At least for two facilities in San Francisco, municipal golf is feast or famine.City-owned TPC Harding Park will host three of golf's biggest events over the next 11 years, according to a recent announcement by the PGA of America, PGA Tour and City of San Francisco. Its sister property, nine-hole Gleneagles is in one of the city's deadliest neighborhoods, and could close its doors by the end of the month.
The 2015 World Golf Championships-Match Play Championship, as well as the 2020 PGA Championship and the 2025 Presidents Cup will be played at the city-owned course on Lake Merced, according to The Associated Press. Harding Park has been managed by the PGA Tour since 2010.
The PGA, which hasn't played its championship on a municipal or state-owned course since 1974 at Tanglewood Park in Clemmons, North Carolina, is now headed to two straight. Preceding the 2020 championship at Harding Park is the 2019 edition scheduled for the Black Course at Bethpage State Park in New York.
The PGA Championship has not been played on the West Coast since 1998 at Sahalee Country Club outside Seattle. The 2020 event at Harding Park also gives California majors in three consecutive years, with the U.S. Open going to Pebble Beach in 2019 and Torrey Pines in 2021.
The Match Play Championship, which has been held the past eight years in Arizona, will begin the last week of April under a new format. The tournament will offer a similar structure to the World Cup, with group play leading into single-elimination matches.
The reconfiguration will ensure that all 64 players are around for at least three days. In the past, single-elimination from the outset often led to quick exits for top players and fan favorites.
The trio of tournaments adds to an aggressive schedule in San Francisco's southwest corridor.
The Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic, which was held on the last weekend of April this year, is set to return to Lake Merced in nearby Daly City in 2015. And next year?s inaugural U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship is scheduled from April 30 to May 6 at The Olympic Club, where the U.S. Open was last held in 2012.
It's a different story across town, on the city's southeast side near Candlestick Park where historic Gleneagles Golf Course could be forced to close up within the next several weeks.
Also owned by the city, Gleneagles is struggling to make ends meet thanks in part to rising water rates, according to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The city recently announced plans to hike water rates by 50 percent, making it difficult to make ends meet at a course that already is struggling.
On July 1, course manager Tom Hsieh issued a 30-day notice that if things don't improve or a rate settlement is not reached he might have to step away from the course by month's end. Hsieh also is responsible for all maintenance and repairs, but also gets to keep any profit in exchange for leasing the property from the city. The city does not contribute to the upkeep of the course, but also must approve any increase in its modest $19 green fees.
Paying the higher rate to irrigate wall-to-wall is not realistic for Hsieh, who has held the management contract on the course for nine years. The fairways and out-of-play areas at this challenging nine-hole layout already are firm, dry and brown. Any more cutbacks in water use will reach the bone.