In your hometown of San Francisco, is there support for additional facilities like you describe?
As a point of order, I consider my "hometown" to be Austin, TX, even if I currently live in SF.
In San Francisco:
Most people here are familiar with the Jay Blasi update of Golden Gate Park Golf Course. I played there the day before it closed, and the day it opened back up. I wrote a extensive piece on the changes:
https://golfcoursewiki.substack.com/p/a-preview-of-the-next-era-at-golden. I specifically go into detail about how I think Blasi's design is good
explicitly because it keeps the course as beginners-first course, and only then as a fun afternoon for advanced players. My favorite changes are the fact that the forward tees are clearly designed to make each hole extremely forgiving, and my favorite hole change was the needlessly challenging, and entirely poorly thought out 9th hole (now the 5th), which has been shortened to make the land relevant. This facility is a god-sent for beginners.
Where I would like to see improvement: the
redundant driving range at Harding may be able to be converted into a 9-hole chipping course, though, I honestly doubt the PGA would have any interest in doing that. There is a
wasted area at Lincoln that could be converted into a small chipping course or putting course. I have even suggested reducing Gleneagles SF to a par 70 in order to open up enough space for an architecturally interesting chipping course
on this section of the course.
Before people lose their minds about the costs involved with putting courses, aside from the benefits of sod farms on site, I honestly don't think most beginners need a putting course to be mowed below fairway height.
Austin has some exceptional versions of what I'm getting at:
The
Joe Balander Short Course is a 4 hole short course that cost $5 to play (more info here:
https://www.austintexas.gov/department/joe-balander-short-course). This is a type of facilitiy that lets beginners
actually play golf as they learn.
The step up from there is everyone's favorite, Butler Pitch & Putt:
https://butlerpitchandputt.com/. I played my first rounds of golf here, as did many Austinites.
After mastery at Butler, new players can graduate to the historic Hancock GC:
https://www.austintexas.gov/department/hancock-course, which is probably the oldest course in Texas, and is effectively maintained as a short beginners course.
With such quality onramping like this, it's no wonder that Austin, against all political expectations, is a massively pro-golf city able to hang onto historic facilities in spite of the housing shortage and strong pushes for changes in land use:
https://hancockgolfcourseconservancy.orghttps://themunyconservancy.comMy concerns about the disconnect between private and municipal golf facilities, which is related to golf onramping, is discussed here:
https://golfcoursewiki.substack.com/p/why-i-am-still-concerned-about-municipal