Jason Anthony (photo courtesy Mike Benham)
Jason Anthony of Fairfield posted 3-under 137 over the weekend to earn medalist honors for the second time at The San Francisco City Championship.
Playing his first round at the 2020 PGA Championship host course TPC Harding Park, Anthony looked at some of the preparations being made for the PGA, and liked what he saw.
"They manicured around the greens and especially the bunkers much better," said Anthony. They also cleaned up a lot of areas around the trees."
All of those differences would tend to lower scores. But Anthony and the rest of the field had to deal with fairways that are half their normal width, and rough that is longer than usual for this time of year in San Francisco.
"It’s much longer than normal, but not 'PGA-bad' yet," he said.
Anthony, at age 36, may be one of the elder statesman in a field that includes many high school and college players. But experience is everything in "The City," and having a title under your belt --
Anthony won in 2018 -- is a mental advantage that the USGA-seasoned Anthony will take into each of his matches.
"There's just kind of a calm over me when I play in this tournament," explained Anthony of his success in San Francisco. "I never really know what to expect coming in because it is my first tournament of the year, with usually not much opportunity to get out and practice much [prior]"
All championship division matches are played at
TPC Harding Park, with the first round getting underway next Saturday. But Anthony and the rest of the field have to play one of their qualifying rounds at
Lincoln Park, one of the most public courses in the country, but also one of the most diabolical. With a yardage of 5400, a par of 68, and a rating/slope of 65.5/107, one has to wonder why the scores at Lincoln Park are almost the same as those at TPC Harding Park, which will host a major in May.
"Lincoln is 5400 yard monster," explained Anthony. "It's one of the toughest mental tests of the year, with the bad lies, mud, and tiny targets. And this year the greens were firm which made it even more difficult."
Unless you've stood on the 17th tee, staring down a small target 240 yards below, with OB in the road right and one of the seven wonders of the modern world -- The Golden Gate Bridge --down below the cliffs on the left, and needing to finish par-par to make the cut, you won't know why scores can skyrocket at Lincoln Park.
Anthony wasn't worried about the cut, sitting at 3-under on that tee with just two holes to play, but he kept his foot on the gas and finished par-par before heading back to Harding Park, where players gather for scoring and a possible playoff for the last of the 32 match play spots.
This year, 7-over 147 was the magic number. Six players at that number breathed a sigh of relief after learning a potential seventh person on the number had been disqualified. No playoff, the numbers were perfect.
USF junior Alex Chin of Pleasanton and steady Mid-Am golfer Andrew Biggadike of Belmont finished at even par 140. Three players -- Darren Pang, Charles Porter, and Michael Jensen -- posted 141.
Pang, a high school junior from San Ramon,
picked up his first amateur golf win at the AmateurGolf.com Winter Invitational across the bay at Corica Park in December. He impressed against a field loaded with collegiate players on winter break. Porter, of San Francisco, attends Napa Valley College, while Jensen is a Cal Berkeley graduate finding his sea-legs as a working amateur golfer.
Match play will be even more exciting this year as players test themselves at a major championship layout. One of them (Anthony) has a the sting of a
loss in the finals to Evan Peterson as his mind as he readies for match play.
"Yeah, I have some unfinished business after losing in the finals last year."
One thing is for sure, everyone in that advanced to match play is happy to be playing Harding Park again next weekend. Anthony gave kudos to the tournament committee for finding a way to pull off the tournament as preparations for something bigger are underway.
ABOUT THE
San Francisco City Men's Championship
>> The weekend qualifier is now closed, except for exempt players. Please email Info@SFGolfChampionship.com to register as an exempt player. Or, you may enter the Pre-Qualifier by clicking the link below>>
PRE-QUALIFIER REGISTRATION
TOUR
PORTAL (coming soon)
*An NCGA Points Tournament*
**
Entry Procedure:
Registration opens for all players on
October 1. There will be 50 spots held for
exempt
players under the following
categories:
* The past 10 years of the San Francisco City
Golf
Champions
* 2024 San Francisco City Men’s
Championship
Match Play Qualifiers
* Top 20 men’s 2023-2024 NCGA Points
Lists
* 2024 NCGA Champions (Amateur, Mid-
Amateur,
Junior)
* The top 3 finishers in each of the 6
AmateurGolf.com Winter
Tour
events (Dec 2024-Feb 2025)
Registration for exempt players, and for non-
exempt
players with a handicap index
of
6.4 or lower as of the date of
entry, opens on October 1 and will
remain
open until the field limit (120 players including
spots
reserved for exempt players)
is reached. When the field limit is reached, all
additional registrants will be entered in
the
pre-qualifier at Lincoln Park on Friday,
March 7,
2025.
Once entries close, if there are any unfilled
spots in
the Men's Championship (due to
fewer than 50 exempt players registering
or withdrawals), they will be filled by Pre-
Qualifier
registrants in the order in which
they registered.
Players entering pre-qualifying will pay an
entry fee
of $165 for the pre-qualifier, and
those
advancing from the pre-qualifier will pay the
remainder of the entry fee (must be paid
prior to playing).
The 36-hole match play qualifier will be held
March
8-9, 2025, with
18 holes played at TPC Harding Park and 18
holes at Lincoln Park for a combined 36-hole qualifying
score.
There will be 156 players in the qualifying
round with
64 players advancing to match play. When all
qualifying has been completed, the Men’s
Championship Flight will consist of 64
contestants.
In the event of a playoff to qualify for
match
play, a
player must be present in order to retain his
right
to participate in the playoff.
Match play will begin on March 15, 2025. All
match play for the Championship Flight (Mar
15-16,
22-23) will be held
at TPC Harding Park.
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/contact/. Players withdrawing
before
the entry deadline of
February 18
will
receive a
refund of their entry fee minus
$50.
There will be no refunds after the
entry
deadline.
CART POLICY
The use of carts is prohibited for players and
caddies
in the Men’s Championship Flight (Appendix I
– Local
Rule
Applies)
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 men’s,
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