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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.

Results: San Francisco City Championship
WinCABrandon KnightPleasanton, CA180
Runner-upCAMitchell HoeyAlamo, CA120
SemifinalsCAVijay SrinivasanFremont, CA80
SemifinalsCAMichael CarrilloChualar, CA80
QuarterfinalsCAJoshua WangPalo Alto, CA50

View full results for San Francisco City Championship

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


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.

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