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SAN FRANCISCO · CITY CHAMPIONSHIPEST. 1917THE CITYThe City ChampionshipSan Francisco · Est. 1917

A Century of the City

The oldest tournament that never stopped.

It began on the bluffs at Lincoln Park in 1917, with the fog rolling in off the Pacific and the Golden Gate not yet spanned by steel. The San Francisco City Championship has been played every year since — through two World Wars, through earthquakes and depressions and pandemics — while the Open Championship, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and the Masters all went dark in wartime.

That unbroken line is the City's claim to fame: the oldest consecutively played golf championship in the world, and the country's oldest municipal tournament. No private club, no gate, no invitation. Just a public course, a March draw, and whoever is willing to walk it.

1956 · The Match

Venturi & Ward, before ten thousand

The tournament's defining moment came in 1956, on a Harding Park hemmed by more than ten thousand spectators — a gallery that made the front page of every newspaper in the city. Ken Venturi, the local prodigy, faced Harvie Ward, then the finest amateur in America.

“Harvie, I've come to take my City back,” Venturi is said to have told him on the first tee. He made good on it, closing out Ward 5 & 4 in a match still recounted in San Francisco golf as the greatest the municipal game has known. Within the decade Venturi would win the U.S. Open; the City had simply seen him first.

Harding Park · a record gallery

Venturi 5 & 4

The most famous match in municipal golf

Harding Park · a record gallery

Timeline

From the bluffs to the majors

  1. 1916

    Lincoln Park opens to the City

    San Francisco's course above the Golden Gate becomes the home of a new public championship — golf for the whole city, not a private few.

  2. 1917

    The first champion

    Fitzgerald Marx wins the inaugural San Francisco City Championship at Lincoln Park, beginning an unbroken line of champions that continues to this day.

  3. 1925

    Harding Park opens

    Willie Watson and Sam Whiting's layout on Lake Merced opens on July 18 and soon becomes the championship's main stage.

  4. 1950

    Venturi's first

    A 19-year-old Ken Venturi wins the first of his three City titles, announcing a talent that would reach the U.S. Open a decade later.

  5. 1956

    Venturi & Ward, before 10,000

    The most famous match in municipal golf: Venturi defeats Harvie Ward 5 & 4 at Harding Park before a record gallery.

  6. 1958

    The Women's Championship roll begins

    The formal record of Women's City champions opens with Angie Vote; Jan Ferraris would soon win four straight.

  7. 1963

    A future Masters champion

    George Archer wins the City on his way to the 1969 Masters; an Open flight now carries his name.

  8. 1981

    Juli Inkster's City

    Two-time City champion Juli Simpson — later Inkster — goes on to a Hall-of-Fame career and two U.S. Women's Opens. The Women's second flight bears her name.

  9. 1994

    Vanier's sixth

    Gary Vanier claims a record sixth Men's Championship — a mark that still stands — before adding a shelf of Senior titles.

  10. 2020

    A major comes to Harding

    TPC Harding Park hosts the PGA Championship, a century after the City first teed off on the same municipal turf.

  11. 2026

    The 110th playing

    The City returns to Harding Park and Lincoln Park for its 110th consecutive year.

The champions who left

The City saw them first. Venturi, Archer and Inkster all walked these fairways before the majors ever knew their names.

The Record Book

Marks that still stand

Browse every champion

Most Men's Championships

Gary Vanier · 6

The standing record in the marquee division, set across four decades.

Most Women's Championships

Sally Krueger · 10

The most decorated player in championship history, in any division.

Most City titles, all divisions

Gary Vanier · 10

Championship and Senior crowns combined.

Consecutive playings

110

Every year since 1917 — through two World Wars, unlike any major.

Straight Women's titles

Jan Ferraris · 4

1962–1965, before an LPGA career.

Champions turned major winners

Venturi · Archer · Inkster

City champions who went on to win the U.S. Open, the Masters and the U.S. Women's Open.

Historic Venues

Where the City is played

Two municipal courses above the Pacific — one the birthplace, one the stage.

TPC Harding Park
TPC Harding Park

TPC Harding Park

Opened July 18, 1925 · Designed by Willie Watson & Sam Whiting

Laid out along the shores of Lake Merced and named for President Warren G. Harding, the course opened in 1925 to the same design partnership — Willie Watson and Sam Whiting — behind the Olympic Club's Lake Course next door.

For a century it has been the beating heart of San Francisco municipal golf: public, walkable, and demanding, its cypress-framed fairways bending in the ocean wind. Now operated as TPC Harding Park, it hosted the 2020 PGA Championship and a WGC Match Play, but its oldest tenant remains the City.

Explore the course
Lincoln Park Golf Course
Lincoln Park Golf Course

Lincoln Park Golf Course

Opened 1902 (City play from 1916) · Designed by Tom Bendelow & Jack Fleming

The championship's birthplace. Perched on the bluffs above the Golden Gate, Lincoln Park wraps around the Palace of the Legion of Honor with the bridge filling the horizon from the 17th tee — arguably the finest view in municipal golf.

Short on the card but never on defense: narrow cypress-lined corridors, small undulating greens and a steady ocean wind make par a genuine prize. The City was first contested here in 1917, and Lincoln still hosts qualifying and the Open flights each March.

Explore the course
SAN FRANCISCO · CITY CHAMPIONSHIPEST. 1917THE CITY

Friends of the City

A championship this old stays affordable only on purpose.

Gifts from players, families and local businesses keep entry fees within reach and the oldest championship in golf on the tee every March.

Support the City Corporate giving