the little muni that could proved itself a fabulous test of golf, even if the holes were scrambled like eggs to accommodate the unpredictability of match play. Perhaps that's the best evidence of all that Harding Park is one of the greatest courses anywhere, public or private. The demonstrable fact is, you can play it backwards and the course still produces incredibly exciting golf. Harding Park has an inherent capacity to demand and reward great shotmaking. It is a layout that enables great players to separate themselves from the crowd."

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Crowding a Harding Park green at the 1953 SF City Championship won by Ken Venturi

One cannot review the storied history of San Francisco golf at Harding Park without talking about The City tournament. Sean Martin does a deep dive at PGATour.com with "TPC Harding Park has deep roots with San Francisco City Championship":

"San Francisco’s municipal gem is home to an important championship on an annual basis, and while the San Francisco City Championship isn’t considered one of golf’s Grand Slam events, it is one of the game’s most unique.The tournament affectionally referred to by locals as simply “The City” has been held every year since 1916. Its endurance through the World Wars allows it to claim the title of golf’s oldest consecutively-played championship. Its former competitors range from World Golf Hall of Famers to taxi drivers, NFL quarterbacks to airport baggage handlers. The doctors and lawyers who are members at the Bay Area’s prestigious clubs play alongside bartenders. It’s not unusual to see a player turn to alcohol to steady his nerves or to witness a former U.S. Golf Association president carry his own clubs through a downpour."

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Harding Park Awaits (Photo Credit: Brad Knipstein Golf)

Also don't miss the PGA Championship saga of Big John Daly, and Big Willie Goggin related by Ron Kroichick at the San Francisco Chronicle and on our own post last week. 

Pandemic or not, galleries or not, we can't wait to enjoy the latest chapter in the storied history of San Francisco Municipal Golf watching the PGA Championship at Harding Park August 6-9. 

 

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The PGA Championship and San Francisco’s Munis - Then and Now

Jul 26, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

It was Sunday, August 13, 1933 in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, and 5,000 spectators gathered at the Blue Mound Country Club to gallery the 36-hole final match of the Professional Golfers’ Association Championship. The finalists were the 10-year PGA veteran Gene Sarazen and a newcomer, Willie Goggin.

Then, as now, golf’s show was going on amid deep national troubles. In August 2020, the Coronavirus Pandemic will keep live spectators out of the 2020 PGA Championship.  In August 1933, the PGA Championship was played in the fourth year of the Great Depression.  Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in his eighth month as President, and the New York Times headlines included high unemployment, trade wars, fascism on the rise in Germany, and a Cuban crisis.

Blue Mound Clubhouse circa 1930's

Blue Mound then was a “short but tricky” 6,270-yard, par-70 course built on Wisconsin farmland in 1926 by Seth Raynor. The tees and greens that week were well-kept. The unwatered fairways were brown, hard, and rolling.

Sarazen, 31 years old, 5’6” tall, and “oozing all over with typical Sarazen confidence,” was the well-established favorite: winner of the PGA Championship in 1922 and 1923, the US Open in 1922 and both the US Open and the British Open in 1932.

Goggin, at 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, was identified in week's New York Times account as a “brawny shotmaker from Salada Beach, Cal.,” and “on leave of absence from a municipal course ten miles from San Francisco.”  In fact, the 27-year-old Goggin was in his second year as golf pro at Sharp Park, the Alister MacKenzie-designed, San Francisco-owned seaside public links that opened in April 1932 on the city’s southern coastal outskirts. (At the time, it was an unincorporated area known as Salada Beach; today it is the suburban town of Pacifica.)

Sharp Park Clubhouse circa 1930's

The PGA Championship in those days was an endurance contest: 36 holes of medal qualifying on Tuesday cut the field to 32 players, who then played 36-hole single-elimination matches each day Wednesday through Saturday to reach Sunday’s 36-hole final match. Goggin shot 5-over-par 145 in the qualifying round (146 qualified), and then was: (Rd. 1) 5 under par over 33 holes to beat 1928 and 1929 PGA Champ Leo Diegel 4-and-3; (Rd. 2) 5 under par for 27 holes to beat 1929 US Open runner-up Al Espinoza 9-and-7; (Rd. 3) even par for 31 holes for a 6-5 win over Paul Runyan, who later won the PGA Championship in 1934 and 1938; (Rd. 4) even par for 36 holes for a 1-up semi-finals victory over fellow-newcomer Jimmy Hines, an assistant at Long Island’s Timber Point Club. Throughout the week’s matches as reported by the New York Times - Goggin “has been flirting with rough and traps all week only to break par into shreds with spectacular recoveries.” Gene Sarazen cruised through the week, qualifying at even-par 140, and winning his matches by comfortable margins.

In Sunday’s final round, Sarazen – as he had all week – used only seven clubs, his favorite being his low-lofted iron “jigger”. He shot one-under-par 69 in the morning round to take a 1-up lead over Goggin, who hung-in with 70. In the afternoon round, Sarazen birdied three of the opening four holes, held a 3-up lead after 9, and closed-out the match on the 32nd hole, for a 5-4 championship win and a $1,000 winner’s check. Over Sunday’s 32 holes, Sarazen had 51 putts. By the end of the day Sunday, Willie Goggin, the “clouter” from Salada Beach, had played 195 holes of championship golf over six days in three under par. The San Mateo Times coverage of the final match reflected the regional pride in their local hero: 

"The astonishing quest of Wille Goggin, moustachioed Sharp's Park professional, for the National P.G.A. golf chanpionship ended yeterday in the finals before the blazing sub-par golf of Gene Sarazen, who won the title for the third time in his career, beating Goggin 5 and 4... Goggin's was the most remarkable performance by a Northern California professional in recent years. An almost unbelieving Peninsula golfing world heard of his brilliant victories last week, and waited breathlessly for yesterday's results... Though beaten, Goggin's performance was one which marked him as one of the greatest competitive professional golfers in the country."

Willie Goggin stayed in golf, moved to the East coast, and in the 1940's and 1950’s held prestigious New York suburban club pro jobs at the Century Country Club in Westchester County, designed by Charles H. Allison (a one-time partner of MacKenzie and his mentor, HS Colt), and at Upper Montclair Country Club in New Jersey, designed by A.W. Tillinghast.  In 1959 Goggin won the PGA Senior Championship at the age of 53 at Dunedin, a Donald Ross-designed course near Tampa, FL. Turns out the big guy was not only a big hitter, but a connoisseur of Hall of Fame golf architects.

For his part, Sarazen two years later won the 1935 Masters Tournament at Alister MacKenzie’s Augusta National Golf Club, on his way to Golf’s Hall of Fame. Sarazen, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tiger Woods are the only men to win all of Golf’s Major Championships.

And then there’s Blue Mound Country Club and golf in troubled times. The club went bankrupt in 1935 but was bought out of receivership and reincarnated as Blue Mound Golf and Country Club. Blue Mound was originally scheduled to host the PGA’s Junior Ryder Cup Tournament in September 2020. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, that event has been rescheduled for 2021.

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance
Info@SFPublicGolf.org

 

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Golf In The Time Of Coronavirus:  Golfers flock to SF public links

Jul 21, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Golfers returned in force to San Francisco’s public golf links in May and June, following the COVID-19 golf lockouts in March and April. Golf data gathered from course operators and the San Francisco Rec & Park Department show that total 2020 May-June rounds were up over 2019 by 114% at Sharp Park, 30% at Lincoln Park, and 60% at Gleneagles – despite the fact that golf in May was limited to 2-somes, and despite severe golf cart shortages at both Sharp and Lincoln.

Course	May	June	2 Month Total
Sharp Park 2019	1,586	2,449	4,035
Sharp Park 2020	3,537	5,079	8,8616
Sharp Park % Increase	123%	103%	114%
Lincoln Park 2019	2,157	2,847	5,004
Lincoln Park 2020	2,388	4,020	6,403
Lincoln Park % Increase	11%	41%	30%
Gleneagles 2019	713	816	1,529
Gleneagles 2020	1,150	1,286	2,436
Gleneagles % Increase	61%	58%	59%

 

These increases offset reduced play at Harding, Fleming, and the Golden Gate Park 9, due to various factors. (Preparation of the Harding and Fleming courses for the PGA Championship, originally scheduled for May and then rescheduled for the first week of August, resulted in Fleming being closed since February, and a 30% reduction in play at Harding in May. Rounds returned to same-as 2019 levels at Harding in June; but as of mid-July, Harding will be closed through the PGA Championship in first week of August, for more tournament preparation.)

 
Lincoln Park course manager Lance Wong in his 'dress mask' - "No Mask No Service"

Commenting on the increased play, course manager Lance Wong at Lincoln pointed to the combined effects of a dry winter and new Covid-19 work-from-home employment options.

“Because of the dry winter, our fairways have been playable all Spring. And since the courses reopened in May, we’re seeing strong play from early morning through the evening hours, from a lot of new players,” Lance says. “They can get out for a walk with their friends, keep a safe social distance, and enjoy the game. The restaurants and the theaters and bars are closed, and there’s no sports to speak of on TV, so a lot of people are finding the golf courses are a great option.”

Wong wisely combined bar and starter window 

Putting the San Francisco figures in context, the play figures from Crystal Springs in Burlingame and Metropolitan in Oakland show strongly increased play at both courses: At Crystal Springs, golf rounds for combined May and June were up 29% over 2019, while at Metropolitan the increase was 45% for the same period. Combined play for May-June at Presidio was about the same as in 2019. Data from Sagacity, a Phoenix golf data service, shows that combined play at 24 Bay Area public courses for the months of May and June, 2020 – following reopening from the COVID-19 lockdown – was up 14% in May and 17% in June over the 2017-2019 averages for these months.

Busy Presidio driving range - masks required getting to / from open spots - optional while hitting

These are not apples-to-apples comparisons, as the COVID-19 restrictions on golf may vary from county-to-county, on issues such as use of golf carts, and size of groups. (In San Francisco, play was limited on all courses in May to twosomes and 10-minute intervals except for the 3-par Golden Gate Park 9, where the tee interval is 15 minutes.)

Lincoln Park 4th Hole - It's easy to safely maintain social distancing on a golf course

But the bottom-line is this. Because of its inherent social distancing and the controlled access to a single starting point (the first tee), the public golf courses have proven to be a popular and safe recreational option. And the golfers – old and new – are responding by turning-out for their "good walk spoiled".

 

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Small Businesses That Support Public Golf And Gleneagles’ “Go Fund Me” Campaign. [UPDATED]

Apr 21, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

“The Speakeasy of Golf Courses”

Quirky, beautiful, difficult, hard-to-find, with “the City’s fastest muni greens,”and one of the country’s great golf bars, the legendary Gleneagles 9-hole golf course in McLaren Park, near the Cow Palace, is in trouble and needs help.

This Spring, the 1-2 punch of the COVID-19 pandemic combined with high City water bills and maintenance costs that did not go away when the City ordered golfers to keep away, has the City’s lessee Tom Hsieh with his back against the wall. So he is conducting a fundraising campaign on “Go Fund Me”, where Tom explains his plight in a heartfelt letter – which we urge you to read in full [*UPDATE: Go Fund Me Campaign is closed. See update at bottom of post] . An excerpt:

"It appears that without financial assistance, I will not be able to continue operating Gleneagles nor will I be able to maintain it, even minimally in the coming weeks or months. So if you have a soft spot for public golf like no other,  and hope to one day play another round at a community based golf course,  please help. I know there are many more urgent causes out there and I urge you to support them first.  If you have any more capacity then please point it towards Gleneagles.

The funds will be used to keep a small crew working on the grounds, watering the property properly through May and helping us meet other fixed financial obligations.  I cannot guarantee that even with your support we will make it to the end but it will give us a fighting chance.Your support will mean a great deal to me and the hundreds, if not thousands of people who think a place like Gleneagles is worth preserving."

Count the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, with our Mission to "Nurture and defend affordable, eco-friendly public golf in San Francisco for future generations", among those who strongly believe that Gleneagles is worth preserving and committed to ensuring it survives. 

Located in McLaren Park in the San Francisco’s southeastern corner near the Cow Palace, Gleneagles has a colorful history that includes early-1960’s Mayor George Christopher, Lee Trevino, course architect Jack Fleming (who was a construction assistant to Alister MacKenzie at Sharp Park, Cypress Point, and Pasatiempo), Tom Hsieh himself, and Eric DeLambert, a hotel maitre d’ who in the 1980’s saved the course – then called McLaren Park – from closure. These stories are told in the following collection of articles from... 

Golf Magazine - "Coronavirus closure leaves this gritty, beloved golf course’s future in doubt":

"With that sudden act of irrationality, Hsieh embraced a life of unpredictability, of lean balance sheets and Byzantine leases, of withering droughts and economic downturns, of rising water bills and dwindling revenues—a business that rarely makes financial sense but which, after 16 years, Hsieh, who is 54, can’t think of anything he’d want to trade it for. “I’ve always tried follow my heart in what I do,” he says. “And my heart is in this place, 100 percent.”

New York Times - "This Gleneagles is a Scruffy Cousin":

“I care a lot about making sure this golf course is here for another generation of golfers,” Hsieh said.“By hook or by crook, we’re going to bootstrap this golf course forward. It’s always been that way.”

The Fried Egg - "Gleneagles Needs Your Help"

"Known for its difficulty, a group of sneaky-good regulars, and a low-key, blue-collar vibe, Gleneagles is decidedly old-school San Francisco. The clubhouse is a step back in time, with dusty old décor, warm lighting, and the type of soft jazz coming through the speakers that only veteran SF cabbies seem to love. You won’t be able to find the latest TaylorMades in the pro shop—because there is no pro shop. But you can help yourself to most any Highland single malt at the bar, which overlooks the course and the San Francisco Bay and is a contender for the best hangout spot in all of golf."

SFPGA - "Visitacion Valley Community to Benefit from New Job-Training Academy at Gleneagles"

"San Francisco's public, nine hole Gleneagles Golf Course is the new site of an innovative Laborers Union pre-apprentice job-training academy, which will provide entry-level job-training for at-risk San Francisco youth, while at the same time providing some TLC and improved playing conditions for the golf course."

Gleneagles 9th Green  - Photo Credit; Brad Knipstein Golf

For more information about the course, see the Gleneagles website where you'll find former Managing San Francisco Chronicle Editor Steve Proctor wax eloquently on the course history:

"The rugged little course continued to hold a special place in the hearts of golfing cognoscenti... Author Anthony Pioppi included a chapter on Gleneagles in his book, “To the Nines,” placing it in a pantheon of 9-hole gems alongside Donald Ross’ Rolling Rock Club, Alister MaKenzie’s Northwood and The Dunes Club in Michigan, which Mike Keiser built before taking on the project that would become his legacy, the Bandon Dunes resort in Oregon. Fittingly, Pioppi headlined his chapter, “Wanted: True Golfers.”

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The coronavirus lockdown disproportionately impacts small business entrepreneurs like Tom Hsieh at Gleneagles, Jason Yip at State Apparel and Brad Knipstein at Knipstein Photography that are an important part of our Bay Area public golf community. They've been there for us in the struggle to save and restore Sharp Park. Now is the time for the golfing community to support them.  

Jason Yip provides us retail space and on-line fulfillment of #SaveSharpPark swag at his San Francisco State Apparel store at no profit to himself. Check out his unique, functional, stylish golf apparel to support him during this retail apocalypse.

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Sharp Park  17th Green  - Photo Credit; Brad Knipstein Golf

Brad Knipstein is a an extraordinary photographer and graphic designer. If you follow the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance you've enjoyed his work on this web page and in our book Alister MacKenzies's Legacy of Public Golf at Sharp Park. He collaborated on the beautiful illustration of the original Sharp Park routing, manages our popular Instagram account and provides his work gratis to the SFPGA. Sometimes we give him credit, sometimes we forget. During the lockdown, things have slowed down. 

If you are among the fortunate few who are not financially impacted by COVID-19, please consider contributing to Tom’s fundraising campaign on “Go Fund Me”, do some on-line shopping at State Apparel and if you need some quality photographic work - golf related or not - give Brad a call. Thank you!

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*UPDATE May 15, 2020

San Francisco public golfers stepped up and, thanks to their support, Gleneagles made it through the lockdown. Over $35,000 was raised, and a grateful Tom Hseih posted this note after closing the succesful Go Fund Me effort:

"We are closing the Go Fund Me Page. We want to all express our deep appreciation for the over 300 donors who gave generously in our time of need, especially when there were so many others in more need. The community response to Gleneagles has been amazing and we are booking tee times (twosomes only for now) and the golf course is beginning to feel like a golf course again.

Please listen to this broadcast on May 12th on the BUTCHER SHOP radio show 95.7 THE GAME.

Stay healthy and if you would like to book a tee time, please let us know at gleneaglesinsf@gmail.com

Thank you!

Tom Hsieh and the Gleneagles Team

 

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CANCELLED - 9th Annual Alister MacKenzie Heritage Tournament to Preserve Sharp Park

Mar 23, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

The San Francisco Public Golf Alliance is postponing the 9th annual Alister MacKenzie Heritage Tournament to Preserve Sharp Park. This benefit tournament is our primary event to raise awareness and fund our mission to nurture and defend eco-friendly public golf in San Francisco and, in particular, our historic municipal gem - Alister MacKenzie's Sharp Park. 

The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department issued an alert closing all the city municipal golf courses when Mayor London Breed directed residents to Shelter in Place from March 17 through April 7. 

The LPGA Mediheal Tournament at Lake Merced scheduled in April has also been postponed as has the PGA Championship at Harding Park scheduled for May. 

Traditionally we've held the "Save Sharp Park" event at the end of May or beginning of June. With an abundance of caution during the COVID-19 "Shelter in Place Order", we are postponing and tentatively planning to reschedule the event later this summer, hopefully around the 150th Anniversary of Alister MacKenzie's birth on August 30, 1870. 

Obviously, this is subject to change pending how events unfold.

 Some other relevant links that may be of interest to Bay Area golfers during this difficult time:

SF Rec & Park 3/21 - "COVID-19 Update- Getting Outside in our Parks":

"Healthy people under age 60 can continue to spend time outdoors while complying with the social distancing recommendations of staying at least 6 feet apart from one another. It is OK to go outside to walk your dog, go for a walk, run, ride a bike, and hike alone or with someone in your household. If you'd like to take your children outside, please take them to trails and open parks, not to playgrounds, to help maintain social distance."

Golfworld - "Can you play golf amid coronavirus concerns? With proper precautions, yes":

"According to Dr. Catherine Troisi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, golf as it’s normally played—outdoors, with natural social-distancing built in—“would be fairly safe.” Let’s take you through some of the guidelines that golfers should remember, and take comfort in, as they think about the game as a possible escape from the current headlines."

USGA  - "COVID-19 Rules and Handicapping FAQs":

"The guidance below supplements a memo released by the USGA as to how the Rules of Golf and Rules of Handicapping apply in response to questions received from golf course owners, administrators, tournament organizers and golfers... As was noted in that memo, it is not the intended purpose of the below guidance to either encourage or discourage anyone from playing the game, but rather, in our governance role, to help golf course operators, committees and golfers better understand how the Rules of Golf and Rules of Handicapping apply to the various questions we have received."

Marin Independent Journal - "San Rafael golfers booted from course in virus crackdown":

"About 100 golfers at Peacock Gap Golf Course in San Rafael were told by police to pack up their clubs and go home on Thursday. The golf course was shut down for violating the “shelter in place” order that was issued throughout the region to control the spread of the coronavirus, San Rafael police Lt. Dan Fink said. The order mandates that non-essential businesses close until April 7, but the golf course had been operating all week — giving people a place to escape seclusion and enjoy the outdoors."

Some private courses are open for member play with appropriate safety procedures and precautions. This offers hope that public golf in San Francisco will also resume with appropriate safety considerations as the pandemic abates. Fingers crossed. In the meantime, the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance encourages everyone to be safe and follow all local, state, and federal guidelines.

If you wish to support our efforts between now and the next tournament, donations are alway appreciated.

Also consider supporting our small business friends and patrons like State Apparel. Their store is closed during the shut down, but their fine products and  #SaveSharpPark swag is available on-line. 

 

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Lake Merced Hosts LPGA Mediheal Championship - POSTPONED

Feb 26, 2020by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

UPDATE: This event has been postponed indefinitely as have all LPGA and PGA tour events during the COVID-19 pandemic. The LPGA Statement LINKED HERE. 

Lake Merced Golf Club, located just south of San Francisco in Daly City, will again host the 2020 LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. The official LPGA Tour stop, now in its third year, will feature 144 of the world’s best female golfers competing for a $1.8 million purse at Lake Merced Golf Club in Daly City, CA. The event will open to the public on Wednesday, April 29 for the Pro-Am and during the official tournament rounds played from Thursday, April 30 to Sunday, May 3.

The LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship gives sports fans the unique opportunity to experience the best female golfers in the world, at a world-class facility, Lake Merced Golf Club,” said Patrick Healy, Tournament Director of the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. “Providing an affordable event experience for families and the entire community is important to the event. We are excited to welcome spectators, volunteers and event partners to what is sure to be another exciting year.”

The tournament offers an impeccable family-friendly experience for golf enthusiasts and spectators alike, with complimentary weeklong admission for kids 17 & under with a ticketed adult. Additionally, members of the military, veterans, and family will receive complimentary admission at the tournament box office with a valid military ID.

• Daily and weekly tickets can be purchased at the LINK HERE. 
• Volunteer opportunities are LINKED HERE. 

In 2019, Sei Young Kim, edged out the recently crowned LPGA Rookie of the Year, Jeongeun Lee and UCLA Alum Bronte Law in a dramatic playoff to earn her eighth career victory at the LPGA MEDIHEAL Championship. The recently crowned champion of the CME Group Tour Championship, who hit the putt of her life, a 25-foot birdie on the final hole of the CME Group Tour Championship to win $1.5 million, will start the 2020 season with 10 LPGA Tour victories, and will look to defend her title at Lake Merced Golf Club in April.

Founded in 1922 and redesigned by the legendary Alister MacKenzie,  Lake Merced has a storied history and long tradition of national tournament golf – notably including top women’s and junior championships going back to 1941, when Babe Didrikson Zaharias won the San Francisco Women’s Open Match Play Championship. In 2012, Lake Merced hosted the U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship, won by current World #3-ranked professional Minjee Lee of Australia.

The greatest golfers in the world playing at an historic course in our Bay Area back yard - you'll want to be there!

Tournament sponsor MEDIHEAL is a cosmetic facemask brand of the Seoul, South Korea-based L&P Cosmetic Co., Ltd.  

 

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Mickey Wright R.I.P.

Feb 20, 2020

Mickey Wright, one of the dozen greatest golfers of all time – and the greatest women player – died February 17 in Florida.  She was 85 years old. From the New York Times obituary:

"She was named the Woman Athlete of the Year by The Associated Press in 1963, when she won 13 L.P.G.A. tournaments, still a record for a single season, and in 1964, when she won 11 times. Wright, in 1961 and ’62, and Tiger Woods, in 2000 and ’01, are the only golfers to have captured four consecutive majors."

Mickey was the dominant player on the LPGA Tour in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, and won 82 LPGA tournaments and 13 major championships, including four U.S. Women’s Opens in the 7 year period 1958-1964.  She was the daughter of a San Diego lawyer and attended Stanford for a single year before turning professional in 1954. 

In 2017 she gave a great interview to Golf Digest Magazine, discussing the influences of her father, her teachers and how she built her famous swing (which Ben Hogan described as “the finest golf swing I ever saw”), and how the thought of a single great shot stayed with her for her entire life. Mickey Wright believed there is golf in Heaven.  So do we. This is how she described it in that interview:

"There's got to be golf in heaven. I hope I get there and that it's just me and my 2-iron. Or maybe a couple of angels will be looking on. Everything will look like Sea Island Golf Club did in the old days, sedate and beautiful. I'll be facing that shot to a well-trapped green again, trying to duplicate that shot from 1957. If it's really heaven, I'll pull it off."

 

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Giving Thanks This Holiday Season

Dec 2, 2019by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

Happy Holidays from your San Francisco Public Golf Alliance! We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving with family, friends, good food, shopping and perhaps some golf. Be sure to check out our new online store in partnership with our friends at State Apparel. 

It's a time to count blessings and be thankful. We're always grateful for the fantastic support we've received over the years and, in 2019, we are particularly thankful for:

• Another fabulous Alister MacKenzie Tournament at Sharp Park, played June 8, with one of our biggest-ever fields enjoying good times, great weather, and the best course conditions that anyone could remember.

• Our architects Tom Doak (kneeling) and Jay Blasi (standing, left), who directed restoration of the ## 10 and 18 greens to their original 1932 shapes and contours, with SF Rec-Park Turf Division Director Kevin Teahan (kneeling at right).

• The good work of the Sharp Park greenskeeping crew, led by superintendent Mike Catanzaro and Turf Division Director Teahan, who in 2019 trimmed trees, cleared brush, and opened beautiful vistas around the clubhouse and throughout the course.

• The Sharp Park Golf Club volunteers who, on October 29, assisted the greenskeeping crew in trimming the tulles at the par-3 15th hole, opening a view of the hole from the tee.  Once it was blind, but now we can see.

• The PGA of America, which during the Week of May 11, 2020 will hold the PGA Championship at Harding Park.

• The American Golfing Press, which identified Sharp Park as the #1 American municipal course most worth renovating and published golf architect Jay Blasi's vision of what could be at Sharp Park: 

• For Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Giving Tuesday and all holiday shopping this season check out our new on-line store for classic leather Save Sharp Park headcovers, jerseys, and more. Press the SHOP button in upper right of this website or press here:

All proceeds from the Sharp Park Collection at State Apparel go to the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance - a non-profit public benefit corporation, under 501.c.3 of the Internal Revenue Code.  Your contributions are tax-deductible. We are pro-bono, taking no pay for our work.  So your charitable donations go far towards accomplishing the charitable purposes of the Alliance:  to advocate and promote public golf and defend and preserve San Francisco’s endangered municipal golf courses.  On the occasion of Giving Tuesday, Dec. 2, we ask your consideration of a charitable donation to The Cause.   

 

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The 17th Hole at Lincoln Park - One of San Francisco's Municipal Jewels

Munis Are the Soul of Golf - Some fall press selections for your reading enjoyment

Oct 6, 2019by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

"As part of a bid to restore and renovate the municipal golf courses of Washington, D.C., the National Links Trust has partnered with two prominent architectural firms: Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design and Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner’s Hanse Golf Course Design. If the NLT wins the contract, Doak will work on East Potomac Golf Course, while Hanse and Wagner will lend their services to Rock Creek Golf Course. The NLT has also teamed up with management company Troon and developer Mike Keiser... NLT’s partners have come aboard in the spirit of public service. Both Renaissance Golf Design and Hanse Golf Course Design have agreed to waive their fees. Mike Keiser has pledged to support the project with his pocketbook as well as the network of connections he has assembled in developing Bandon Dunes, Sand Valley, and other golf destinations. Finally, according to Smith, Troon knows this will be different from a normal management contract. “They understand the importance to American golf of having these municipal courses in D.C. be thriving places where people learn the game, come back to the game, and stay engaged with the game at an affordable price,”

 

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Sign Up for the Mayor Ed Lee Legacy Golf Tournament at Crystal Springs Oct 27, 2019!

Sep 22, 2019by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

 

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National Golf Press Clippings:Sharp Park is the Top US Priority for Muni Golf Restoration

Jun 26, 2019by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

"Architects Tom Doak and Jay Blasi, a Bay Area resident, gave recommendations to mow out the 10th and 18th greens to their original shapes created by MacKenzie in 1932.. Sharp Park, which is blessed with some very attractive forested holes and other greens near a walking path along the Pacific Ocean, aches for upgrades..."

"The course popped onto my radar because of the “Save Sharp Park” movement, which started in response to environmentalists’ attempts to close it in an effort to protect threatened frogs and snakes. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2012, opening the doors for Tom Doak to create a renovation masterplan. The municipality is still debating the plan, with Doak explaining, “They have signed off on expanding two to three greens, rebuilding some tees, and minor tree work in 2018 to get a handle on the costs. It’s a step in the right direction.”

"At Sharp Park in San Francisco, designed by Alister MacKenzie, a number of Macphiles have been working for years with architect Jay Blasi on a restoration project. Blasi reports: “Last year we were able to use a 1931 irrigation map to help us properly identify the original green boundaries... One of the wonderful things about Sharp Park is that not much work has been done over time, so the original contours are there and when you mow out to the original edges the character jumps out.”

"A leader among the golfers is Sharp Park Women’s Club member Lisa Villasenor, “The course, the clubhouse, it’s our ‘Cheers,’ ” she said. “I told everybody, ‘If you guys want to see yellow tape around this clubhouse, that’s what’s going to happen if you don’t help." ... The battle for Sharp has been too long and winding for celebration to overtake continued vigilance. Still looming is a need to enhance the seawall that protects the course, and the bureaucratic challenges that will entail ... because golf needs to keep the muny in its soul, all golfers should care about the preservation of Sharp Park.”

“From the WPA-era clubhouse to the use of a native lagoon and holes running sheer along the Pacific Coast, Sharp Park embodies the spirit of a rugged outdoor experience.  And yet it’s seamlessly meshed into a town’s life – much as the holes at North Berwick, St. Andrews, Gullane or Machrihanish weave their way into the village center.  It takes a particular kind of genius to make those elements of nature and contrivance work as if one composition.  MacKenzie was able in a public setting here to express his art form to an unusual degree."

 

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Women’s Golf Day at Sharp Park on Sunday, June 9!

Apr 29, 2019by - San Francisco Mayor's Women's Golf Council

"It's critically important in golf. One of our stated objectives is for golf to look like America does...  With respect to women, as you know, they are 50+ percent of the U.S. population, but 24 percent of the golf population. But encouragingly, more than 35 percent of beginners are women... Similarly, as it relates to junior golfers, it's actually the same number—35 percent of junior golfers are women. That's really encouraging. So if you subscribe to the notion that today's juniors are tomorrow's golfers, then the face of golf will change... Not to get too lost in the stats, but if you study them like we do, it really bodes well for the future of the game ... So I'm very encouraged by the numbers that show us women are coming into the game."

 

Women’s Golf Day is a four hour experience happening globally where women and girls can experience golf for the first time or where current players can play and engage with women interested in golf. It is being hosted at golf courses and retail locations all around the world.  The event kicks off June 4th at golf venues around the bay area, but we're going to extend it a week with a very special Womens Golf Day at Sharp Park on Sunday June 9th!

Sponsored by the San Francisco Mayor's Womens Golf Council and the Sharp Park Business Womens Golf Club, this is a great way to be introduced to golf and meet women who want to share their love of the game with you.

It will be a fun day at San Francisco's municipal jewel designed by Alister MacKenzie, golf's greatest architect.  Don't miss it!

 

REGISTER HERE and we'll see you there!

 

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Lake Merced Hosts LPGA Mediheal Championship April 29 - May 5

Apr 8, 2019by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

 

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Sign Up For The Alister MacKenzie Heritage Tournament To Preserve Sharp Park - June 8!

Jan 23, 2019by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

• Save June 8 on your calendar, and pick your tee time: 7:30 a.m. or 12:30 p.m.
• Sign-up Online [LINK HERE] or Download the Entry Form [LINKED HERE]
• Sign-up your friends and submit your entry forms!
• Make a silent auction donation of a guest 4-some at your golf course, golf lessons, or other goods - [E-mail us at info@sfpublicgolf.org]
• Sign-up as a Sponsor - or help us find a Sponsor [Form Page 2 LINKED HERE].

 

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The MacKenzie Public Golf Vision - A New Year Message from the Founders

Jan 4, 2019by - Richard Harris and Bo Links

 

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Recap: Seventh Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park

Jul 23, 2018by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

 

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Sharparkology 101: A lecture at the Pacifica Historical Society

Jun 25, 2018by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance President and co-founder Richard Harris was guest lecturer at the Pacifica Historical Society’s May 20, 2018 Quarterly Meeting at the Society’s headquarters in Pacifica’s Little Brown Church.  His wide ranging lecture discussed the origins of golf in Scotland and its early history in America, the central place held by Alister MacKenzie in the history and practice of world golf architecture, and the artistry of his work at Sharp Park. 

Beginning with the founding of golf in Scotland in the 15th Century, Harris takes us through the close political relationship between San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, the bequest of the Sharp Ranch to San Francisco in the early 20th Century and Alister MacKenzie’s links to the earliest days of golf architecture in Scotland, England, and Northern California.  He tells stories of early San Francisco political boss Dennis Kearny, early golf architects Old Tom Morris and HS Colt, black golf pioneer Ted Rhodes and Sharp Park’s role in the racial integration of public golf, Bobby Jones, pioneering women’s golf great Marion Hollins, military camouflage, the Boer War, golf and landscape architecture, spiritual walks and labyrinths, and deep appreciation of the natural world.

Pacifica videographer Robert Twigg captured Harris’ lecture with historical photos for broadcast on the award winning "Footprints of Pacifica" broadcast linked here:

We hope you enjoy this "must watch" for students of Pacifica History and any pursuing studies in "Sharparkology." 

 

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UPDATE: The 2018 Online Silent Auction Concluded.Congratulations to the winning bidders.

May 17, 2018by - an Francisco Public Golf Alliance

1. Visit the Auction Website: [CLICK HERE] 
2. Click on the menu or login button on the top-right of the webpage,  or open any auction item, and then click, "Create an Account."

 

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Election Day June 5. Don’t forget to vote!

May 13, 2018by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

 

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Sign up for the Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Preserve Sharp Park - May 26!

Jan 22, 2018by - San Francisco Public Golf Alliance

• Save May 26 on your calendar, and pick your shotgun tee time:  morning (7:30 a.m) or afternoon (12:30 p.m.)
• Download the entry form [ LINKED HERE ].
• Sign-up your friends.  Submit your entry forms, and pay by check or online.
• Make a silent auction donation of a guest 4-some at your golf course, golf lessons, or other goods [Click to EMAIL]
• Sign-up as a Sponsor - or help us find a Sponsor [See Sponsorship form page 2 LINKED HERE]

 

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Looking Back and Moving Forward. A New Year Message from the Founders.

Dec 30, 2017by - Richard Harris and Bo Links

 

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It’s Back! The Save Sharp Park Red Leather Headcover!

Dec 30, 2017

 

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Mayor Ed Lee, San Francisco City Champion

Dec 14, 2017

 

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In Memory of Herb Lee

Nov 21, 2017

“As a retiree and 77 years old, I find Sharp Park very convenient and good for my health.  I’ve been using Sharp Park for over 30 years.  I have never seen anyone abuse any natural environment or animals at any time.  If I had, I would have stopped them.  My group of about 20 golfers are mostly my age.  It’s very important to continue to allow elder San Francisco retirees the enjoyment of golfing at Sharp Park.”  

 

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Simply the Best: Golf Architecture at Sharp Park

Nov 1, 2017

“Sharp Park is more than a golf course; it is a test case for how much we care about public golf,” Sports Illustrated senior writer Alan Shipnuck writes in an article captioned “Why Saving Sharp Park Matters:”

“It is a referendum on the preservation of history, an experiment in these fraught times to see if private citizens can still come together for the public good.”  (Page 20) 

“…  the most renowned architect of all time, Alister MacKenzie, has his own celebrated trifecta [of courses] in Northern California:  Cypress Point, Pasatiempo, and the Meadow Club, to say nothing of the lovably scruffy muni Sharp Park.”  (Page 32) 

“From the WPA-era clubhouse to the use of a native lagoon and holes running sheer along the Pacific Coast, Sharp Park embodies the spirit of a rugged outdoor experience.  And yet it’s seamlessly meshed into a town’s life – much as the holes at North Berwick, St. Andrews, Gullane or Machrihanish weave their way into the village center.  It takes a particular kind of genius to make those elements of nature and contrivance work as if one composition.  MacKenzie was able in a public setting here to express his art form to an unusual degree."  (Page 28) 

"...Sharp Park - the municipal course in Pacifica designed by Alister MacKenzie... We're planning to restore the layout and bring back the MacKenzie look that has been masked over time." - (Page 26)

 

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High Drama at the 6th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park

Jul 31, 2017

Special thanks to our generous sponsors, donors of our fabulous silent auction prizes, enthusiastic volunteers from our co-hosts, the Sharp Park Men’s and Sharp Park Business Women’s Golf Clubs, and to our other co-hosts, the Alister MacKenzie Foundation, Pacifica Historical Society, Pacifica Chamber of Commerce, the NCGA and Southern California Golf Associations, PGA Tour, Fandel Retail Group, and Bandon Dunes Golf Resort.     Please see the Sponsors Page from our Tournament Program (Below) for a complete list.  

 

Finally, a grateful tip of the hat to: Greens Superintendent Michael Catanzaro and his SF Rec and Park Department greenskeeping crew; Mark Duane, Kevin Ramsey and the rest of the staff at Sharp Park Golf Course; Emmy Moore Minster, Brad Knipstein, Mike Wallach, and Bo Links for sharing their photographs. 

 

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In Memory of Sandy Tatum

Jun 24, 2017

Sandy Tatum, the Grand Old Man of San Francisco public golf, died Thursday, June 22.  His death came two weeks shy of his 97th birthday, and four months after the passing of his wife of 67 years, Barbara Snyder Tatum.

Sandy’s many gifts are reflected in his accomplishments:  1942 NCAA individual golf champion, Rhodes Scholar, partner in the international law firm Cooley LLP, President of the United States Golf Association (1978-80), and father of six.  

 “. . . he was priceless... because of both his intellect and the elegant way his mind worked.....  Along with his absolute passion for golf, he was a man of integrity, respect, and humor.” 

“My name is Sandy Tatum.  I’m here because I’m so thoroughly concerned about what I think this legislation is heading to do.  And that is to destroy a priceless recreational resource which also is an historic treasure.  You know, . . . considering golf in a political setting, the misrepresentations and misunderstandings about the game are legion -- and they do mislead.  Fact is that golf is not an elitist game.  It’s anything but.  Eighty percent of the golfers in this country are public course golfers.  And more than 90% of the [golf] games that are played . . . in any given year are played on public courses.  So public golf is the heart and soul of the game. . .  [Golf is a] . . . priceless recreational resource [that engages] . . . the physical, [mental, and emotional] aspects of recreation,  . . .  in the context of aesthetic features that make those assets very, very, very effective. . . .  So I would urge that you act so as not to destroy something so absolutely wonderful.”

Sandy Tatum, distinguished golf ambassador, dies at 96 - Ron Kroichik - San Francisco Chronicle

"Frank “Sandy” Tatum, who had a profound influence on golf in Northern California and throughout the United States — including spearheading the renovation of Harding Park — died Thursday morning. He was 96... Bo Links, a local golf historian and longtime friend of Mr. Tatum, paid tribute to his influence on the game. “Golf lives and thrives in San Francisco because of Sandy,” Links said Thursday night. “And when golfers pass by Sandy’s Rock behind the first tee at Harding Park, they would do right to stop and say thanks. His work and his memory will live on forever.”

What Golf Will Miss Most About Sandy Tatum - Jaime Diaz - Golf World

"It all led to the “moment”— when his words calmly flowed with an extraordinary strength—what I later described as a “True Believer in the True Game preaching the gospel of his life.” -  “Playing golf has all kinds of wonderful benefits for people, particularly on a quality golf course,” he said. “And that’s such a vital factor in what we’ve been able to accomplish here. We are giving these people something they can treasure and will matter immeasurably in their lives. Golf is anything but trivial. As the problems in the world become more terrible, this game is more important—on a sociological basis—than it has ever been. It’s a life enhancer and a life extender. There’s no question about that. It has everything that you can add from a game to somebody’s life.” ... When Tatum had to finally stop playing golf two years ago, he continued to pour his energies into personal passions—the successful saving of Sharp Park, serving as a sounding board for today’s golf administrators and helping The First Tee of San Francisco thrive."

Remembering Sandy Tatum, a golf ambassador with an unadulterated love of the game - Michael Bamberger

"Tatum was a first-order clubman, to be sure, but his heart was all over San Francisco's public golf scene. The clubhouse at Harding Park bears his name, for the work he did in overseeing its restoration. His devotion to San Francisco's First Tee program and the kids who came through it was thorough and genuine. Watson will tell you that there were few people on this earth, if any, who had more unadulterated love of the game than Tatum. He enriched the golfing lives of more people than he could possibly know. He took deep pride in the role he played in the golfing life of a San Francisco public golfer named Alexandra Wong, who played her way to Princeton. To Sandy, golf and an education were the great equalizers. "

A Life Devoted to Golf: Remembering Sandy Tatum - David Shefter - USGA

"In 1997, he spearheaded the effort to renovate Harding Park, the crown jewel of San Francisco’s municipal golf courses. The annual site of the San Francisco City Championship, the course had gone into disrepair, and Tatum came up with a plan to revitalize the layout. With help from other city leaders, Tatum saw his vision come to fruition. The $16 million renovation included a chapter of The First Tee and a nine-hole short course.  Shortly after it reopened for play, Harding Park landed the 2006 WGC-American Express Championship as well as the 2009 Presidents Cup. The Charles Schwab Cup Championship, the season-ending event on the PGA Tour Champions, was played at Harding three times (2010, 2011 and 2013). The course is set to host the 2020 PGA Championship.  “Sure I am going to play Harding,” Tatum told Golf Digest. “What I really look forward to is the first City Championship after all the work. It will again be a premier amateur event. God, I loved playing in ‘The City.’”

“Well played, Mr. Tatum,” a memory of Sandy and the First Tee at McLaren Park

"The First Tee of San Francisco was new to The City, shepherded by Sandy Tatum along with his monumental effort to restore Harding Park just years earlier. When word leaked that The First Tee could be coming to Gleneagles, few golfers thought it was a good idea, those who did kept quiet and some were outright against it ... The beer flowed and Sandy Tatum pressed the flesh ... For a rare hour or so the clubhouse at Gleneagles was full of golfers and only one man was speaking: 

 

"You cannot fathom some of the circumstances these young people go home to day in and day out," Mr. Tatum attested to the group of municipal golfers. "Some of these youngsters have none of the basic necessities to help fulfill themselves to their full potential.  Our program can fill that void because the game of golf builds character and has for me ... and I know it has for you.  It is our moral imperative to help save these children through our game. And it will."

 

Sandy Tatum's words rang with such gravitas and truth that even the most strident opponents to the First Tee melted away into collective head nodding and an eventual wave of applause that filled the room at his conclusion. Today, thousands of children have played golf at Gleneagles and other courses through The First Tee of San Francisco and Visitacion Valley.  No doubt, many lives have been changed and some have been saved.  Just as Mr. Tatum promised.

 

At the end of the night and on his way out he humbly whispered,  "Well, how did we do?" 

 

You did a fine job, sir.  A damn fine job."

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance co-founder Bo Links remembers...

"Golf has lost a great friend. Sandy Tatum was the Abraham Lincoln of the game. The light from his glorious life will shine on fairways near and far for a thousand years. Godspeed to his wonderful family.  So many lives affected. So much good that he did. Truly a man for the ages."

 

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On-line bidding for the silent auction is now closed. Thanks to all who participated.

May 23, 2017

1. Visit the Auction Website: [CLICK HERE] 
2. Click on the menu or login button on the top-right of the webpage,  or open any auction item, and then click, "Create an Account."

 

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Saving Sharp Park - The Press And The Big Picture

Apr 1, 2017

With the recent decision by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to adopt the RecPark Natural Resources Plan, the Supervisors have joined every relevant local, state, and federal governmental body, regulatory agency, and the courts, in acknowledging the public recreational value and historical resource status of the 18-hole Sharp Park Golf Course. They have all, without exception, rejected the arguments of the anti-golf forces who seek to destroy Sharp Park. This is not to say our quest to Save Sharp Park is over.  Much work remains before we see a full restoration of Alister MacKenzie's architectural magic at Sharp Park.

 

Paul Slavin, President of the Pacifica Historical Society gets us started with a Special Report to the Pacifica Tribune:

Golf course restoration plan moves forward 

"The plan calls for continuing the restoration work on Pacifica’s popular 85-year-old Sharp Park Golf Course, a reasonably priced public course owned by San Francisco. Designed by the legendary Alister MacKenzie, the course transformed the salty Laguna Salada into a fresh-water pond, thus creating a habitat for the threatened California red-legged frog and the endangered San Francisco garter snake. Work planned for the course will enlarge and enhance that habitat, while maintaining the historic architectural character of the 18-hole course. Supervisor Ahsha Safai, voting with the majority, noted, “The irony of it all is that we have an existing workingman’s golf course, designed by a Scottish immigrant, that would be restored … that would then in the end be the reason why we have the opportunity to protect two of the most endangered species in Northern California. That’s one irony that shouldn’t be lost.”

The fight over Sharp Park isn't just about saving one golf course, but muny golf overall

"Playing a lot of golf at a muny will stay with a golfer. All that grittiness gets under the skin. Munys are more formative, more flawed, more fun, more real... So when a muny, especially one with history in a big city, gets threatened, even the most escapist golfers can be roused. Instead of complaining about the greens and the drainage and range mats, they realize how much they’d miss the $30 green fee and all the camaraderie if it disappeared. They become attuned to how munys are about affordability and accessibility and diversity and being the best entry point for beginners and especially kids. Basically the spirit of St. Andrews. It’s a good exercise, especially if it translates to the kind of activism a beset muny needs to stay alive...

 

Munys are vulnerable targets. City coffers are still recovering from the Great Recession, making the upkeep of golf courses seem less viable, especially when rounds are down. But because the golf lovers who are defending the munys know that if one falls, it could start a domino effect, they are fighting back with every asset at their disposal... “If a golf course with Sharp Park’s historic legacy and devoted multicultural clientele can be destroyed by a combination of anti-golf prejudice and over-aggressive use of the Endangered Species Act, no golf course is safe.” A little overheated? Perhaps. But because golf needs to keep the muny in its soul, all golfers should care about the preservation of Sharp Park."

Sharp Park Finally Gets Long Term Reprieve, Chance For MacKenzie Restoration

"A WPA project designed by MacKenzie and Pebble Beach remodeler Chandler Egan, the run-down public course still sports a vibrant and diverse golf scene. With some love and money, it could be one of America's best public golf facilities."

Some courses, such as Sharp Park, defy ordinary labels

"The best courses, I’ve found, are the ones that are so unusual, you can’t really funnel them into one place in your mind. And that’s where I would place Sharp Park in Pacifica. Sharp Park has a leg up in the greatness category because it was designed by Alister MacKenzie. It has an advantage in beauty because it’s on the ocean. It has plenty of trees. It’s lots of fun. It certainly is interesting. That’s why I was so thrilled to hear that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 9-1 to keep Sharp Park open and designate it a “Historic Resource Property.” ...  Golf is played out in nature. That’s why many people play. It stands to reason that the two can coexist quite well. The next time you’re out on the course, take a look around. Listen, too. Feel it. Take it in. All that beauty and all those chirping birds and all those fresh breezes are an important part of the experience."

Podcast Episode 36 - Saving Sharp Park with Bo Links

Whether looking at forest or trees, we are determined to find a path to our goal - restoring the MacKenzie magic at Sharp Park while maintaining accessible, affordable, eco-friendly public golf for everyone in the Bay Area.

If you believe in our mission and want to help, contribute to the cause or join us on June 3, 2017 for the 6th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament to benefit Sharp Park. 

 

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Sign up now for the Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Preserve Sharp Park - June 3!

Mar 7, 2017

 

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San Francisco Supervisors Vote to Move Sharp Park Plan Forward

Mar 4, 2017

• Approved the continued operation of the 18-hole public course, owned by San Francisco but located in its beachside suburb of Pacifica;
• Designated the seaside links as “Historic Resource Property” under the California Environmental Quality Act; and 
• Allowed modification of three holes along the margins of Laguna Salada, a freshwater marsh in the center of the course, to enhance habitat for the endangered San Francisco garter snake and the protected California red-legged frog, on condition that the changes be consistent with the golf course’s historic architectural character.  

“The irony of it all . . . that we have an existing working-man’s golf course . . . designed by a Scottish immigrant . . . that would be restored . . . that would then in the end be the reason why we have the opportunity to protect two of the most endangered species in Northern California.  That’s one irony that shouldn’t be lost.”  

 

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In Memorium: Barbara Tatum October 7, 1924 - February 4, 2017

Feb 12, 2017

The San Francisco golf community lost a great friend and supporter last week with the passing of Barbara Tatum, wife of former USGA President Sandy Tatum, a pillar of San Francisco golf and the driving force behind the 2002-2003 renovation of Harding Park. Barbara passed away February 4, at the age of 92. Donations may be made in her name to the Children’s Theater Association of San Francisco per the San Francisco Chronicle obituary published February 11:   

Barbara Emily Snyder Tatum

October 7, 1924 - February 4, 2017

 

Born in Santa Cruz, California, Barbara attended Mission Hill and completed high school at Castilleja. After graduating from Stanford, she took a train across the continent and a ship across the Atlantic to marry Frank "Sandy" Tatum at Oxford, England in 1949. They raised their six children in San Francisco, where she cultivated in them an appreciation for all of the art, music, and theater the city had to offer, and introduced them to Joni Mitchell, Bill Evans, and Dvorak. Her first love was classical piano, which she played for hours every day, giving it up just weeks before she died. 

 

Barbara also instilled in her children a love of books, and they will miss being able to share that love with her. She liked camping, fishing, and playing golf with her friends, and escaped to spend time at Potbelly Beach whenever possible. Known to her family as B.E.S.T., she and Sandy lived for three months in the South of France, and she never gave up studying the language, painstakingly translating texts in French. 

 

Barbara was proud of each and every one of her children and grandchildren, and for her family and many friends, there was no one quite like her. She leaves behind her husband Frank "Sandy" Tatum, her brother Bert B. Snyder, her children Jeffery Anne, Timothy (Kate), Peter, Christopher (Ruth), Victoria (Blue), and Shelley (Michael), as well as eleven grandchildren. The family plans to gather privately at Potbelly Beach in the spring to honor her memory. 

 

Donations can be made in her name to:

Children's Theater Association of San Francisco

3450 Sacramento Street, PMB 442

San Francisco, CA 94118-1914

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance membership sends its heartfelt condolences to Sandy Tatum, and the entire Tatum family.

 

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New Year… New Challenges. A letter from the Founders of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance.

Jan 3, 2017

"Our goal is to nurture and defend affordable, eco-friendly public golf in San Francisco for future generations, by encouraging public golf throughout all segments of the community, and by caring for San Francisco's heritage public golf courses."

• Most recently, the San Francisco Planning and Rec & Park Commissions on December 15 approved a Final Environmental Impact Report and Natural Areas Plan Sharp Park Plan. The plan recognizes the historic, recreational and community values of the18-hole Sharp Park Golf Course, and strikes a balance with the need to improve habitat for the frogs and snakes that inhabit the Sharp Park wetlands.  This was a victory for golfers and common-sense environmentalists alike.  Three holes may need to be modified to accommodate the habitat, but we will continue to work with the City of San Francisco to preserve, protect and enhance Sharp Parks's historic architectural integrity. Thanks to all who wrote letters and showed-up to testify at the Commissions’ December 15 public hearing. 
• File this one under "Addition Through Subtraction"... 2016 was the first year since 2011 that there was no active legal action against the Sharp Park Golf Course, the City of San Francisco and/or SF Recreation & Park Department plans for the park. For that we owe a debt of gratitude to the law offices of City Attorney Dennis Hererra and our friends at Morrison Foerster who together beat back every legal challenge. 
• The new greens at Holes 4, 5, 6, and 7 were opened for play in Spring, 2016.  Thanks to head greenskeeper Almar Valenzuela and his small-but-mighty crew for their excellent work on the new greens.   
• Sharp Park and SF public golf supporters SFPGA Director Lisa Villasenor and Lynn Nelson, Chair of the Mayor's Women’s Golf Council, joined Mayor Ed Lee at the Executive Women's Golf Day, kicking off the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic tournament at Lake Merced.  These events are evidence of what many are saying - the surge of participation in women’s golf is the future of the game. 
• The Fifth Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament, held in June, 2016, was a great success, raising consciousness, community support, and funds for the Alliance’s ongoing battle to Save Sharp Park.  We introduced our first on-line silent auction with great golf adventures and goods made available from our fantastic sponsors. Thanks to all who participated, brought teams, and participated in the fun and fesitivites.  

• As noted above, the extremist eco-litigators bent on destroying Sharp Park Golf have taken quite a bruising in the courts over the last few years. They've returned to the political battlefield hoping for a more favorable hearing of their tired, false, discredited, and dismissed misrepresentations about the course. We have a new Board of Supervisors in San Francisco, some of whom will be hearing these issues for the first time. We'll need your help to show the new Board public support for our municipal gems. Stay tuned!
• Planning is underway for the  Alister MacKenzie Benefit  Tournament again in early June, 2017. It's always a great time and helps fund our Save Sharp Park efforts. Tell your friends and watch this space.
• We will continue to work with public agencies and officials in San Francisco, San Mateo County, and Pacifica towards the goal of striking a win-win balance renovating Alister MacKenzie’s historic links and recovering habitat for frogs and snakes.

 

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SF Recreation & Park and Planning Commissions Approve Natural Areas Management Final Environmental Impact Report and Sharp Park Plan

Dec 22, 2016

 After six hours of public comment before two key San Francisco commissions, Sharp Park Golf Course cleared another hurdle last week.  By a combined 11-1 vote, the San Francisco Planning and Recreation & Park Commissions  approved RECPARK's comprehensive city-wide Natural Areas Management Plan, including a Sharp Park Restoration Plan to retain Alister MacKenzie’s historic 18-hole golf course while enhancing frog and snake habitat in the Laguna Salada wetlands.

San Franciscio Examiner / Bay City News:  SF appeal likely following commission approval of Natural Areas Management Plan

"A plan to manage a number of natural areas in San Francisco and San Mateo counties was approved by planning and recreation and parks officials Thursday, but is likely to face an appeal from opponents. The environmental impact report for a 20-year plan to manage San Francisco’s natural areas was approved unanimously by the Recreation and Park Commission and 6-1 by the Planning Commission after a lengthy joint hearing Thursday...

 

The golf course has been the subject of repeated litigation with environmental groups over the years due to the presence of wetlands habitat on the course and endangered red-legged frogs and San Francisco garter snakes. City officials have described the plans for the golf course included in the environmental impact report as a habitat restoration project that would include relocating the 12th hole, improving a wetlands area and creating more uplands habitat for snakes."

 

We will likely need more of the same kind of effort in January, when the anti-golf forces are expected to appeal the Commissions’ decision to the Board of Supervisors.You can enjoy the full 6+ hours of the Commission's meeting, public comment, and decision on SFGOV.TV [LINKED HERE].  Or you can review the 30 minutes of YouTube highlights and/or even more succinct (but complete) press relese below...

YouTube Highlights:

 

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance Press Release:

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December 19, 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

San Francisco Commissioners OK Natural Areas Parks Plan;

Approve Sharp Park Restoration to Save Golf, Frogs, and Snakes

 

San Francisco:   By a combined 11-1 vote, the San Francisco Planning and Recreation and Park Commissions on December 15 certified and adopted a Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and Natural Areas Management Plan for 32 city-owned parks.  Among other things, the Plan would keep the 18-hole Sharp Park Golf Course open, but modify three holes to enhance wetland habitat for California red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake.  The course was built in the early 1930’s by preeminent golf architect Alister MacKenzie, and is regarded as Historic Resource under California’s environmental laws.

 

The 5-0 vote of the Rec & Park Commission and 6-1 vote of the Planning Commission in favor of the Natural Areas Plan followed a 6 and ½-hour joint public hearing at San Francisco City Hall on December 15, and came after 21 years of scientific consulting, policy-making, political wrangling, hundreds of hours of public hearings, and a 7-year-long environmental impact review process.  

 

The Natural Areas Plan is designed to preserve fragments of native plant and animal habitat, while balancing traditional urban park uses, in 32 of the 220-plus parks within San Francisco’s sprawling public parks system.   

 

Support for the Plan at the December 15 public hearing came from US Congresswoman Jackie Speier, whose 14th Congressional District includes parts of San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, and a host of national, regional, and local environmental, scientific, and urban planning organizations, including the Trust for Public Lands, Nature in the City, Presidio Trust, SPUR (San Francisco Planning and Urban Research), San Francisco Parks Alliance, and Tree Frog Treks, Robert Doyle, General Manager of the East Bay Parks District, and Erik Rosegard, Chair of San Francisco State University’s Department of Recreation, Parks, and Tourism.  Richard Harris, founder of the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, endorsed the balanced Sharp Park habitat and golf restoration plan, saying, “golf is a recreation in nature, golfers respect nature and want to get along with nature.”  Several plan advocates urged the Commissioners to finally move forward with the Plan after over 20 years in development.  “Glaciers melt faster than this,” one of the speakers commented, following the vote.  

 

The largest opposition to the plan came from neighborhood associations near Mt. Davidson, opposed to the Rec & Park plans to remove a percentage of the mature eucalyptus forest in that park.  Other opponents included spokespersons for dog-owner groups opposed to some of the Plan’s restrictions on off-leash dog-walking in and near the Natural Areas.  

 

Spokespersons for the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club, Wild Equity Institute, and the Audubon Society urged the Commissioners to vote-down the Plan unless the changes to the Sharp Park Golf Course to accommodate the frog and snake were removed from the Plan.  Led by Wild Equity, these groups have for many years fought to close the golf course and convert it entirely to a dedicated wetland for the frogs and snakes.  But their anti-golf efforts have repeatedly failed in previous tries at the Planning, Recreation and Park. and Public Utilities Commissions, the California Coastal Commission, US Fish & Wildlife Service, US Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, and in lawsuits that were dismissed in 2012 by the US District Court for the Northern District of California and dismissed in 2015 by the San Francisco and San Mateo County Superior Courts, and the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  

 

A Wild Equity spokesman said his organization will likely appeal the Commissions’ December 15 decision to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.  

   235 Montgomery St., Suite 400, San Francisco, CA 94104 • 415-290-5718 •  info@sfpublicgolf.org    

 

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Community Unites to Save Sharp Park at 5th Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament

Jun 13, 2016

On June 4, an extraordinary association of local golfers, environmentalists, preservationists, public and private golf courses, San Francisco history buffs, golf architecture enthusiasts, premier Bay Area corporations and local civic leaders  joined a host of tournament volunteers, coaches, parents, and well-wishers at Sharp Park to enjoy Alister MacKenzie’s muni masterpiece. 

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the Mayor's Women's Golf Council Chair , Lyn Nelson

Our Fifth Annual Alister MacKenzie Benefit Tournament was a great success thanks to the local Players, Sponsors, Donors, Volunteers, and other friends of  Public Golf.  We cannot thank you enough for helping to Save Sharp Park!  

Over 250 golfers participated and enjoyed the full range of Sharp Park weather – breezy, sunny, overcast, you-name-it.  Tom Adams’ Video captured the festivities and Bo Links, San Francisco Public Golf Association Co-Founder, reminds us why this course is so important to so many. 

Attending were golf officials from the Northern and Southern California Golf Associations, the PGA Tour, the San Francisco Mayor’s Women’s Golf Council, Mayors Ed Lee of San Francisco and Gary Phillips of San Rafael, San Francisco Recreation and Park Commission President Mark Buell, NBA basketball executive Kiki Vandeweghe, high school and First Tee players from San Jose, San Francisco, the Peninsula, and Oakland, and men and women muni and club players from all over the Bay Area.  

Lowell Laides Flash Victory Smiles

The day’s low scores were a 66 posted by the Lowell High Girls’ Team of Stephanie Sunga, Laureen Shew, and Juliana Dere (pictured above), an afternoon 68 posted by the NCGA women’s team of Gail Rogers, Jennifer Young, Stacey Baba and Brad Shupe, and 59’s posted by four different teams:   (1) Andy Miller, Elaine Harris, Doug Yarris, and Jim Mason; (2) Ron and Steve Saisi, Brian Cresta and Kyle Ortiz; (3) Dennis Ventry, Bob Kittle, Mark Ladining, and Bill Domhoff; and (4) Jay and Ian Johnston, Adam Tracy, and Pete Mangan.  Andrew Smothers and Lisa Villasenor won the men’s and women’s closest-to-the-pin contests at Hole #15, with shots to 5’6” and 11’, respectively.

 

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UPDATE: Silent Auction to Save Sharp Park Ended! Thanks to all who contributed!

May 31, 2016

1. Visit the Auction Website: [CLICK HERE] 
2. Click on, “Create an Account.” You will be prompted to enter some basic information (e.g. name, email address, phone) and to verify your email address.

 

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Executive Women’s Golf Day a Big Hit at Swinging Skirts Tournament

Apr 27, 2016

  

Congratulations to Women’s Golf Council President Lyn Nelson, to Mayor Ed Lee, and to the San Francisco Mayor’s Women’s Golf Council for a great event to kick off the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic tournament last week.  The Executive Women's Golf Day at Lake Merced Golf Club was about  women’s golf, sisterhood, and networking.  Colin Resch of NBC Bay Area had the story:

"If power off the tee is want you are looking for, there will be plenty of that Thursday through Sunday, but if power in the boardroom is your thing, that happened today."

As recently reported in Bloomberg, the explosive growth of women in golf is critical to the future of the game:

“What’s cool is that there were 300,000 more females in the game of golf last year than the year before,” Mike Whan, commissioner of the LPGA since 2010, told Sports Line colleague Erik Matuszewski. “Last year, 180,000 new young girls joined the game. There hasn’t been an increase like that in forever.”

This trend was very much in evidence at the Swinging Skirts Tournament (Alan Shipnuck explains how "The Ladies Get it Right").  Great golf was on display with the best players in the game as the tournament was won on Sunday, April 23 by LPGA rising star - Haru Nomura: 

The excitement at the tournament was matched by the Executive Women's Golf Day event itself, as seen in social media posts by presenters and participants alike:

The LPGA highlighted Solheim Cup Captain Juli Inkster on Twitter:

Captain @JuliInkster speaking at the San Francisco Mayor's Women's Golf Council #SFMWGC #Invigorate2Motivate pic.twitter.com/y9x32hUjFG

— LPGA (@LPGA) April 20, 2016

Speaker Kay Cockerill of the Golf Channel on Twitter:

Mayor Ed Lee inspiring the crowd talking about parity & equal rights for women. pic.twitter.com/SEpCapaWN0

— Kay Cockerill (@KayCockerill) April 20, 2016

San Francisco Public Golf Alliance Director Lisa Villasenor on Facebook:

Amelia Thornton - Board Member of Youth On Course - Featured Juli Inkster and Kay Cockerill on Instagram:

 

Two of the greatest! @kcockerill @juliinkster #swingingskirts #invigorate2motivate @sfmwgc

A photo posted by @ameliattt on Apr 20, 2016 at 11:42am PDT

 

It was a great event that was well received by all participants. As the world of women's golf continues to expand, with the Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic now established as a premier event on the tour, we can expect the Executive Women's Golf Day will increase in prominence and importance every year. 

 

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Register For Executive Women’s Day at Swinging Skirts Tournament

Apr 7, 2016

Two of the brightest stars in Bay Area sports -- two-time US Women’s Open champion Juli Inkster, and two-time Olympic soccer gold medalist Brandi Chastain -- will headline the Executive Women’s Golf Day at the Swinging Skirts Championship, to be held April 20, starting 9 a.m.  at Lake Merced Golf Club in South San Francisco.  Both Inkster and Chastain grew up in the Bay Area, and played their sports at San Jose State and University of Santa Clara, respectively. The Executive Women’s Day (see program below) is a half-day, open-to-the-public women’s golf, motivation, and networking event that will be a warm-up for the third annual Swinging Skirts Women’s Golf Championship, to be played at Lake Merced April 21-24.  

The event is co-sponsored by the San Francisco Mayor’s Women’s Golf Council.  Tickets for the Executive Women’s Day are available here.   Tickets for one or more days of the Swinging Skirts Tournament are available here 

18 year-old golfing phenom Lydia Ko, the World’s Number One golfer and the 2014 and 2015 Swinging Skirts champion, will headline the outstanding field for the Swinging Skirts Tournament.  

 

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The Fifth Annual Alister MacKenzie Benefit Tournament To Save Sharp Park

Mar 13, 2016

COME JOIN THE FUN!

Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park - June 4

Sign-ups are now open for Sponsors, Teams, and Players in the 2016 Alister MacKenzie Tournament, Saturday June 4 at Sharp Park, All proceeds go toward the ongoing campaign to save and renovate this seaside public golf gem.

Click here to download the entry and sponsorship form (in Adobe .pdf format). Click here to view a photo essay of all the fun we had at this tournament in 2015: 

And check out this video from last year's great event...

... and this one from the First Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park on the the occasion of the historic landmark course's 80th anniversary celebration:

The $200 per player entry fee pays for a long day of fun, 18 holes of golf, a GREAT tee prize, and donation to the worthy cause of saving Alister MacKenzie's historic public Sharp Park golf links. The tournament format will be foursome scramble, gross score. We will have 2 shotguns: at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., with BBQ lunch for all at Noon; the day will conclude with a silent auction full of great golf deals, heavy hors d'oeuvres, and other festivities in the Clubhouse. 

We need Captains to sign-up foursomes early. So Save the Date. And line-up your teammates, fill in the entry blanks, and please return them to us by May 9. Please let us know right away if you will serve as a Team Captain. And let us know if you or anyone you know can Sponsor a Hole, or step up to be one of our honored Tournament Sponsors. 

The tournament will be hosted by the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, together with the Sharp Park men's and women's golf clubs, Pacifica Historical Society, and the Alister MacKenzie Foundation. All proceeds go to our ongoing campaign to Save and Renovate Sharp Park Golf Course. 

Respond to: info@sfpublicgolf.org

The Original Alister MacKenzie Sharp Park Routing in 1932

 

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Photo Essay - Annual Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park - May, 2015

Feb 23, 2016

 

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Seaside Links and Alister MacKenzie top Golf Digest’s Rankings of the World’s 100 Greatest Courses

Jan 25, 2016

“Much as life on earth, golf first emerged from the sea, taking root on sandy deltas and shorelines, what golfers now call linksland. . . Invariably, where there was sand, there was wind, … an essential element. Without it, golf was simply pub darts.  Grand early courses clung to the coastlines. . .  precious few [seaside settings] are still available in the United States...”

"MacKenzie is synonymous with the magic and charm of the game," said Bo Links, a Bay Area author and lawyer who has spent countless hours working to save MacKenzie's Sharp Park Golf Course near San Francisco. "His courses, they excite you and exhilarate you. This is the one thought when you are done: 'I want to (play) that again.' There is no architect who had such a complete understanding of the game. His courses are not overly penal, not overly long. They are not easy. They are fun and exciting. It is like a puzzle. You have to figure it out."

 

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How To Promote San Francisco As A Golf Destination In 1933 (or now)

Jan 7, 2016by - Mike Wallach

"On the San Francisco Peninsula there is a wealth of good golfing territory. The sand dune country owned by the Olympic Club, which although not so spectacular as that on the Monterey Peninsula, is the finest golfing territory I have seen in America... The municipal courses in San Francisco are far superior to most municipal courses. The newest, which we constructed at Sharp Park... has a great resemblance to real links land. Some of the holes are most spectacular." - Alister MacKenzie - Spirit of St. Andrews

 

"Out on the very tip of the peninsula of San Francisco, right above the Golden Gate, there is a golf course. Playing there for the first time, you will have difficulty in keeping your mind on the game. 

 

Up three holes you top the crest of the hill, crowned by the classic Palace of the Legion of Honor. And suddenly there bursts upon you the wide sweep of the blue Pacific. Below the steep cliff that edges the fairway are the famous Seal Rocks and the Cliff House. Straight out thirty miles in shadowy outline, the Farallon Islands. And still on, a thousand leagues beyond the horizon, your mind may picture the Isles of the Pacific and the Oriental lands to which this  port of San Francisco has always been the gateway. South along the Coast for miles white-topped breakers roll in on the sandy beach, beside which run bridle paths and the Great Highway. 

 

Northward, you look squarely across the Golden Gate to Lime Point and the Marin hills, dominated by the purple bulk of Mount Tamalpais.  Pausing, looking over the sea and the city, you may recall James Bryce's comment that San Francisco; "like Constantinople and Gibraltar, combines a perfect landscape with what might be called an equally imperial position," noting that  "the city itself is full of steep hills rising from the deep water; the air keen, dry and bright, like the air of Greece, and the waters not less blue. Perhaps, you will agree, "it is this air and light, recalling the cities of the Mediterranean, that make one involuntarily look up to the tops of these hills for the feudal castle or the ruins of the Acropolis."  

 

Well, a long look, a deep breath of the sea-tanged air, and back to the pleasant business of smacking a golf ball down the green fairways. Each tee is a new glorietta with a new view of ocean, Golden Gate, or city. And as you reach the final holes, the town, spreading tier on tier, up over the hills, seems fabulous and magical in the rosy glow of the ending day. Later, ruddy with the tonic of San Francisco's out-of-doors and with the spray of the sea seemingly still in your nostrils, you are ready for a typical San Francisco evening..." 

"Come by train, automobile, steamer or plane. You'll be pleasantly surprised at the nominal cost of living here."

 

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Happy Holidays! We have much to be thankful for in 2015

Nov 24, 2015

• The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, San Francisco Superior Court, and San Mateo County Superior Courts in 2015 all dismissed lawsuits from the anti-golf crowd to halt golf and/or block San Francisco’s Sharp Park Golf Course renovation projects. 
• We cannot thank enough the good offices of Morrison Foerster, in particular partner Chris Carr - Chair of the firm's Environment and Energy Group -  for their tireless pro-bono efforts in defense of Sharp Park and Bay Area Public Golfers.
• We are grateful for the World Golf Championship held at  TPC Harding Park  - the crown jewel of our San Francisco municipal golf course gems. It was a great event that garnered national attention and put a spotlight on San Francisco as a world class public golf destination.
• Golfers had a big victory in April, when the California Coastal Commissioners unanimously supported San Francisco's Sharp Park Safety, Infrastructure Improvement and Habitat Enhancement Project which will enhance both habitat recovery and golf course renovation work at Sharp Park.      
• Lets not forget the gardeners, greenskeepers, management and staff of the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department for their hard work navigating the regulatory labyrinth to support these projects and maintain our beautiful, scenic, and historic, landmark public courses. 
• We are enormously grateful for all the participants and sponsors of our Fourth Annual Alister Mackenzie Benefit Tournament For Sharp Park. It was a great event, great fun, and eventually we'll get around to posting some pictures of the day.      
• We want to thank the team at Enlite10 for helping us set up the new website you are reading right now. And we can't forget the generous contribution of extraordinary photographs contributed by Brad Knipstein that you'll find in our book, throughout this website, and on our Instagram account. Oh... and that turkey on the top of this post... Brad took that shot too.
• Most recently, we are thankful for work completed in October on the First Phase of San Francisco’s Sharp Park renovation project, including construction of a new frog pond south of the golf course, dredging of cattails to improve frog habitat in the wetlands at the western edge of the golf course, a new cart path near the 14th green, a new culvert and cart bridge at Hole #12, and worker safety improvements at the pump house.   Also, new greens were built in October-November at Holes Nos. 4, 5, 6, and 7, and will be open for play in Spring, 2016.    

 

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Work Completed on First Phase of Sharp Park Renovation

Nov 16, 2015

 

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San Mateo County Studies Sharp Park Partnership with City of San Francisco

Nov 12, 2015

County studies options to take over Sharp Park Golf Course

 

"San Mateo County may be one step closer to taking over the Sharp Park Golf Course from San Francisco. The county of San Mateo engaged a consultant to study the options. Supervisor Don Horsley said he eventually hopes to try and work out a long-term lease. “We don’t want it closed. We think it’s important for Pacifica and for people who want to play golf. The course is affordable,” he said...

 

San Francisco and San Mateo County have long realized the benefits of working together to ensure the future of the historic Sharp Park Golf Course. In Dec. 2011, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee wrote that the SF Recreation and Park Dept. and the County of San Mateo had for some time now been discussing ways “to create a mutually beneficial partnership for the long-term management of the golf course that could help fund the needed habitat restoration, and continue to support an affordable and popular recreational activity.”

 

In Jan. 2012, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution seeking negotiations with San Francisco on a cooperative management agreement at Sharp Park. Discussions delayed when, between 2012 and 2015, anti-golf environmental litigants brought three separate lawsuits in an effort to close the course. All three suits were eventually dismissed."

 

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San Francisco’s Samantha Gong Wins NorCal Girls High School Championship

Nov 12, 2015

 

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Public Golfers Continue to Win the Legal Battles at Alister MacKenzie’s Sharp Park

Oct 17, 2015

SAN FRANCISCO. (Oct. 9, 2015) – Anti-golf zealots have ended their most recent lawsuit at historic Sharp Park Golf Course, filing a Request for Dismissal in San Mateo Superior Court in the matter of Wild Equity Institute vs. California Coastal Commission, et al, No. 534243.

The dismissal comes two months after San Mateo Judge George A. Miram denied a motion for preliminary injunction to halt work on the Sharp Park Pump House Project, a habitat restoration and flood control project at the golf course, which the Coastal Commission approved in April, 2015. 

In his August 20 Order denying preliminary injunction, Judge Miram found that plaintiff Wild Equity Institute failed to show that it would likely prevail at trial, and also failed to show that it would suffer greater injury from denial of preliminary injunction than the Coastal Commission, City and County of San Francisco, and public golfers would suffer if the motion were granted. 

Sharp Park is owned by San Francisco, but located 10 miles south of the city in the San Mateo County beach town of Pacifica, CA. It was built in the classic Scottish seaside links style by Hall of Fame architect Alister MacKenzie, and opened in 1932. The popular course is recognized as an historic resource under the California Environmental Quality Act by San Francisco, designated an historic site in the Pacifica General Plan, and as a “nationally-significant threatened cultural landscape” by the Washington D.C.-based Cultural Landscape Foundation. Golfweek magazine lists Sharp Park among the 50 greatest municipal golf courses in America.

This is the fourth time in recent years that eco-litigant organizations have failed in their legal challenges to golf operations at Sharp Park. The United States District Court, Northern District of California in 2012, and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and San Francisco Superior Court in 2015 all dismissed prior law suits. Lawyers at San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster have represented the Intervener San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, on a pro bono basis, in all the lawsuits. For the first time in a long time, there are no active lawsuits pending against Sharp Park from anti-golf organizations.

 

Course infrastructure improvements and habitat recovery are underway at Sharp Park

Work on the Pump House Project, a permit issued to San Francisco by the Coastal Commission in April, began in June 2015, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of October 2015. The Coastal Commission’s approval of coordinated golf restoration and habitat recovery work is only the most recent in a long line of local, state, and federal governmental and administrative agency actions between 2009 and the present day rejecting anti-golf attacks on Sharp Park Golf Course.

Habitat recovery work still remains to be done at Sharp Park, along with renovation of the historic golf course itself. Plans for that work are currently undergoing environmental review in the San Francisco Planning Department. In coordination with San Francisco and San Mateo County, the non-profit San Francisco Public golf Alliance and the Alister MacKenzie Foundation stand  ready to support this effort.

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For more information, contact

Richard Harris

Richard@sfpublicgolf.org

415-290-5718

www.sfpublicgolf.org

Bo Links

bo@slotelaw.com

415-393-8099

 

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Brad Klein’s “Restorationist Manifesto” and Restoring Sharp Park Golf Course

Sep 6, 2015

1.  What prompted you to write Wide Open Fairways? . . .  

The real driving force is that I’ve been traveling and taking notes and having thoughts and feelings about golf architecture for fifty years now and so as long as that continues I’ll be writing. . . .  I love golf courses and I love the imagination that landscape inspires and so I thought I’d try my hand at a different approach. “Wide Open Fairways” isn’t about tournament courses and it’s not an account of routing or playing strategy. It’s about the beauty and character of interesting land – the land we’re lucky to be on when we play golf.  

 

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National Interest in Sharp Park Golf Course Restoration

Aug 31, 2015

The prospect of restoring the 83 year old Alister MacKenzie municipal masterpiece at Sharp Park continues to garner national attention.  Geoff Shackelford  discusses the current status with Damon Hack on the Golf Channel's Morning Drive - August 31, 2015:

Recently, Golf Digest highlighted Sharp Park as one of "The Nine Most Cheerful Courses in America":

SHARP PARK GOLF COURSE, PACIFICA, CALIF.

 

"Few people know that this short, scruffy muny is a links originally designed by Alister MacKenzie--the same guy who did Augusta National. Although altered over the decades by storms and road construction, much of its MacKenzie bones remain. It was saved from closing thanks to the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, a volunteer organization founded by lawyers Richard Harris and Bo Links. The group is raising philanthropic funds to restore the layout while retaining its populist green-fee rates ($24 in the afternoon). Jay Blasi has prepared a restoration plan, and other prominent architects want to be involved. Meanwhile, the regular crowd continues to happily tee it up, rain or shine, on what they call "the poor man's Pebble Beach."

 

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Another Court Victory for Golf and Habitat at Alister MacKenzie’s Sharp Park

Aug 20, 2015

PRESS RELEASE

SAN FRANCISCO (August 20, 2015) – San Francisco’s plan to renovate the landmark Alister MacKenzie-designed Sharp Park Golf Course took another step forward today, with a favorable decision from the San Mateo County Superior Court.

Ruling in the case Wild Equity Institute vs. California Coastal Commission, San Mateo County Superior Court Judge George A. Miram denied a motion for preliminary injunction brought by golf foes to halt work on the Sharp Park Pump House Project. The Coastal Commission in April 2015 granted a permit for the work at the 83-year-old golf links, located on the Pacific Coast at Pacifica, CA., a southern seaside suburb of San Francisco.

In denying Wild Equity’s motion for preliminary injunction, San Mateo Superior Court Judge Miram found that Wild Equity failed to show that it would likely prevail at trial, and also failed to show that it would suffer greater injury from denial of the injunction than the Coastal Commission, the City and County of San Francisco, and the public course golfers represented by intervener SF Public Golf Alliance would suffer from the granting of the motion.

Wild Equity’s moving papers and the opposition papers filed by the Coastal Commission, San Francisco, and the Public Golf Alliance, together with the court’s ruling, can be found on the case records page of the San Mateo Superior Court's website.

Wild Equity, a small environmental litigation firm founded by a former staff attorney of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity, brought the lawsuit to stop San Francisco from installing concrete pier footings and a retaining wall at a pump house at the southwestern corner of the golf course. The concrete work was only a small portion of a dredging and pond-building permit approved in April by the Coastal Commission. The project is intended to improve the habitat for protected frog and snake species at the golf course, while reducing flooding risk to the golf course and a neighboring residential development. Wild Equity’s lawsuit named the Coastal Commission and San Francisco as defendants; the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance joined the lawsuit as an intervening defendant, to represent the interests of the public course golfers and historic preservationists who treasure the venerable golf links.

This is the fourth time in recent years that the courts have rejected environmentalist groups’ challenges to operations at Sharp Park Golf Course. The United States District Court, Northern District of California in 2012, and the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and San Francisco Superior Court in 2015 all dismissed prior law suits. Lawyers at San Francisco-based Morrison Foerster have represented the Intervener San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, on a pro bono basis, in all the lawsuits.

“Wild Equity has lost every battle. They are on the wrong side of this issue and on the wrong side of history,” said Christopher Carr, chair of Morrison & Foerster’s Environment and Energy Group.. “The responsible thing for them to do now,” said Mr. Carr, “is to support the efforts to get this work done promptly and to fully restore this precious public recreational asset so it will be there for future generations. The species and golfers have always co-existed at Sharp Park and they should continue to do so, for the benefit of everyone.”

Work on the Pump House Project, under the permit issued by the Coastal Commission in April, began in June 2015, and is scheduled to be completed by the end of October 2015. The Coastal Commission’s approval of coordinated golf restoration and habitat recovery work is only the most recent in a long line of local, state, and federal governmental and administrative agency actions between 2009 and the present day rejecting anti-golf attacks on Sharp Park Golf Course..

Habitat recovery work still remains to be done at Sharp Park, along with renovation of the historic golf course itself. Plans for that work are currently undergoing environmental review in the San Francisco Planning Department. SF Public golf Alliance and the Alister MacKenzie Foundation are working together to raise philanthropic funds for the golf course restoration.

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For more information, contact:

Richard Harris

Richard@sfpublicgolf.org

415-290-5718

www.sfpublicgolf.org

 

Bo Links

bo@slotelaw.com

415-393-8099

 

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Alister MacKenzie Society Visits Sharp Park

Aug 17, 2015

Pacifica, CA., Aug. 4. Golfers from Alister MacKenzie-designed courses around the world—clubs such as Royal Melbourne, Australia, Titirangi, New Zealand, Cork and Lahinch in Ireland, Moortown and Alwoodley in England, Crystal Downs in Michigan, and a handful of California courses, from Valley Club in Montecito to Green Hills (Millbrae), Claremont (Oakland), and Meadow Club (Fairfax)—gathered here on Tuesday, August 4th to try their hand at muni golf at Sharp Park, the world’s only MacKenzie-designed seaside public links.

If the Good Doctor had been there in person, he would have exhorted them: Save Sharp Park!

These MacKenzie devotees were members of the Alister MacKenzie Society, an international association of MacKenzie-designed courses, who gather annually for golf matches and camaraderie at each other’s clubs. The 2015 hosts—Meadow Club in Fairfax and Green Hills Golf Club in Millbrae—organized a Sharp Park field trip so that Society members could play the golf course and get a status report from San Francisco Public Golf Alliance co-founders Bo Links and Richard Harris.

Sharp Park’s dry, brown fairways and slow greens posed unfamiliar challenge to some of the visitors, but all of them appreciated Sharp Park’s beautiful layout and seaside location. “Can’t wait to see the place after it is renovated,” was a typical remark.

 Neither can we.

Thanks to Brad Knipstein Photography for contributing photos of a fun day at Sharp ...

 

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Sharp Park Progress In The News (It’s not about golfers vs. environmentalists)

Jul 12, 2015

The struggle to preserve and protect the historic Sharp Park Golf Course has made notable progress in the last few weeks.  After overcoming opposition from a small but noisy coterie of eco-litigants, work on a long-delayed, much-studied, much-litigated project to upgrade aging course infrastructure and improve habitat for the threatened frog and snake is finally underway. Local media outlets are taking note.

Amber Lee covered the story for KTVU News: Legal Battle Over 2 Endangered Species at Pacifica Golf Course

PACIFICA, Calif. (KTVU) - Preservation and renovation work is getting started at Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica. Golf enthusiasts tell KTVU recent developments including court decisions are major steps in rehabilitating the historic golf course. Its cypress lined fairways attract many people. “I love it out here," says Clayton Fandel of Pacifica, "I grew up playing on this course. This is where I learned to play."  Supporters say the 83-year-old course offers nostalgia and beauty. Designed by Alister MacKenzie, a renowned golf course architect, it is a public course. But for years, legal challenges by environmentalists have prevented the course from being maintained properly and kept its future in limbo. "When you have a historic resource like this you don't cast it aside, you preserve it," says Bo Links, co-founder of San Francisco Public Golf Alliance.

Your San Francisco Public Golf Alliance is grateful for the media interest but would like to correct a recurring theme in how this story is covered. KTVU, like most media, frame the story as Golfers vs. Environmentalists. The narrative is simple to understand and easy to present. However, this narrative is simply not accurate.

For openers, what every responsible public official recognizes, and what scientific analysis confirms, is that restoration of the golf course and restoration of habitat are not mutually exclusive concepts.  They can both occur in harmony.  And that is our main thrust:  to restore the historic MacKenzie course at Sharp Park, while at the same time promoting the enhancement of habitat for endangered species. 

Another misconception is that golf is a game for the elite.  Nothing could be further from the truth, and Sharp Park has proved the point for over 80 years, as it has long been home to a delightful mix of local golfers who are hardly the “country club” set.

The diverse, blue collar golf community that enjoys the public Sharp Park Golf Course are allied with the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, the gardeners of Laborers Union Local 261, as well as Pacifica, San Mateo and San Francisco government, business and community organizations. Everyone in that alliance are committed to enhancing and improving the frog and snake habitat at Sharp Park while also preserving this special golf course, which is affectionately known as “the Poor Man’s Pebble Beach.” Indeed, local officials have proven to be responsible stewards of the park environment and ensure the wildlife will continue to thrive in harmony with the golfers - as they have for decades.

These organizations are staffed with committed, practical environmentalists, conservationists, gardeners, engineers and scientists who are doing the hard work of studying and planning in detail how to improve and protect the frog and snake habitat at Sharp Park. This is the crux of the conflict. The good work of these practical, problem-solving, hard-working environmentalists are being obstructed by a few fringe eco-litigators whose motivations are unclear but who have nevertheless made it crystal clear they will only be satisfied by destroying the legacy Alister MacKenzie course and forcing the City to turn over control of the park to the federal government.

San Francisco Chronicle Metro Columnist C.W. Nevius is digging deeper than most. He devoted two columns to the mystery of why the Wild Equity Institute persists in pursuing losing lawsuits in an attempt to derail needed improvements at the Sharp Park course and wildlife habitat:

Sharp Park Golf Course Fight An Endless Bogey
By C.W. Nevius
June 22, 2015

"The opponents of Sharp Park Golf Course don’t know when to quit. As always, advocacy is a wonderful thing — until it turns into simple bullheadedness. For almost five years, environmental advocates have been battling changes to the 83-year-old course in Pacifica. Although golfers say the renovations, including a new lagoon for wildlife, will actually enhance the natural habitat, members of groups like the nonprofit Wild Equity Institute insist that the changes will harm the endangered California red-legged frog and the San Francisco garter snake...

This has been studied and litigated — extensively — over and over. In ruling after ruling, the plans created by the city of San Francisco and the Recreation and Park Department have been found to be in compliance. Yet a small group (which is getting smaller) battles on...

An example of how support is evaporating is that when the latest appeal was turned down on May 28, most members of the coalition pulled out. After starting with six plaintiffs, ranging from the Sierra Club to a group called “Save the Frogs,” they are now down to one — Wild Equity."

Losing a Lawsuit Can Mean Financial Gain
By C.W. Nevius
July 10, 2015

"Only the truest of true believers think the Wild Equity Institute is going to prevail in its quixotic quest to turn Sharp Park Golf Course into a nature park. It’s a pipe dream... Despite a flurry of lawsuits, the courts have shown no enthusiasm to support the institute’s claims of dire peril to endangered red-legged frogs and San Francisco garter snakes.And yet, the institute and its executive director and prime attorney, Brent Plater, persist. No sooner had a suit for more environmental review been slapped down on May 28 than Plater filed another, the latest in what has turned into a five-year legal guerrilla action...

Judge Susan Illston said in her ruling, “plaintiffs did not prevail on a single substantive motion before the Court.” The institute not only shrugged off criticism, it doubled down. Under provisions in the Endangered Species Act, Plater and his group submitted requests for legal fees. Illston was not impressed. In her ruling, she said the plaintiffs’ lack of success led “the Court to believe that a large majority of the time spent was ‘excessive, redundant, or otherwise unnecessary... What’s more"  she wrote, “plaintiffs failed to satisfactorily explain why Glitzenstein and Crystal, at $700 an hour or greater, spent so much time on this case. Most of the issues in this case were not complex. Yet the Washington, D.C., attorneys account for half of the attorney hours spent on the case.”

So, you assume, that was the end of that. The institute didn’t win and the judge thinks the fees are excessive. Not so fast. Illston cut the amount, but still awarded $385,809, paid by San Francisco. A tidy sum for a losing effort... let’s step back and look at this on a national level, where litigation under the Endangered Species Act has become a hot topic for reform. While the act is meant to protect animals and environment - and hooray for that - there is a concern that environmental groups are using the act, and serial lawsuits, to fund their activities by suing local governments."

Our own Bo Links may have said it best - “It’s a head-scratcher. ... This is environmental litigation in Wonderland ... they lose every motion they file.”

Or - as Alice in Wonderland said herself - "Curiouser and Curiouser." 

If you haven’t already, join us in the effort to preserve this priceless public recreational asset that brings the essence of golf, and more than just a touch of Scotland, to the Pacific Coast.  And stay with us until the job is done.

 

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ANOTHER ANTI-GOLF LAWSUIT DISMISSED - SHARP PARK GOLF/HABITAT RECOVERY PROJECT BEGINS

Jun 7, 2015

 

Busy day at Sharp Park!  Father-son Jon and Wyatt McGovern discuss strategy on the first tee, while in the background Wing Lai, Don Chinn, Clifford Lai, and Weyland Lum (L-R) celebrate a birdie putt on the 18th green, at the recent Alister MacKenzie Tournament to Save Sharp Park.

PACIFICA, CA. After years of political, legal, and bureaucratic delay, work began here this week at the historic Sharp Park Golf Course on the first stage of a combined habitat recovery and golf renovation project intended to safeguard endangered frogs and snakes, while renovating the landmark Alister MacKenzie-designed public links.

On June 1, the California Coastal Commission issued a coastal development permit to San Francisco for the Sharp Park Pump House Project, to dredge cattails from wetland areas, construct a new frog pond south of the golf course, and move a small section of cart path out of a wetland bordering the 14^th Hole.

San Francisco’s Recreation & Park Department is under order from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to begin work on these measures by July 1. But the project had been delayed by a lawsuit filed by anti-golf groups, who sought to further delay the work with demands for extended environmental review. On May 28, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Garrett Wong dismissed that lawsuit, Wild Equity Institute, et al vs. City and County of San Francisco. Finding that San Francisco’s environmental review has been adequate, Judge Wong upheld permits granted in early 2014 by the San Francisco Recreation and Park and Planning Commissions, and approved in March, 2014 by the Board of Supervisors. In March, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed Wild Equity’s appeal from a 2012 U.S. District Court decision which denied the anti-golf groups’ attempt to enjoin golf at Sharp Park for alleged violations of the Federal Endangered Species Act.“

This is a common-sense result,” said Attorney Chris Carr of the Morrison-Foerster law office, representing San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, which intervened in the case on behalf of public course golfers. “San Francisco has plans to improve habitat for the frog and snake, the plans have been extensively studied, reviewed, approved – and in fact, ordered – not only by San Francisco agencies and elected officials, but also by all the relevant state and federal agencies, including US Fish & Wildlife, Corps of Engineers, Water Quality Control Board, and Coastal Commission. All of them have rejected the anti-golf arguments, which have also been rejected by both the Federal and State Courts. It’s now time to just get on with it.”

High Five!  Alister MacKenzie Foundation founder Nick Zwick celebrates with Lyn Nelson, Chair of the San Francisco Mayor’s Women’s Golf Council.

Sharp Park’s moderate greens fees notwithstanding, the course is ranked among the Top 50 Municipal Courses in the Country. It is home for high school, women’s, minority, and seniors golfing societies, and in 1955 hosted the inaugural tournament of the Western States Golf Association, one of the oldest and largest African-American golfing societies in the U.S.

Coordinated local-state-federal planning for habitat and golf restoration at Sharp Park began with the 1992 “Laguna Salada Resource Enhancement Plan,” commissioned and financed by the California Coastal Conservancy, which prescribed dredging the lagoons and other measures to recover endangered species habitat at Sharp Park, while preserving the historic golf course. That study was followed by construction of the $12 million Pacifica Recycled Water Project, jointly financed by Pacifica, San Francisco, and the Federal Government, which brought recycled water from Pacifica’s Calera Creek Water Treatment Plant to irrigate the golf course. The pumps, pipelines, and storage tank were completed in 2012, and recycled irrigation water began flowing to the course in Fall, 2014.

Remaining to do at Sharp Park is more habitat recovery work, together with restoration of the golf course itself -- one of the few public courses built by legendary golf architect Alister MacKenzie, who designed many of the world’s acknowledged greatest courses, including Augusta National, home of the annual Masters Tournament, and the Cypress Point Club on the Monterey Peninsula. Plans for that restoration and recovery work are currently undergoing environmental review in the San Francisco Planning Department. San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and the Alister MacKenzie Foundation are working together to raise philanthropic funds for the golf course restoration.

 

Contact: info@sfpublicgolf.org

Richard Harris 415-290-5718

Bo Links 415-393-8099

 

Photographs courtesy of Brad Knipstein Photography

 

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Sharp Park Golfers Embrace Governor Brown’s Water Restrictions

May 25, 2015

In response to the continuing California drought, last month Governor Jerry Brown ordered sweeping water restrictions across the state. Golf courses were among the industries and organizations specifically called out to restrict water usage. Time magazine has the numbers:

"California Governor Jerry Brown on Wednesday imposed historic water controls on the drought-stricken state. But who will the burden of conserving water fall upon? Here, nine numbers that explain the new measures...  50 million square feet - The area of lawns throughout the state to be replaced by “drought tolerant landscaping,” in partnership with local governments. The plan will also require university campuses, golf courses and cemeteries to make “significant cuts” in water use, Brown said."

As a consequence, " Brown is the new green" has become the mantra for many California golf courses including Sharp Park.  The San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department reduced water consumption at Sharp Park by 24% over the last two years.  Surprisingly, for many Sharp Park golfers, this is not a bad thing. Wayne Freedman at KGO ABC 7 News has the story:

"GOLFERS AT SHARP PARK WARM UP TO COLOR CHANGE":

"PACIFICA, Calif. (KGO) -- The California drought is taking its toll on lawns around the Bay Area and the grass is as dry as the weather. Golf courses, like Sharp Park in Pacifica, are no exception. They have had to cut back millions of gallons of water. A few golfers on the course have actually begun to embrace the brown grass look and like how it plays. Some we spoke to said they understand the drought is going on and think the whole course doesn't have to be green...  At Sharp Park, they save 15,000 gallons a day by using recycled water on 20 percent of the golf course. The rest they sprinkle conservatively.  Fun part of it is the dry grass and ground has some golf shots rolling 20 percent farther... The look is a natural fit for Sharp Park since it is a seaside golf course, designed by one of the greats -- Alister MacKenzie from Scotland. Some players today say they wouldn't mind if the brown spots on the course were permanent since it is a natural look for the coastline."

 

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Golfers and Visitacion Valley Community to Benefit from New Job-Training Academy at Gleneagles

May 14, 2015

San Francisco's public, nine hole Gleneagles Golf Course -- which overlooks the South Bay from a hillside perch above the Cow Palace in McLaren Park -- is the new site of an innovative Laborers Union pre-apprentice job-training academy, which will provide entry-level job-training for at-risk San Francisco youth, while at the same time providing some TLC and improved playing conditions for the golf course.  The program was announced earlier this week by golf course manager Tom Hsieh, together with San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and Union Leaders from the Northern California District Council of Laborers.  

Hsieh’s crusade to keep the 52-year-old, Jack Fleming-designed course open, was featured in a September, 2014 New York Times article --  "This Gleneagles Is a Scruffy Cousin":

 

“I care a lot about making sure this golf course is here for another generation of golfers,” Hsieh said.

“By hook or by crook, we’re going to bootstrap this golf course forward. It’s always been that way.”

 

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SF Mayor’s Women’s Golf Council First “Get Out and Golf” Clinic and Mixer May 21 at Golden Gate Park

May 7, 2015

Sara Banke - 2015 SF City Champion

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World Golf Championship at Harding Park Shines National Media Spotlight On SF Municipal Gems

May 4, 2015

The week long coverage of Rory McIlroy's stirring win in the World Golf Championship Match Play at Harding Park put the national spotlight on San Francisco as a world class golfing destination. These articles highlight our under-appreciated municipal courses, their historic legacy, and the unique San Francisco golf culture they inspire.

Writing in "Saving Lincoln", in the current edition of Golfworld, Jaime Diaz looks at how the San Francisco golf community has rallied support not only for Saving Sharp Park but also for Lincoln Park Golf Course: 

 

"Battered Lincoln — which beyond its shabby exterior is a 5,146-yard, par-68 gem of sandy soil, giant trees, charming 300-yard par 4s and killer 240-yard par 3s — has a knack for accumulating lifelong paramours. Some fell in love during boyhood and would like to help pay the course's future forward... The place has great bones. It began as a three-hole loop in 1902, but grew to 18 with the help of Pebble Beach-designer Jack Neville and British architect Herbert Fowler in 1917. When golf was the city game in San Francisco, Lincoln was a spawning ground. Bob Rosburg, a prodigy who put on exhibitions in downtown theaters at age 5, lived down the street. George Archer putted for quarters on the practice green under a street light at 34th and Clement into the wee hours. Before Johnny Miller was honing his iron skill from sidehill lies at the Olympic Club, he was doing so as a skinny grade-schooler at Lincoln...

 

Bo Links, a local golf novelist and historian.. "Especially in cities, golfers make a mistake if they think golf is inevitable. It's not inevitable. You have to fight for it or it will go away." However, the tireless efforts of Links and fellow attorney and golfer Richard Harris to successfully fend off environmental groups' efforts to close Sharp Park, a Alister MacKenzie-designed, San Francisco-run muny close to the Pacific Ocean that was taken for granted and allowed to decay (much like Lincoln), has renewed the collective golf spirit in local golfers...

 

Lincoln's biggest champion is John Abendroth, a 63-year-old stalwart of the San Francisco golf scene. A former journeyman tour player who has run junior events and co-hosts a local radio golf show, Abendroth attended Lincoln High School and played his high school matches at Lincoln. In a recent conversation. Miller spoke for them both when he said, "I owe Lincoln." Abendroth's plan is to convert the widespread affection for Lincoln into philanthropy, creating an endowment to allow tax-benefited donations to refurbish the golf operation.  "There are people with means and influence who want to see this happen" says Mark Buell, 72, who as a member of Olympic Club and Meadow Club and an annual pilgrim to Machrihanish, is a prototype of the constituency Abendroth seeks. "Properly cared for, Lincoln is a city asset like cable cars or the Palace of Fine Arts, and it can be iconic in the golf world. By not doing anything, we're missing a major opportunity."

 

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California Coastal Commission Unanimously Approves Permit For First Stage of Sharp Park Golf and Habitat Recovery Plan

Apr 19, 2015

PRESS RELEASE

San Francisco, CA., April 16, 2015

CALIFORNIA COASTAL COMMISSION UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES PERMIT FOR FIRST STAGE OF SHARP PARK GOLF AND HABITAT RECOVERY PLAN

 

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