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Grant Yerger earns top-seed in San Francisco City Championships
Grant Yerger
Grant Yerger

Historically, the participants in the San Francisco City Golf Championships have largely been residents of one of the nine counties in the Bay Area or its immediate surrounding areas, such as Monterey and Sonoma Counties, the Central Valley or the Sacramento area.

On occasion, a player will make the 400-mile drive up Interstate 5 from Southern California to test their games against some of the Bay Area's top amateurs. Just last year, Kyle Dougherty, a native of Irvine, Calif., advanced all the way to the championship match before falling to Michael Jensen.

No one traveled further to compete for one of California's most coveted amateur titles than Grant Yerger, a junior at Westlake High School in Austin, Texas who earned the top seed in the 64-player match play field last weekend.

After turning in rounds of 71 at TPC Harding Park and 70 at The Presidio Golf Club, whispers could be heard over the pelting rain asking the same question, "Who is this kid?"

Yerger, who has family ties to the Bay Area, was the only underclassman on a powerful Westlake team last year that featured four players who earned Division I scholarships, including Jacob Sosa (Texas), Zach Kingsland (SMU), Grant Feldman (Creighton) and Sean-Karl Dobson (Stanford). Aided by Yerger's 1-under 71, Westlake captured its fifth consecutive UIL Class 6A championship last spring by a whopping 23 strokes at Legacy Hills Golf Club outside of Austin.

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Related: San Francisco City Golf Championships: Top-10 Things You Need to Know

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Yerger is currently ranked 429th in the American Junior Golf Association rankings and tied for 10th at the Accenture NW Arkansas Junior in September. He continues a recent trend of talented juniors securing the top seed in The City. Just last year, Edan Cui, then a high school freshman at Crystal Springs Uplands School in San Mateo, finished first in the 36-hole qualifier held at TPC Harding Park and Lincoln Park Golf Courses.

Cui, who recently won AmateurGolf.com's Pacific Grove City Championship, earned the No. 7 seed this year after rounds of 69 and 76.

After competing in the Texas Cup Invitational this week at Tempest Golf Club in Gladewater, Yerger will travel back to San Francisco for his Round of 64 match on Saturday morning against another high school junior, No. 64 seed Arnold He of Fremont, Calif. The winner will advance to take on either Ethan Lu (Elk Grove) or Reid Buzby, a San Francisco native who played collegiate golf at Middlebury College in Vermont, on Sunday.

Vani Karimanal, a senior at Piedmont Hills High School, earned the top seed in the women's championship flight and will face 16-seed Varsha Ramachandran, 15, of San Jose in a first-round match on Saturday.

View results for San Francisco City Championship
ABOUT THE San Francisco City Championship


MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION
$375 ENTRY FEE INCLUDES ALL GREEN FEES.

*An NCGA Points Tournament*

**Entry procedure for 2023: Exempt players will have first chance to register. They will be emailed an access code to register, and registration for these players opens on January 3. Registration opens for all other players on January 15.

Exempt players may email results@amateurgolf.com to request an access code.

Exemption categories:

* The past 10 years of the San Francisco City Golf Champions
* 2022 San Francisco City Men’s Championship Match Play Qualifiers
* Top 20 men’s 2021-2022 NCGA Points Lists
* 2022 NCGA Champions (Amateur, Mid-Amateur, Junior)
* 2022 USGA Event Qualifiers (Amateur, Mid- Amateur, Junior)

On January 15 at 8:00 am, registration will open to all players with a handicap index of 6.4 or lower as of the date of entry, and will remain open until the field limit (120 players) is reached. When the field limit is reached, all additional entrants will pre-qualify at Presidio Golf Club on Friday, March 10, 2023.

Players entering pre-qualifying will pay an entry fee of $150 for the pre-qualifier, and those advancing from the pre-qualifier will pay an additional $225 (must be paid prior to playing).

The 36-hole match play qualifier will be held March 11-12, 2023, 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 18, 2023. All match play for the Championship Flight will be held at TPC Harding Park.

CART POLICY
The use of carts is prohibited for players and caddies in the Men’s Championship Flight (Appendix I – Local Rule Applies)

A schedule of all dates of play can be found on the tournament website sfgolfchampionship.com.

ABOUT THE SAN FRANCISCO CITY CHAMPIONSHIP
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

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