The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Harding Park a public course with a history of elite winners
SAN FRANCISCO — Harding Park is a public golf course with a history of elite champions.
Tiger Woods was No. 1 in the world when he won a World Golf Championship here in 2005, and when he went 5-0 in his matches at the Presidents Cup in 2009. Rory McIlroy was No. 1 when he became the first player who had to win seven matches to capture the Match Play in 2015.
The San Francisco Open finally came to Harding Park in 1944. The winner was Byron Nelson.
It hosted a PGA Tour event in the 1960s called the Lucky International. Six of the seven champions are now in the World Golf Hall of Fame. The other was George Archer, who became a Masters champion.
Is it something about this municipal gem, carved through Monterey cypress trees along the shore of Lake Merced, that allows the best in golf to shine? Or is it merely a coincidence?
The PGA Championship, which starts Thursday, figures to add to that legacy.
“It tests all aspects of the game,“McIlroy said Wednesday. “It’s a big golf course, but it’s not wide open. … Look, I think it’s maybe a little bit of a coincidence that the top players come here and win most of the times. But I think it says a lot about the course that it lets guys play, and it lets them have the freedom to go out there and play the way they want to.”
One thing already is certain: This is a different kind of PGA Championship.
It looks like a major with fairways that are narrow but not to the extent they look like bowling alleys. The rough is thick, even more because of the dampness from a marine layer expected to shroud Harding Park all week.
But that’s about all that makes this feel like a major.
Gone are the spectators, typical of any tournament during the year of a COVID-19 pandemic that shut the sport down for three months and left players thankful they at least get to compete for major trophies.
Gone is the row of corporate chalets and traffic along Skyline Boulevard. The flashing lights from a portable marquis along the streets warn of road work, not a major golf tournament in the area.
Woods feeds off the energy from big galleries, which have followed him for his entire career and his 15 majors, and he isn’t sure what to expect.
“There’s going to be plenty of energy from the competitive side,” Woods said, a nod to the strongest field of the four majors. “But as far as the energy outside the ropes, that is an unknown. Hopefully, I can put myself in a position where I can … feel what it feels like to have no fans coming down the stretch with a chance to win.”
Along with missing the noise, British Open champion Shane Lowry wondered how much tougher the course would play for those who can’t keep the ball in the short grass. No spectators means no foot traffic to trample the rough over four days. There will be no escaping errant tee shots from the thick grass of cypress trees.
“Bethpage last year was similar to this,” Lowry said. “Really thick rough, where if you hit it a good bit offline, you’re actually OK. That’ll be interesting to see how that plays.”