Tournament Overview
NOTE: 2017 REGISTRATIONS CLOSED ON JAN.
15.
MEN'S OPEN FLIGHT DIVISION:
$165
ENTRY
FEE INCLUDES ALL GREEN FEES.
Open
to
the first 210 entries received. No index is
required.
Contestants will play in an 18-hole qualifying
round
at
Lincoln Park Golf Course. The low 192 scores
following
qualifying will be used to assign six (6) flights of
32
players each, as well as the seeding for match
play.
Qualifying, as well as the first four Open Flight
rounds
will be played at Lincoln Park Golf Course. The
semifinal and final rounds will be played at TPC
Harding
Park Golf Course. Those contestants who post
the
193rd and 194th low scores will be deemed
alternate
#1 and #2, respectively.
Contestants who
do
not
qualify will be refunded $100. No-shows will
not
be
entitled to a refund.
ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO CITY
CHAMPIONSHIP
The oldest municipal tournament in the
USA.
Match
play event with scratch senior, women's
and
net
divisions. Past champions include Ken
Venturi,
George Archer, and Dorothy Delasin. Some
of the
'non winners' include Tom Watson and
Johnny Miller.
Click the 'history' tab for more about this
wonderful
event.
Course
Lincoln Park Golf Course
3139 Clement St
San Francisco, CA 94121
phone: (415) 221-9911
Full results for this tournament are posted outside AmateurGolf.com.
Click here to view results.
by Pete Wlodkowski
The San Francisco City Championship was
inaugurated in 1917, and is the
Country's
oldest
municipal golf tournament. The Women's
division was
added in 1958. In its early years, the
tournament
was hosted by the Sun-Bulletin
newspaper
and has
had numerous sponsors throughout its
history such
as Bob Varner, Tom Culligan, and Pepsi.
The name of the tournament is deceiving,
as the
field is typically made up of the best
amateurs from
throughout Northern California. As a
matter
of fact,
the 1999 field included Mark Murphy of
Waterville,
Ireland, who made it to the quarterfinals
before
being ousted in a nail-biter by Gary
Vanier.
(Vanier
eventually lost to Randy Haag in what was
called
the best final since Ken Venturi beat
Harvey
Ward in
1956 in front of 12,000 fans.)
Another thing that makes the City
Championship a
unique event is the inclusion of an
"Open"
Division,
allowing for amateurs of varying abilities
to
compete. The top two flights in the Open
Division,
named the "Venturi" and "Susko"
respectively, are
named for two of the tournaments' most
popular
competitors, Ken Venturi and John Susko,
the latter
of whom met an untimely death from
Crohn's
disease in 1983. Susko is remembered as
a
popular
Lincoln Park golfer who won the City
Championship in
1978 and 1980, won the Alameda
Commuters in
1981, and participated in a number of
National
amateur events even with a condition
that
often
sidelined him for weeks at a time.
Those familiar with the City Championship
will tell
you about the tradition of playing the ball
as it lies
at San Francisco's Lincoln and Harding
Park
golf
courses in some often very wintry
conditions.
More
than one player has marched in to the
tournament
office claiming that they will never play
again, but
their applications usually find their way in
the
following year. Conditions are the same
for
everyone; the ability to accept the
occasional
bad
break is paramount to a competitor's
success.
Past champions include 1964 US Open
Champion
Ken Venturi, 1999 US Women's Open
Champion Julie
Inkster, and 1969 Masters Champion
George
Archer. More recently, LPGA Tour player
Dorothy
Delasin* of Daly City (winner of the 1998
US Junior
Girls Championship and 1999 US
Women's
Amateur) claimed the Women's City
Championship in
1998.