The San Francisco City Championships, one of the longest consecutively contested amateur tournaments in America which dates back to 1917, enters its final weekend of match play starting on Saturday at TPC Harding Park.
The quarterfinals and semifinals of the men's championship division will be contested on Saturday with the title match scheduled for Sunday morning. The women's semifinals will be held on Saturday with the winners advancing to Sunday's championship match. Both finals are scheduled for 36 holes.
Additionally, champions will be crowned in the men's senior and super-senior divisions on Sunday.
• • • • •
Men's Championship Division
Matthew Watkins (No. 2) and Kyreece Romero (No. 6) are the only single-digit seeds remaining in the men's championship bracket and could potentially square off in one semifinal match on Saturday afternoon.
A native of Novato, Watkins, who played collegiately at the Academy of the Arts in San Francisco, will face former Buschnell University golfer Michael Carrillo (Chualar) with the winner advancing to the semis against either Romero or Foothill High School senior Brandon Knight (Pleasanton).
Knight won last year's CIF State Championship and has signed a letter of intent to play his collegiate golf at Colorado next year while Romero is the brother of two golfing sisters, Kaleiya, who is a junior at Pepperdine and Kiara, who is currently ranked ninth nationally by the American Junior Golf Association and will play collegiately at Oregon.
In the top half of the bracket, No. 16 Mitchell Hoey, a sophomore at Saint Mary's College, earned a spot in the quarterfinals after handily dispatching No. 1 seed Grant Yerger, 5 and 4, in the Round of 16. His path doesn't get easier, as he will square off against Joshua Wang, a sophomore at Palo Alto High School who recently finished third in the Pacific Grove City Championships, in the quarters.
The winner of the Hoey-Wang match will advance to the semifinals against either Vijay Srinivasan, a graduate student at San Jose State, or San Francisco resident Nic Neinken.
Neinken, 35, is the oldest player remaining in the field. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2011 and currently serves as shopping ads solutions architect at Google. He also co-runs the Google Golf Club, which brings together local coworkers through golf and provides motivation to keep (or start) competing in friendly tournaments.
Quarterfinals; March 25
No. 16 Mitchell Hoey (Alamo, Calif.) vs. No. 25 Joshua Wang (Palo Alto, Calif.); 7:20 a.m.
No. 20 Vijay Srinivasan (Fremont, Calif.) vs. No. 44 Nic Neinken (San Francisco); 7:20 a.m.
No. 2 Matthew Watkins (Novato, Calif.) vs. No. 10 Michael Carrillo (Chualar, Calif.); 7:30 a.m.
No. 14 Brandon Knight (Pleasanton, Calif.) vs. No. 6 Kyreece Romero (San Jose); 7:30 a.m.
Semifinals; March 25
TBA
Championship Match (36 holes)
Sunday, March 26; 7:10 a.m.
• • • • •
Related: Top 10 Things You Need to Know About the San Francisco City Golf Championships
• • • • •
Women's Championship Division
Four of the Bay Area's top high school golfers will square off to decide the women's championship.
In the top half of the bracket, Emily Luo, the ninth-seed who is a junior at Monte Vista High School, will meet 13-seed Olivia Duan, a junior at Cupertino High School who has verbally committed to play her collegiate golf at Princeton.
The winner of the Luo-Duan match will advance to Sunday's 36-hole final against either No. 7-seeded Camille Tha, a sophomore at Los Altos High School, or 14-seed Michelle Ho, a sophomore at Dougherty Valley High School.
Duan had a strong showing at the Fortinet Girls' Championship two months ago at Stanford Golf Course, where she tied for 10th in a field that featured some of the top juniors on the west coast.
Semifinals; March 25
No. 9 Emily Luo (Danville, Calif.) vs. No. 13 Olivia Duan (Cupertino, Calif.); 8:00 a.m.
No. 7 Camille Thai (Los Altos, Calif.) vs. No. 14 Michelle Ho (San Ramon, Calif.); 8:00 a.m.
Championship Match (36 holes)
Sunday, March 26; 7:20 a.m.
• • • • •
Senior Division
The quarterfinal matches of the senior division were not completed on Sunday. Next weekend's schedule is TBA.
• • • • •
Super Senior Division
Semifinals; March 25
No. 9 Jim Himler (San Rafael, Calif.) vs. No. 4 Matt Vukicevich (Kenwood, Calif.); 7:40 a.m.
No. 10 Sunil Bhalla (Fremont, Calif.) vs. No. 3 Jim Williams (Orinda, Calif.); 7:40 a.m.
Championship Match
Sunday, March 26; 10:10 a.m.
ABOUT THE
San Francisco City Men's Championship
>> The weekend qualifier is now closed, except for exempt players. Please email Info@SFGolfChampionship.com to register as an exempt player. Or, you may enter the Pre-Qualifier by clicking the link below>>
PRE-QUALIFIER REGISTRATION
TOUR
PORTAL (coming soon)
*An NCGA Points Tournament*
**
Entry Procedure:
Registration opens for all players on
October 1. There will be 50 spots held for
exempt
players under the following
categories:
* The past 10 years of the San Francisco City
Golf
Champions
* 2024 San Francisco City Men’s
Championship
Match Play Qualifiers
* Top 20 men’s 2023-2024 NCGA Points
Lists
* 2024 NCGA Champions (Amateur, Mid-
Amateur,
Junior)
* The top 3 finishers in each of the 6
AmateurGolf.com Winter
Tour
events (Dec 2024-Feb 2025)
Registration for exempt players, and for non-
exempt
players with a handicap index
of
6.4 or lower as of the date of
entry, opens on October 1 and will
remain
open until the field limit (120 players including
spots
reserved for exempt players)
is reached. When the field limit is reached, all
additional registrants will be entered in
the
pre-qualifier at Lincoln Park on Friday,
March 7,
2025.
Once entries close, if there are any unfilled
spots in
the Men's Championship (due to
fewer than 50 exempt players registering
or withdrawals), they will be filled by Pre-
Qualifier
registrants in the order in which
they registered.
Players entering pre-qualifying will pay an
entry fee
of $165 for the pre-qualifier, and
those
advancing from the pre-qualifier will pay the
remainder of the entry fee (must be paid
prior to playing).
The 36-hole match play qualifier will be held
March
8-9, 2025, with
18 holes played at TPC Harding Park and 18
holes at Lincoln Park for a combined 36-hole qualifying
score.
There will be 156 players in the qualifying
round with
64 players advancing to match play. When all
qualifying has been completed, the Men’s
Championship Flight will consist of 64
contestants.
In the event of a playoff to qualify for
match
play, a
player must be present in order to retain his
right
to participate in the playoff.
Match play will begin on March 15, 2025. All
match play for the Championship Flight (Mar
15-16,
22-23) will be held
at TPC Harding Park.
A schedule of all dates of
play can be found on the tournament website
sfgolfchampionship.com.
WITHDRAWALS AND REFUND
POLICY
Players needing to withdraw should do so by
filling
out the form at
sfgolfchampionship.com/contact/. Players withdrawing
before
the entry deadline of
February 18
will
receive a
refund of their entry fee minus
$50.
There will be no refunds after the
entry
deadline.
CART POLICY
The use of carts is prohibited for players and
caddies
in the Men’s Championship Flight (Appendix I
– Local
Rule
Applies)
SPECIAL OFFER TO SF CITY PLAYERS:
SF City
players get 50% off Strackaline Yardage
Books! CLICK HERE for
details
The oldest municipal tournament in the USA.
Match
play event with scratch men's, senior men’s,
women's, senior women’s, and open flight
divisions.
Past champions include Ken Venturi, Harvie
Ward,
Juli Inkster, Bob Rosburg, 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.
View Complete Tournament Information