Nearly every young golfer played in the Examiner Junior Golf Tournament at GG Park. Like everything else in S.F., this little gem is/was badly abused by the dogmatic morons who have destroyed the city.
At one point, the entire maintenance crew was comprised of one gardener, whose duties were mowing the grass occasionally - and maybe removing fallen branches.
Willie Brown - who still does not know which end of the club to hold - made a speech back in 1999, bragging that SF Public courses would become better than any of the country clubs in the area.
When questioned by the congenitally combative San Mateo County Times golf scribe his plans for GG Park GC, our former carpet-bagging criminal (TV cameras rolling) stood up, looked me right in the eye and blurted into the microphone: "What you talkin' bout? Golden Gate Park does not have a golf course!"
Last time I was at GG - about 3 years ago with my son, the tees were dirt with the occasional crabgrass patch - and the greens had more dollar spot than actual grass.
They have also sucked neary every penny out of Sharp Park - and years later, despite endless fund raisers and a million dollars of pro bono legal work to clear the way for Jay Blasi to do a sympathetic restoration, it is still just another unkempt mud hole - a grossly underperforming asset, only being kept alive to raid the till for the SF General Fund.
BTW, last time I looked, the Fleming Nine is also a disgusting disgrace. You're lucky if there is a flag attached to the pin - and the actual cups are mostly broken plastic, pounded into bare dirt.
Sorry gang, there is no way to put a Mr. Smiley Face on this debacle.
On a lighter note, I've still got the hate mail from Willie's office, demanding a retraction for my "insulting and baseless accusations." When one of his drones at City Hall called our Managing Editor (RIP) demanding I retract my statements or be fired, Terry asked the magic question:
"Is there anything in those last three columns that are factually incorrect?"
And that was the end of that.