Winners will be decided at the San Francisco City Championships as the longest uninterrupted golf competition in the world enters its final weekend of play at TPC Harding Park.
The quarterfinal matches in the men’s championship flight feature an intriguing mix of proven champions and upstarts while four local high school standouts make up the women’s semifinals.
The quarterfinals and semifinals of the men’s division will be contested on Saturday as will the women’s semifinals. The men’s and women’s championship matches will be decided over 36 holes on Sunday.
Men’s Championship Division
The top side of the bracket will see No. 16 seed
Kyle Dougherty take on No. 24 seed
Beau Forest with the winner advancing to the semifinals against either No. 13
Brett Viboch or No. 5 seed
Alex Conley.
The other half of the draw matches No. 18 seed
Bobby Bucey against No. 26
William Walsh while No. 46
Ryan Firpo will take on No. 6 Micheal Jensen.
Dougherty, a 2020 graduate of Junipero Serra High School in San Juan Capistrano, tied for second in the AmateurGolf.com San Diego Amateur (South) in January, has a tough assignment against Forest, who played collegiately at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. The 6-foot-5 Forest won the 2021 AmateurGolf.com Winter Invitational at Corica Park and has enjoyed strong showing this year at the AGC Silicon Valley Amateur (3rd) and the McClure Cup (t-2). After surviving a 1-up win over Ryan Sear in the Round of 64, Forest won his next two matches 4 and 3 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Bobby Bucey (L) and Brett Viboch are still alive in the SF City Viboch is no stranger to The City, having reached the quarterfinals twice in 2018 and ’19. The 38-year-old grew up in Moraga, attended UC Davis and graduated from Chico State. He then bounced around on various mini tours as a professional before regaining his amateur status. A former employee of Cobra Golf, Viboch worked with tour pros such as Rickie Fowler and Lexi Thompson in the research and testing lab to make sure their equipment met their needs.
Viboch also reached the Final 16 in last summer’s U.S. Mid-Amateur Championship and is no stranger to success on the local amateur circuit, claiming wins at the Chico and Vallejo City Amateurs, and teamed with Bobby Bucey to win 2016 NCGA Four-Ball championship.
A native of San Diego, Conley is a junior at Santa Clara and has played in three events for the Broncos this season, with his best finish coming at the William H. Tucker Collegiate, where he tied for 24th.
Walsh, a junior at Serra High School in San Mateo, took out No. 10 seed Tyler Kowak, 7 and 6, to earn a spot in the quarterfinals where he’ll take on the veteran Bucey, the 2018 California State Amateur champion who also has wins at the 2017 NCGA Mid-Amateur and 2014 NCGA Stroke Play Championships. Bucey reached the semifinals of The City in 2019 and advanced to the Round of 16 in 2020.
The last quarterfinal also features a David vs. Goliath matchup as Ryan Firpo, a junior at Davis (Calif.) High School, matching up against Jensen, a former Cal golfer who won the prestigious Stocker Cup last fall. He has also had deep runs in The City, reaching the semifinals two years ago.
* * * * *
Women’s Championship Division
Youth will be well-represented in the women’s semifinals, where four Bay Area high school standouts will square off on Saturday.
Adora Liu The oldest remaining participant is Fremont High School senior Adora Liu, who has signed to play at Cal next year. Liu, the 12th seed, will meet a familiar foe in Emily Luo, a sophomore at Monte Vista High School in Danville, Calif.
Luo, the 16th seed in the women’s division, defeated No. 1 seed Amy Na, 2 and last Saturday and then knocked out the eighth seed, Darla May Dela Torre, 1 up to reach the semifinals. After an easy 5 and 3 win over Camille Thai, Liu scored a 1 up win over Cynthia Zhang to earn her spot in the semifinals.
The winner of the Liu-Luo match will advance to meet either Olivia Duan, a sophomore at Cupertino High School or
Sydney Silva, a freshman at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland. Both Duan and Silva had easy wins in their quarterfinal matches last weekend en route to their Saturday showdown.
* * * * *
Seniors and Super Seniors
In the men’s senior division,
Andy Gabelman will meet
Richard Maxwell in one semifinal on Saturday with the winner advancing to Sunday’s 18-hole championship match against either
Chris Miller or Daniel O’Connor.
Ray Kong and
Rob Miller. Along with two-time senior champion
Jim Williams and
Frank Apodaca, will square off in the super senior semifinals.
ABOUT THE San Francisco City Championship
>>
TOUR
PORTAL
*An NCGA Points Tournament*
**
New Entry Procedure for 2024:
Registration opens for all players on
October 1. There will be 50 spots held for
exempt
players under the following
categories:
* The past 10 years of the San Francisco City
Golf
Champions
* 2023 San Francisco City Men’s
Championship
Match Play Qualifiers
* Top 20 men’s 2022-2023 NCGA Points
Lists
* 2023 NCGA Champions (Amateur, Mid-
Amateur,
Junior)
* The top 3 finishers in each of the 6
AmateurGolf.com Winter
Tour
events (Dec 2023-Feb 2024)
Registration for exempt players, and for non-
exempt
players with a handicap index
of
6.4 or lower as of the date of
entry, opens on October 1 and will
remain
open until the field limit (120 players including
spots
reserved for exempt players)
is reached. When the field limit is reached, all
additional registrants will be entered in
the
pre-qualifier at Presidio Golf Club on Friday,
March 8,
2024.
Once entries close, if there are any unfilled
spots in
the Men's Championship (due to
fewer than 50 exempt players registering
or withdrawals), they will be filled by Pre-
Qualifier
registrants in the order in which
they registered.
Players entering pre-qualifying will pay an
entry fee
of $165 for the pre-qualifier, and
those
advancing from the pre-qualifier will pay the
remainder of the entry fee (must be paid
prior to playing).
The 36-hole match play qualifier will be held
March
9-10, 2024, with
18 holes played at TPC Harding Park and 18
holes at
Presidio Golf
Course for a combined 36-hole qualifying
score.
There will be 156 players in the qualifying
round with
64 players advancing to match play. When all
qualifying has been completed, the Men’s
Championship Flight will consist of 64
contestants.
In the event of a playoff to qualify for
match
play, a
player must be present in order to retain his
right
to participate in the playoff.
Match play will begin on March 16, 2024. All
match play for the Championship Flight (Mar
16-17,
23-24) will be held
at TPC Harding Park.
A schedule of all dates of
play can be found on the tournament website
sfgolfchampionship.com.
WITHDRAWALS AND REFUND
POLICY
Players needing to withdraw should do so by
filling
out the form at
sfgolfchampionship.com/con
tact/. Players withdrawing
before
the entry deadline of
February 19
will
receive a
refund of their entry fee minus
$50.
There will be no refunds after the
entry
deadline.
CART POLICY
The use of carts is prohibited for players and
caddies
in the Men’s Championship Flight (Appendix I
– Local
Rule
Applies)
SPECIAL OFFER TO SF CITY PLAYERS:
SF City
players get 50% off Strackaline Yardage
Books! CLICK HERE for
details
The oldest municipal tournament in the USA.
Match
play event with scratch men's, senior men’s,
women's, senior women’s, and open flight
divisions.
Past champions include Ken Venturi, Harvie
Ward,
Juli Inkster, Bob Rosburg, George Archer, and
Dorothy Delasin. Some of the “non winners”
include
Tom Watson and Johnny Miller. Click the
“history” tab
for more about this wonderful event.
View Complete Tournament Information