SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - What a historic major the 2020 PGA Championship will be.
It will be the first major hosted by the TPC Harding Park, a municipal course that's no stranger to tournament golf. It will also be the first major - one of potentially three this year - played without fans. It would have been spectacular to hear the roars ride the wind off of Lake Merced and bellow through the trees, but alas, the pandemic has dashed those dreams for San Francisco Bay Area golf fans.
San Francisco PGA Championship Golf Package
The TPC Harding Park - which has hosted two World Golf Championships (2005 and 2015) and the 2009 Presidents Cup - has two defenses: The heavy air off of the ocean that San Francisco is famous for and thick, juicy rough. The tall Monterey Cypress Pines lining the fairways look formidable, although they're only in play after poor shots. The layout - revitalized during a 2002-03 renovation, spearheaded by Sandy Tatum - is fairly straightforward with a few doglegs and fairway bunkers steering pros around the course. Its greens are more subtle than severely sloped.
It really favors no one. A bomber could overpower the course, but just as easily, an accurate plodder who putts well could find himself lifting the Wannamaker Trophy, too.
Here's a hole-by-hole look at TPC Harding Park:
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Par 4 | 393 yards
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Par 4 | 466 yards
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Par 3 | 185 yards
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Par 5 | 607 yards
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Par 4 | 436 yards
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Par 4 | 472 yards
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Par 4 | 340 yards
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Par 3 | 251 yards
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Par 4 | 515 yards
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Par 5 | 562 yards
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Par 3 | 200 yards
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Par 4 | 494 yards
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Par 4 | 472 yards
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Par 4 | 470 yards
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Par 4 | 401 yards
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Par 4 | 336 yards
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Par 3 | 171 yards
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Par 4 | 480 yards
N/A
Looks fairly boring for a major.
While attending SFSU in the 70’s, the course became rundown, most played for free b/c they just never went in clubhouse and they never came out. Wonderful to see what it looks like now. All props to S. Tatum and the SFGC support in bringing a “ beautiful Classic” back to Life.....great memories...
Amazing to see a course I grew up on, waaaay back in the 1950s. Some of the trees trees were mere saplings then and now look like monsters.