San Francisco City Championship: 107th edition underway with Open Flight Qualifying
Keanu Phillips shot 73 with six penalty strokes
The San Francisco City Championship got underway today at Presidio Golf Course, where the first wave of players in the Open Flights positioned themselves for seeding in next weekend's first-round matches. All players make a flight, but the jockeying for position and personal pride all came into play today, as they will when wave two tees off tomorrow.
LEADER -- Keanu Phillips (Antioch, CA)
Overall Score: 1-over 73
The Deer Valley High School senior his friends call "nu" was thinking of entering the championship division, but after playing on his high school's basketball time this winter, he felt like he needed a warmup. Playing in the first group, he suffered 6 penalty strokes due to lost balls plugging in the wet conditions but shrugged it off after the round.
"I could have scored lower, sure," he said. "But it was a pretty good tournament to get me back into the groove of competitive golf."
GIVING CHASE
Alex Park (Santa Clara, CA) and Ryan Takasugi of San Francisco carded 2-over 74's and look solid to make one of the top two flights next weekend. They were joined by Joey Fowler, who made the two hour trip from Ukiah with the hope of coming back every weekend until March 23 and 24 -- the big Championship Weekend at Harding Park, host of the 2020 PGA Championship (and this tournament for over 100 years).
Ryan Wilson of San Francisco shot 75 to nail down fifth place of the first wave.
WEATHER AND COURSE CONDITIONS
If you follow San Francisco weather from afar, it's been an extreme winter. If you live anywhere in California, you've lived it.
But what's good for the state's water supply has wreaked havoc in many places, And many older golf courses in hilly places are extremely saturated. Players should be lauded for keeping a positive mental outlook in the face of lost balls due to plugged lies in the fairway -- even with a maximum score of triple bogey in effect; those can be hard to take.
Thanks to the Presidio for hosting major portions of the tournament again, and for making every effort to get fairways and rough mown, and the course in the most playable condition possible.
View results for San Francisco City Open Flights
ABOUT THE San Francisco City Open Flights
**Please note -- this is not the
championship
division or pre-qualifier. The Open Flights are
for
players not participating in the championship
divisions and are open to all handicap levels.
>>
STROKE PLAY PORTAL |
MATCH PLAY PORTAL
Open to the first 160 entries received. No
index is required.
There will
be no refunds after entries close.
Contestants
will play an 18-hole qualifying round at
Presidio Golf
Course on either Sat Feb 24 or Sun Feb 25.
All
players should be
prepared to play on either day as no schedule
requests will be taken.
The qualifying scores will be used
to assign flights of 16 players each, as well
as the seeding for match play. In the case of
ties,
there
will be a card-off to determine who
advances to play in each flight.
Flights 1-5 will play their first-round matches
on Sat
Mar 2,
and Flights 6-10 will play their first-round
matches
on Sun Mar 3.
All
players should be
prepared to play on either day as no schedule
requests will be taken.
Qualifying, as well as
the first two Open Match Flight rounds (Sat-
Sun Mar
2-3, Sat Mar 16,
will be played at Presidio Golf Course. The
semifinal (Sat Mar 23) and final (Sun Mar 24)
rounds
will be played at TPC
Harding Park Golf Course.
A schedule of all dates of play can be found on
the
tournament website
sfgolfchampionship.com.
WITHDRAWALS AND REFUND
POLICY
Players needing to withdraw should do so by
filling
out the form at
sfgolfchampionship.com/con
tact/
. Players withdrawing before the entry
deadline of
February 19 will receive
a
refund of their entry fee minus
$50.
There will be no refunds after the
entry
deadline.
SPECIAL OFFER TO SF CITY PLAYERS:
SF City
players get 50% off Strackaline Yardage
Books! CLICK HERE for
details
The oldest municipal tournament in the
USA. Match play event with scratch men's,
senior,
women's,
senior women's and open flight
divisions. Past champions include Ken
Venturi, Harvie Ward, Juli Inkster, Bob
Rosburg,
George Archer, and Dorothy Delasin. Some
of the
'non winners' include Tom Watson and
Johnny Miller.
Click the 'history' tab for more about this
wonderful event.
View Complete Tournament Information