The Rebirth of Golden Gate Park Golf Course, Part 3
As the first golfers get a glimpse at the finished course, the verdict is in: a veritable fun factory
On December 4, 2023, the San Francisco golf community gathered to get reacquainted with an old friend. She still had the same good bones dating to the middle of last century, but now dazzled with a stylish new look. This was the debut of the renovated Golden Gate Park Golf Course, and as lucky golfers chosen for the preview play fanned out across the rolling grounds, evocative sounds echoed through the cypress trees: whoops of joy, shouts of delight, cries of good-natured anguish as balls tracked toward the hole and then veered away at the last moment. The golfers came off the course laughing, smiling, pounding each other on the back. The early verdict on Golden Gate? A veritable fun factory.
Looking on with a paternal pride was golf course architect Jay Blasi, who oversaw Golden Gate’s transformation. “What a thrill,” Blasi said. “To see people out here having a great time, making memories, falling a little deeper in love with the game…this is what it’s all about.”
There were a series of leaps of faith when Golden Gate closed down in February for a sweeping maintenance project. Led by CEO Dan Burke, the First Tee-San Francisco had already been operating the course, but could it manage a full-blown renovation? Could Blasi, 45, summon a design that welcomed new golfers but engaged better players? Would fine fescue work as a playing surface on a municipal course? Turns out the answer to all of these questions is a resounding hell yes.
The only hiccup in the project has been delays in the city’s construction of a new clubhouse, which is not in the purview of the golf guys. Golden Gate won’t open to the public until the clubhouse is done, tentatively February 2. (Green fees are still being finalized but city residents will pay around $25 and out-of-towners in the range of $40.) The good news is that the clubhouse delays give the grass more time to grow.
“It was a big decision to use fine fescue,” says Josh Lewis, the project manager and agronomy guru. “But it checked every box. It can only thrive in a cool, maritime climate, and that’s what we have here, which would be a challenge for other grasses. The fescue requires less water, so it is more environmentally friendly. Most of all, it creates a firm, fast playing surface, which would allow all of the features of the green complexes to come alive.”
New life is the theme at Golden Gate, which will remain a home base for the First Tee-San Francisco for at least the next 15 years. Whereas the greens used to be flat and boring, now they have been reborn with humps, hollows, swales, mounds and knobs, leading to thrilling and sometimes challenging putts. But Lewis says the greens will be kept at “sensible” speeds so all the features can be utilized. That includes the green surrounds, too, which are kept clipped to encourage friendly bounces. On the uphill 4th hole, with its huge punchbowl green, I aimed ten yards left of the green and caught my pitching wedge just right. The ball fed off the slope, rolled past the flag, meandered around for a while and then started trickling back toward the hole. On the tee box there were exhortations and then it got quiet with anticipation. Finally the ball ended its long, leisurely journey a couple paces from glory. It was the most fun minute I’ve had in a while.
Blasi cut his teeth helping to bring to life Chambers Bay, another imaginative design that welcomes the public. The driving force of that project was a local politician named John Ladenburg, and to this day Blasi likes to quote Ladenburg’s favorite pep talk: “The danger isn’t to aim high and fail, it’s to aim low and succeed.”
The reimagining of Golden Gate Park Golf Course was a tremendously ambitious project with a simple goal: to provide a fun, welcoming, inexpensive home for the local golf community. The folks behind it aimed high, and succeeded spectacularly.