For a city that’s easy to get around without a car, there’s a lot of driving (and putting) in San Francisco. The city is home to the oldest municipal city golf tournament in the world (1917), the 2009 PGA TOUR Presidents Cup, and some of the best places to play, as cited by Golf Digest.
The oldest golf course in the city dates back to 1895. San Francisco Golf Club was a nine-hole course in the Presidio, but moved to Junipero Serra Blvd. in the Sunset District in 1905.
Lincoln Park opened as a six-hole course in 1909, and later expanded to 18 holes in 1913.
Lincoln Park and Harding Park have been home to the San Francisco City Golf Championship, the oldest and largest municipal city golf tournament, since it began in 1917 and continues to this day. Former champion Ken Venturi won the tournament in 1950, 1953 and 1957 before he went on to win 14 PGA TOUR events including the 1964 U.S. Open.
The 2009 Presidents Cup will be played at San Francisco’s Harding Park Golf Course Oct. 6-11, 2009. U.S. Presidents Cup Team Captain Fred Couples has announced that Jay Haas will serve as his captain’s assistant for the 2009 competition. Haas and Couples represented the United States at the first Presidents Cup in 1994. The U.S. Presidents Cup Team will be named on August 17, 2009, following the PGA Championship.
The top 10 U.S. players who are highest on the PGA TOUR money list from the start of the 2008 season through the 2009 PGA Championship automatically make the team. Couples will announce his two captain’s selections to round out the 12-man team. Greg Norman, captain of the International Team, is expected to name his captain’s assistant in the near future.
The Presidents Cup, a team match play competition featuring 24 of the world’s top golfers -12 from the United States and 12 from around the world, excluding Europe – is held every two years, and since 1996 has alternated between the United States and international venues. The Presidents Cup was developed to give the world’s best non-European golfers an opportunity to compete in international team match play competition. For more information, visit pgatour.com/tournaments/presidentscup/ or harding-park.com.
