Harding Park Golf Course, the historic San Francisco layout, is back in business.
The public course has been a golf landmark in San Francisco since it opened in 1925. It was revitalized in 2010 and became a part of the PGA Tour’s network of clubs with its “TPC” status. But to most in the Bay Area, it will always be simply Harding Park.
The course has been closed since March 16 when the “shelter-in-place” order came down for six Bay Area counties. While that order remains in effect, an addendum was added to the order to allow golf courses to resume operations with social-distancing guidelines in place.
Harding Park back on the scene is good news for the PGA Of America. It will be the site of the season’s first major championship — the PGA. It’s slated for August 6-9 and right now, the optimistic powers at the PGA of America are planning to have spectators on site.
“The plan is to do it as normally as possible, with fans, obviously, and have a fairly normal PGA Championship at Harding Park,” said Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America. “If the safest way, and/or the only way to do it is without fans, we’re fully prepared to do that. We believe that having it as a television event is worth doing regardless of whether there’s fans there or not. Obviously, that’ll change the experience, but we think the world is starved for some entertainment, and particularly in sports,” he added.”
Harding Park administrators took to Twitter to give area golfers the good news:
“We’re pleased to announce that we will be open to the public for golf beginning on Monday (May 4).”
With the R&A canceling the Open Championship, there will only be three majors on the revised 2020 schedule with the U.S. Open slated to start on September 17 while The Masters will make a first-ever fall appearance starting on Thursday, November 12.
