TPC Harding Park - Harding Course

I feel deceived and ripped off. I called the pro shop the day before I played which was when I booked, to check if any course renovations had occurred, and was told, no, they were done in August, so I booked, when I arrived the greens were slow and had clearly had some work done to them, in addition, because of the work, they scuffed incredibly badly, too badly to be able to repair all of the marks. Then as I was teeing off on the first, you could see the course staff punching the fairways. I would not have booked had the pro shop staff been honest, as the course isn’t worth what they charge, even in pristine condition, and the way it was presented, it wasn’t even worth half the fee.

I absolutely love the layout of this course. The greens are pretty good mostly and the fairways are challenging to navigate. The tee boxes should not be in such terrible shape for the small fortune that they charge for a round. If you’re charging over 200 for a tee time you should be lazer-leveling the tee boxes as often as you can. Half of the tee boxes were angled forward forcing you to either hit down on the ball or take a gallon of earth on your swing. The fairways are super spongy when you start your transition you actually sink about half an inch and guess what! You end up chunking the ball by that much. Just because it’s not the US open every day doesn’t mean you can let your course go to the dogs. You have a reputation to uphold and definitely charge people accordingly so just be better.

If you want to tee off on super uneven ground that is torn up and not maintained then this is the course for you. The fairways and greens are beautiful and despite charging each person hundreds of dollars and having a packed tee sheet they do NOTHING about fixing the tee boxes. If the tee box isn’t chewed up then it is angled forward 45 degrees. Good luck and god speed

Great course, great weather…couldn’t ask for anything more!

Fantastic experience.

Fairways were exceptional, tee boxes and greens fantastic. Lush and thick like a good (is there such a thing ??) shag carpet. Greens were on the slow side.
Although there were a few parallel fairways, the trees kept other groups from being a factor in you playing your hole. Great to see restrooms recently constructed on the course.

Only issues I encountered was regarding the driving range. Was looking forward to the TopTracer technology, but was disappointed with connectivity issue. This and the fact that you hit off of mats fell a little short.

💯 recommend at least once !!

The front 9 had relatively slow green with respect to the green fee, and the back 9 green showed some grass growing up, looked not rolled at all. I felt the back 9 green has similar quality of Bayonet's fairway.
I wish they can manage the green way better than now.

I finally got a great deal to play at Harding. A must play course will challenge your club choice. Well groomed course. Super sticky grass. Club up to cut through it. Take your time on the putting. Ball rolls good but tricky pin placements can lead to shooting past hole. Have a great time out. And stretch before you walk it.

This was my first time playing at this course so I didn't really know what to expect. I knew that this was highly rated as a municipal course, and I totally agree. This course is in fantastic shape, and even better condition than some private clubs that I've been to. The fairways were well kept, and the bunkers were soft. The greens were rolling a little slow, but rolled true. The only criticism I had was the pace of play. It could have been a little bit faster, however, for a weekend, I really can't complain too much. I'll remember this experience and plan on coming back to play more.

I had such a fun time venturing out from the east bay to play this gem of a course. So awesome to have an opportunity to play a “pga tour” level course that happens to be public and at a relatively not so astronomical price. Such a nice pace of play given that most people walk, eliminating the hectic rat race of golf carts zipping all over the place like at many other muni courses. Although the 1.5 hour drive each way in traffic and price north of $125 to play will make this an occasional treat for me it definitely will be my go to course when I want to splurge a bit. Can’t wait to visit again.

Pros : nice weather, joining good players, smooth pace.
Cons : slow green, tresspassors

Overall, I would like to revisit if the greens can be a little faster than I played, but not paying more than $100 per walking.

Stood on the tees and in the fairways over and over again, just waiting. Answered emails, though, so that was good.

Unfortunately, the recent heavy rains have taken its toll on the course. Most of the fairways on the back 9 were sanded. The greens were soft and much slower than usual; unfixed ball marks were everywhere. Surprisingly, the rough was not as brutally high as usual. On the upside, most of the bunkers had very photogenic, sparkly white sand. (Happily, I didn't sample any of it; my playing partners didn't seem to complain about their condition.)

Hopefully the course will be ready for next month's City tournament.

I got into a short texting battle with a friend about being unhappy with this course, so it's a controversial stance that I have.

Overall the course was in very good condition based on these observations: The fairways were very nicely mowed with a consistent height, however there were quite a few divots that weren't filled. The rough was lush and overall very few spots on the course seemed to be hurting for moisture or lacking grass. The rough however is what makes this course extremely difficult, and that coupled with narrow fairways and tall trees means GIRs are hard to come by. Tee boxes were in great condition and flat.

My biggest issue is with the greens. They are purposely kept slow because of the general amount of traffic the course sees, which I heard from locals that frequent the course regularly and the starter who obviously is there all the time.. This just kills the game for me since putting is such a big part of the scoring process. So even if you do manage to somehow get on the green from the rough, you're likely to 3 putt. It's just so difficult to read the speed, and many greens are inconsistent so the same putt you had on the previous green might fly by because it's faster.

The second big issue for me is that I really can only recall 4-5 holes vividly and that just makes for boring golf. The course is flat and the test is whether or not you can hit the ball dead straight onto a narrow fairway. That's all... The rough is basically a stroke penalty which is fine, but couple that with slow greens and a sterile layout, I just don't see a reason for me to drive an hour to the city, then 2 hours back home.

For a local with a resident card, I'm sure it's a great deal and can help your driving and iron game. But for a non-local it's simply overpriced and far less enjoyable than so many courses in the bay area that have true character and still provide a challenge with good course conditions. Also, their range with toptracer cameras is great!

I’ve spent many rounds playing public and private courses. But just say, TPC Harding might be the best public course in California. The layout was terrific, the views breathtaking and conditions were wonderful.

Since there had been so much rain the last few week, the rough was as if we were playing in a US Open. Had to keep the ball in the fairways. Greens roll wonderfully and were well maintained.

There were a few bunkers that were under repair but stayed away from those.

Love the track and with a SF resident card best round for the money I’ve spent in years.

Heading back next week for sure!

Great finishing holes, greens are in bad shape. Full of ballmarks, and slow. I mean SLOW. Slower than a lot of fairways at other courses. I play here once a year because that’s about how long it takes me to forget how overrated it is and build up false hope that the conditions will be better than last time. Worth playing once just to check it off a list but there are much better courses. Not sure how TPC allows their name to be attached to this course

Only been playing for 3 years but never have I seen a fairway sanded... the back 9, they started us off on 10, was sanded and punched not the greens but the whole back 9. The first 9 was not sanded but the greens punched. If it wasn't for the hotDeals I would literally asked for my money back. Literally 18 holes of Fremont park. At least all the greens are slow at Fremont. It felt like they were rotating every 3 holes from slow to super slow, it will literally affect your next round because of how slow it was. Pace was great because I think the word is out how bad the conditions are