Roundup: Harding Park History, Primers And Other 2020 PGA Moodsetters

Despite the bizarre times, some pretty nice efforts have been made to enhance your connection to this true muni and its lore.

Do not miss Bill Nierkerken’s San Francisco Chronicle slideshow of various tournament and historic moments at Harding Park over the years.

PGATour.com’s Sean Martin files a really super and comprehensive look at Harding Park with a nice range of history and design change information.

I’m getting mixed predictions on one topic he touches upon: balls staying up in the flattop Cypress. It happened in the match play here, and while it used to be more prevalent before the trees received more care, still something to keep an eye on given the launch angle approach.

Harding Park’s curving fairways require players to choose how aggressive they want to be and to shape their tee shots. Players have to be careful to avoid the cypress trees, which are known to swallow golf balls, though.

“I've seen enough (balls) get stuck to where I'm going to try my hardest to avoid cutting off doglegs too much,” Jordan Spieth said before the 2015 Match Play.

Doug Ferguson wrote for AP on the incredible quality of winners at Harding Park over the years. It’s a fascinating juxtaposition with the other course across Lake Merced where all time greats always come up just short in men’s majors.

For The Athletic I dealt with the backstory (well just part of the saga) in Harding’s resurrection and landing the PGA Championship.

The historic San Francisco City has come up in many stories above and you can’t do better than Bo Links summarizing what makes that event so great.