San Francisco Golf Club

[John Blain]

I had the pleasure of playing SFGC last week and was wondering if someone could tell me how much of the original Tillinghast architecture remains intact? I know Tom Doak has done some work there recently and the front nine "feels" original but I was wondering if there was any truth that the holes out along the eastern part of the property - holes 12-17 were redesigned to make way for highway 280?

Thanks for any and all responses.

-John

[Tyler Kearns]

John,

Yes, the back nine was re-designed, namely holes 12-15 I believe, not sure about 16-17.
I seem to recall reading that the changes to the back nine to accommodate the freeway construction were ultimately unnecessary, as the road was re-routed.   Any truth to that?

TK

[Tom_Doak]

John:

Holes 13-15 were re-routed by a local golf pro in 1949-50 to make room for the highway overpass.

As it turned out, the overpass didn't take up as much space as anticipated, so I recommended restoring the three original holes.  We restored 13 and 14 as they were, and did the best we could with the par-4 15th ... had to make it about thirty yards shorter because of the overpass.  It was a controversial decision within the club to move forward with the restoration, since only a couple of the members could remember the course with the original Tillinghast routing, and it is a conservative club that doesn't like much in the way of change.  There is still a vocal minority of members who dislike the new holes, though no one really argues that it is not a faithful restoration.

We did have to rebuild all of the greens and greenside bunkers a few years ago because of nematode issues.  However we did not build new USGA greens ... really all we did was remove the years of topdressing buildup (and the nematodes) and get them back down to original grade.  We did reduce the tilt of #2 green a bit; and there are a couple of other greens (#7 and #8) which were rebuilt by others before us and which we just saved as we found them.

[Ben Sims]

Tom (and anyone else that would like to add),

While the course is fresh on your iceberg of penguins.  What is your opinion of SFGC as a study in scale and maximizing space?

It doesn't seem like courses like that get built much anymore.

[John Blain]

Tyler and Tom:

Thank you for your responses.

Tom, FWIW the bunkering at SFGC is pretty incredible. Is the fairway bunker down the right side of #15 the so-called tarantula bunker?
Even though that hole is 30 yards shorter than the original it is still a stout hole, especially since it plays uphill.

In your opinion where does SFGC rank among all the Tillinghast courses you've seen or played and have you played California Golf Club and if so your thoughts.

Thanks.

-John

[Jay Flemma]

Any pix, John?  Congrats on getting to play a place revered so much by so many of us!

[Tom_Doak]

Jay:

If he took pictures of SFGC he'd better not post them, or the board will hunt him down.

JP:

Yes, the bunker between 14 and 15 is the Tarantula.  We had to build that one from scratch, since the Harold Sampson routing had avoided it altogether and they'd filled it in and planted trees there.

I have played the Cal Club and thought it was very good, but you'll not get a rating from me.

[Deucie Bies]

Awesome place.  Great work with the renovation Tom.  I played both the old and new holes 13-15 and prefer the new, especially 13 and 15. 

[John Blain]

Jay,

I didn't take any pictures of SFGC but I wish I had taken some of California Golf Club. The views on that course are just spectacular! In particular the view from the 14th tee of the San Bruno mountains and the white Cal Club clubhouse is truly breathtaking.

I enjoyed both courses and it's hard to beat the atmosphere and ambiance of SFGC but Cal Club was very impressive and maybe part of it was I had no expectations going in.

On another note, we also played Pasatiempo and it was really, really good. I hadn't played there in ten years and I had forgotten how enjoyable that course really is. I thought the restoration work there by Tom Doak was terrific, especially the bunkers. It has many great attributes that include interesting greens, great bunkering and is very easy to walk. Just a great course. I could play there every day and die a happy man.

-John