Grant Yerger earns top-seed in San Francisco City Championships

March 15, 2023 | by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com

Grant Yerger

Austin teen ventures to the City by the Bay in quest of one of Northern California's most coveted amateur titles

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.

Results: San Francisco City Men's Championship

Place	Player	Location	Pts
Win	Brandon Knight	Pleasanton, CA	180
Runner-up	Mitchell Hoey	Alamo, CA	120
Semifinals	Vijay Srinivasan	Fremont, CA	80
Semifinals	Michael Carrillo	Chualar, CA	80
Quarterfinals	Joshua Wang	Palo Alto, CA	50

View full results for San Francisco City Men's Championship

About the San Francisco City Men's Championship

Grant Yerger earns top-seed in San Francisco City Championships

>> 2026 TOURNAMENT PORTALMen's Championship is now FULL. All participants must register for pre-qualifying. Should there be withdrawals in the main field, spots will be granted based on your registration time/date for pre-qualifying. **Entry Procedur...