On the Beat
Save the City
The San Francisco City Amateur, one of the most cherished amateur events in Northern California, needs $50,000 to return to relevance
final between local sons Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward, when both were among the best players on the planet. Some 5,000 spectators watched that match in person and the stories endure to this day. That’s part of the problem now facing The City—the sepia glow of nostalgia obscures the hard truth that the tournament has been struggling for years. Rising costs and dwindling players have left The City running an annual financial defi-
A
sk any fan of the game about the San Francisco City Golf Championship and they’re likely to mention the 1956
cit. It has been largely banished from its traditional home, Harding Park, where Venturi and Ward did their myth-making. But this beloved tradi- tion—open to all, even 100-shooters with no formal handicap index— will not go quietly, as have so many other big city Opens. Too many San Franciscans love their tournament to let it fail. There is now coalescing an aggressive movement to save The City. The tournament dates to 1917, and no one believes it will ever return to the prominence it enjoyed in the 1950s. That’s not the goal. “What we are trying to do,” says tournament
chairman Michael Miller, “is to make The City a better tournament that reaches more players. If we can do that, we can ensure it will be around for another 100 years.” That is a necessity, because no
single sporting event is more a part of the fabric of San Francisco. “For the everyday golfers in this city, it’s our Masters,” says Ken Harrington, who has played every year since 1977. “If you’re a San Francisco golfer and you’re serious about the game it’s mandatory that you play. You don’t even have to be good—there are guys who can’t break 100 but every year they get all dressed up and want to be part of proceedings, just to soak in the history. You never know who you’re going to be playing with— one guy is a UPS driver, another is a lawyer, a teacher, a taxi driver, one guy cuts hair. It’s a real mix that’s represen- tative of all of San Francisco.” It is the scale of The City that is
the cause of some of its problems. Traditionally the tournament has been conducted across six weekends: 18 holes of stroke-play qualifying in the many different flights and then match play to whittle down the field
The 1956 final drew 5,000 spectators. 8 /
NCGA.ORG / SUMMER 2016
BOB CAMPBELL/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/POLARIS
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