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Hope is in the air as Harding Park goes on hiatus
Brian Murphy
Sunday, May 26, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle

When the sun drops behind the Pacific on Monday evening, it will bring with it, essentially, the curtain on 20th-century golf in San Francisco.

Harding Park, the signature golf course for city residents and generations of Bay Area players who wanted the best of this city's municipal offerings, will close for its $16 million, 13-month renovation. When it opens, the 21st century will have arrived near Lake Merced.

"We're going to make it a very big shindig," Joe Louis Barrow said Thursday night at a farewell dinner at the San Francisco Zoo.

Barrow, the son of former heavyweight champion Joe Louis, is the national director of the First Tee program, a nonprofit organization run by the LPGA, the PGA of America, the PGA Tour, the USGA and Augusta National Golf Club. He was in town to help bid adieu to Harding, with the promise that its reopening would see San Francisco's edition of the First Tee, a program designed to expose minorities and underprivileged children to the game of golf.

"We believe," Barrow said, "it will make a difference in the lives of young people in San Francisco." Down the road from the zoo, the hard work begins.

Earlier this month, PGA Tour course architect Chris Gray came to Harding. With him was Jon Scott, the Tour's director of agronomy, and Leslie Claytor, the project superintendent who will supervise day-to-day happenings at Harding.

Part of their mission: to convince worried San Franciscans that the visitors from Florida understand the aesthetic nature and unique challenges of San Francisco golf courses.

Gray said the group has been taking photographs, and he considers respecting the history of Harding's layout part of his job.

"It has some of the feel of an Olympic Club," Gray said. "To me, I walk around here, and it is San Francisco golf. You go to Olympic, or to San Francisco Golf Club, and you can see it.

"Yeah, it takes some vision to say you'll get the same product, but the reality of it is, it is."

Claytor is the most local. He earned his master's degree in landscape architecture from Cal, and did some caddying at San Francisco G.C.

Right away, the work involves eliminating aggressive weeds. From there, the topsoil is removed, and Gray said, "We start rebuilding the golf course."

Only two greens will be moved -- 13 (to the left, closer to the 14th tee) and 18 (farther back, toward the current putting green). The rest involves improving drainage and making sure the rye grass for fairways and bent grass for greens (Scott said bent grass will be planted; from there, he will let the natural grasses evolve) is done by the fall. In sum, upgrading the course to a level all involved promise will be eye-popping.

The downside: For over a year, Harding and its nine-hole little brother, Fleming, will be unplayable. The price of progress, project supporters say.

Said Scott, in his first visit to the course: "Everybody realizes you can't build a golf course from scratch like this anymore. It's one of those settings you'll never find in the United States again."

AROUND THE BAY AND BEYOND: It's not too soon to buy tickets for the Samsung World Championship at Hiddenbrooke, featuring the top ladies players in the world. Local product Dorothy Delasin defends her title, and you can save $70 on a six-day package and $50 on a four-day package now by calling 888-345-5742.

. . . Entries for the 48th U.S. Senior Amateur Championships are available, with sectional qualifying at Fair Oaks' Northridge C.C. on Aug. 26. The tournament, open to amateurs who are 55 by Sept. 28 and carry indexes of 7.4 and under, is set for Sept. 28-Oct. 3 at Timuquana C.C. in Jacksonville. Contact Joe Zablocki (415) 397-1534 or Tom Hughes (559) 733-4500.

The National Collegiate Golf Association hosts a three-day tournament for college-age men and women golfers at Napa G.C. June 17-19. Information: (770) 265-7898. . . . Spend your Memorial Day with Slammin' Sam. The Golf Channel, starting at 5 p.m., will pay tribute with 2 1/2 hours of programming on what would have been Sam Snead's 90th birthday.

QUOTABLE: "He was a lot of fun to play with and just loved to tell stories. He always had a joke to tell and he always ended the Masters dinner with a joke. I will miss that. He always had a twinkle in his eyes. Byron (Nelson) would be the emcee of the dinner and Sam would always end the dinner by telling a joke every year. I attended 30-plus dinners over the years and we always looked forward to his joke to end the night. Some of them were a little off color, but it was all men. Sam was just a lot of fun and he will be greatly missed."

-- Northern California's own George Archer, remembering Snead.

E-mail Brian Murphy at bmurphy@sfchronicle.com.