Harding Park golf course plan approved
Board of Supervisors will consider proposal
Independent News Services
November 17, 2001
The Recreation and Park Commission unanimously approved a plan Thursday that would allow the issuance of $14 million in bond money to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of the Harding Park golf complex.
Earlier this year, Arnold Palmer Management -- a private company that manages golf courses -- had been in negotiations with the city to secure a 35-year lease on management rights for the course on condition that the company first spend $15 million to refurbish the golf complex. But that deal fell through in January, leaving the course in its current state of disrepair.
Supervisor Tony Hall, whose District 7 territory includes the golf complex, then helped to create a plan that would use tee fees to pay back the $14 million in bonds and ensure that the city maintained control of the complex. According to Hall, once the maintenance is complete, the Professional Golfers' Association of America would hold its PGA Tour Championship at the complex every three years.
"This plan restores Harding to a world-class municipal golf course of which all San Franciscans can be proud," Hall said in a statement issued November 1.
The plan sailed through the commission on its way to the Board of Supervisors, which has final approval of the matter. One man present at the meeting, however, urged the commission to reconfigure the profit-sharing agreement between the city and the golf complex before the deal is done.
Peter Ashe, who said he plays golf with his wife at Haring and other municipal courses in the city, said that up to 35 percent of the money generated at Harding funds city projects that are not related to the golf course. As a result, he said, the course does not receive the amount of money needed to fund preventive maintenance.
"The course is going to fall to disrepair," he said.
When that happens, repairs turn into capital improvements, Ashe said, forcing golf course representatives to go back to the city for bond money to fund maintenance projects. Simply using all the money generated at Harding for the maintenance of Harding would solve this problem, he said, and ultimately save work for everyone.
"Keep the revenue where it belongs: in the golf course," Ashe said.
