and identify a champion. It’s ask- ing a lot for any golfer to set aside that much of their free time. There is also the matter of money. Every competitor must pay a $200 entry fee, which is a reasonable amount for what 1999 champion Randy Haag calls “the crown jewel of amateur golf in Northern California.” But when a player advances into match play an $80 greens fee has to be paid for every ensuing match. If you make it all the way to the finals you’re look- ing at a total outlay of $680, and this is with the tournament providing considerable subsidization; the city of San Francisco charges $140 for each player’s tee time. Through the years various efforts have been made to cut a better deal for The City but San Francisco’s infamous bureaucracy has proven to be impenetrable. So the answer is to raise more money, and attract more players. Enter Haag, who is royalty in NorCal golf circles, as a six-time NCGA player of the year. On three occasions he has made it to the championship match of The City and his own experience illustrates the decline of the tournament. “My first final in ’84,” he says, “there was a big story on the front page of the


Chronicle sports. We had probably 700 people following us. The second final in ’99 [when he made 11 birdies to beat Gary Vanier, who had been a record 6-0 in City championship matches] we had 300 spectators, and there was a short story buried in the sports page. In 2008, we had maybe 20 people following us, and there was nothing in the newspaper. We were literally begging them to include the scores in the agate.” Last year Haag joined The City’s


executive committee and he has an aggressive vision for upgrading the tournament, which is supported by Miller and others in leadership positions. Among the improvements they’re hoping to make in 2017: s#ONDENSINGTHETOURNAMENTINTO three weekends. s%LIMINATINGGREENSFEESIN match play. s'ETTINGMOREMATCHESAT Harding Park, even though it’s the most expensive venue. s5PGRADINGTHETECHNOLOGYWITH real-time on-course scoring and text alerts to competitors. s4OIMPROVEPACEOFPLAYDURING stroke play qualifying, sending groups off in 11 minute intervals (instead


of nine) and in threesomes instead of foursomes. s3TRONGOUTREACHPROGRAMSTO encourage participation. All of these ideas come with a cost;


Miller pegs it at $50,000 a year, which is a rounding error in the marketing budgets of the Bay Area’s big tech companies. But so far no broad- minded corporation has stepped up, so Haag and others are hitting up local businesses and have also established a portal for donations at gofundme.com/ savethesfcity. San Francisco mayor Ed Lee has pledged $10,000 from his own fundraising tournament. But ulti- mately the burden is not on a handful of dedicated citizens. The City belongs to all of us, and it is incumbent on golfers across Northern California to support it. In its heyday the tourna- ment attracted 1,500 golfers a year. Now the annual turnout is less than half of that. Everyone loves the ro- mantic ideal of The City. It’s now time for you, the reader, to get involved, to ensure that the tournament’s future is as bright as its past.


ALAN SHIPNUCK is a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. His introduction to golf came as a cart boy at Pebble Beach Golf Links.


Harding Park’s closing stretch offers views of Lake Merced. SUMMER 2016 / NCGA.ORG / 9


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