Barret Dowling of San Francisco, Calif., and Giulio Zanichelli of San Francisco, Calif., each shot a first-round bogey-free 6-under 66 to tie at the top of the leaderboard of the pre-qualifier for the San Francisco 2024 Men's Championship at Presidio Golf Course.
There were 38 spots to get into the 36-hole weekend qualifier at Presidio Golf Course and Harding Park.
"It was the round of my life," Dowling said. "It was just one of those days. I can't explain it. It felt easy, which golf never does, so I embraced it. I was 5-under through 17 holes, and I knew I had a chance at the round of my life. I had a 12-footer for birdie (on No. 18), and it went right in the middle.
Dowling added that it was his "lowest score ever in general and in a tournament."
Barret Dowling Dowling has been waiting for this tournament, as he played for the first time last year, where he was playing well and then hit his tee shot out of bounds on hole No. 12 and made a triple bogey.
Dowling is from Seattle but has been in San Francisco working for Brighton Jones. He has a vast resume, working as a bicycle repairman in Maui and a commercial fisherman in Alaska, and he spent a year studying abroad at the Vienna University of Economics and Business in Austria.
For Zanichelli, it was his first time playing in this event. Zanichelli currently plays for the Academy of the Arts University and hails from Northern Italy.
"It was a good round, and I was happy because the hard work is paying off," Zanichelli said.
Zanichelli added, "I played pretty strong off the tee and tried to improve my second shots and putting, but today, everything was strong. I'm happy that I get to play this weekend and I am going to try to play well and have some fun."
Related:San Francisco City Championship: First round of open flight match play in the booksJackson Suh of San Francisco, Calif., Grant Johnson of Walnut Creek, Calif., and Matthew Lin of Orinda, Calif., finished T3 at 4-under.
In the playoff, Kevin Dexter of San Francisco, Calif., Jacob Boyce of Fairfield, Calif., Brandon Pantaleon of San Jose, Calif., and Khai deSpretter of Rio Vista, Calif., survived a 7 for 4 playoff to move on and finish T35 at 6-over. Pantaleon, who turns 16 on March 22nd, holed a 30-footer to advance. The playoff hole was the par-5 No. 10.
Eleven golfers shot even par or better, and six golfers shot rounds in the 60s.
View results for San Francisco City Pre-Qualifier
ABOUT THE
San Francisco City Pre-Qualifier
>>
TOUR
PORTAL (coming soon)
Once the number of entries for the Men's
Championship reaches 120 players (including
spots held for exempt
players), all additional entrants will enter the
pre-qualifier as described below. We anticipate 12 or
more positions in the weekend qualifying field to be
available for pre-qualifiers. The exact number will be
available on March 7 before teeing off.
MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP
DIVISION PRE-QUALIFIER
Open to players with a handicap index of 6.4 or
lower as of the entry date.
Those entering pre-qualifying will pay an entry fee of
$165 for the pre-qualifier to be held
at Lincoln Park. Those advancing from the pre-qualifier will
pay the remainder of the Men's
Championship
entry fee ($230; it must be paid prior to playing) and
will play in the 36-hole stroke play qualifier
at TPC Harding Park and Lincoln Park, from which the low
64 will then advance to
the match-play
phase of the men’s championship.
A schedule of all dates
of play can be found on the tournament website
sfgolfchampionship.com.
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, and those players will be charged the
remainder of the Men's Championship
entry fee.
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.
SPECIAL OFFER TO SF CITY PLAYERS:
SF City
players get 50% off Strackaline Yardage Books! CLICK HERE for
details
ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO CITY
CHAMPIONSHIPThe oldest municipal
tournament in the USA. Match play event
with scratch men's,
senior, 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