Tournament Overview

**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.

>> 2025 TOUR PORTAL

Open to the first 128 entries received. After the first 64 entries are received, all players will be waitlisted in groups of 8 entrants to confirm full brackets. No index is required.

There will be no qualifying for the tournament. Players will be seeded strictly by handicap and begin with match play.

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 end of day February 1 will receive a refund of their entry fee minus $75. There will be no refunds after.

SPECIAL OFFER TO SF CITY PLAYERS:

SF City players get 50% off Strackaline Yardage Books! CLICK HERE for details

ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO CITY CHAMPIONSHIP
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.

Course

Tournament News

• 
  Mike Franzago earns medalist honors at San Francisco City Open Qualifier
  Mar 06, 2025 - All 69 players in the open flight will make match play and there will be five flights
• 
  San Francisco City Championship: First round of Open Flight match play in the books
  Mar 03, 2024 - The eight brackets are named after tournament legends like Ken Venturi, George Archer, and Bob Rosburg
• 
  San Francisco City Championship: Open Flight Qualifying continues
  Feb 26, 2024 - Rod Kho of Belmont, Calif., led the second wave of golfers with a 7-over 79.
• 
  San Francisco City Championship: 107th edition underway with Open Flight Qualifying
  Feb 24, 2024 - The first wave of players played Presidio Golf Course on the warmest day of 2024
• 
  SF City Open Flights matches suspended due to high winds
  Feb 11, 2020 - Trees and limbs fell all over Lincoln Park on Sunday, and players were evacuated; matches will resume on Saturday morning
• 
  San Francisco City underway with Open Flight qualifying
  Feb 02, 2020 - The country's oldest municipal golf tournament kicks off with 125 players battling at Lincoln Park GC
• 
  Stephens tops open division qualifier for San Francisco City
  Feb 17, 2019 - Jason Stephens was the top player after a wet weekend of qualifying at Lincoln Park
• 
  San Francisco City Championship Open Division Results
  Feb 25, 2018 - All ages are represented as Open Flights match play gets underway -- Men's Championship qualifying is next weekend
• 
  Koivun Medals in SF City Open Qualifying
  Feb 19, 2018 - The youngest player in the field earned medalist honors at Lincoln Park

by Pete Wlodkowski

The San Francisco City Championship was inaugurated in 1917, and is the Country's oldest municipal golf tournament. The Women's division was added in 1958. In its early years, the tournament was hosted by the Sun-Bulletin newspaper and has had numerous sponsors throughout its history such as Bob Varner, Tom Culligan, and Pepsi.

The name of the tournament is deceiving, as the field is typically made up of the best amateurs from throughout Northern California. As a matter of fact, the 1999 field included Mark Murphy of Waterville, Ireland, who made it to the quarterfinals before being ousted in a nail-biter by Gary Vanier. (Vanier eventually lost to Randy Haag in what was called the best final since Ken Venturi beat Harvey Ward in 1956 in front of 12,000 fans.)

Another thing that makes the City Championship a unique event is the inclusion of an "Open" Division, allowing for amateurs of varying abilities to compete. The top two flights in the Open Division, named the "Venturi" and "Susko" respectively, are named for two of the tournaments' most popular competitors, Ken Venturi and John Susko, the latter of whom met an untimely death from Crohn's disease in 1983. Susko is remembered as a popular Lincoln Park golfer who won the City Championship in 1978 and 1980, won the Alameda Commuters in 1981, and participated in a number of National amateur events even with a condition that often sidelined him for weeks at a time.

Those familiar with the City Championship will tell you about the tradition of playing the ball as it lies at San Francisco's Lincoln and Harding Park golf courses in some often very wintry conditions. More than one player has marched in to the tournament office claiming that they will never play again, but their applications usually find their way in the following year. Conditions are the same for everyone; the ability to accept the occasional bad break is paramount to a competitor's success.

Past champions include 1964 US Open Champion Ken Venturi, 1999 US Women's Open Champion Julie Inkster, and 1969 Masters Champion George Archer. More recently, LPGA Tour player Dorothy Delasin* of Daly City (winner of the 1998 US Junior Girls Championship and 1999 US Women's Amateur) claimed the Women's City Championship in 1998.