Golden Gate Park - San Francisco, CA  (Jack Fleming, Renovated by Jay Blasi in 2023)

When Jay Blasi first called me about this project on the far west end of San Francisco’s equivalent of Central Park, I just about signed up on the spot. It was the kind of project that contains everything that we are about—accessibility, affordability, fun, fine fescue, and contours. Having only played this cool par-3 course once, I knew of its gigantic potential based on the land, the ocean views that were waiting to be had behind walls of tree overgrowth, and the sand that was likely lurking just below the surface. These things would come to be true.

After stripping off the heavy soil that the course (and possibly all of Golden Gate Park) was capped with, we were left with native dune sand—appropriate enough as the course is only a par four away from Ocean Beach. This meant easy construction and adjustments, the sand free-draining and easy to move while also requiring no drainage or cavities to build the greens. What you shape is what you get. Furthermore, it would allow for fine fescue turf, the stuff of linksland legend, which encouraged the shaping and design of the holes to be all about the ground game, the most cerebral—and our personal favorite—part of the game. In addition to bouncy shot-types and easy construction, the sand also allowed for the re-creating of scrubby textures and visual contrasts in the more out-of-play areas. We were fortunate to have the time to go back in the fall to touch up and clean out these areas, which were mostly shaped initially by Robert Nelson and Justin Carlton. The one exception was the 9th, which was fully seeded over and had a pit-like feel from sand mining and leaving a place for epic storm drainage, where we had to try and “make something”—always a fun exercise, especially with sand and surplus fescue chunks to toss around.

Being part of this special community project was one of the joys of my career so far, and I can’t thank Jay and The First Tee of San Francisco enough for letting me be a part of it. Standing up on the precipice of the property near 5 tees, after a full day of fescue chunking and watching the sun set over the Pacific from the newly re-claimed ocean views, I’d try my best to make time stand still, never wanting the moment to end. We hope this special little corner of West Coast golf is as fun to play and experience as it was to work on.