Crowning weekend ahead at San Francisco City Golf Championships

March 24, 2023 | by Jim Young of AmateurGolf.com

One of the longest consecutively contested amateur tournaments in America comes to a head this weekend at Harding Park

The San Francisco City Championships, one of the longest consecutively contested amateur tournaments in America which dates back to 1917, enters its final weekend of match play starting on Saturday at TPC Harding Park.

The quarterfinals and semifinals of the men's championship division will be contested on Saturday with the title match scheduled for Sunday morning. The women's semifinals will be held on Saturday with the winners advancing to Sunday's championship match. Both finals are scheduled for 36 holes.

Additionally, champions will be crowned in the men's senior and super-senior divisions on Sunday.

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Men's Championship Division

Matthew Watkins (No. 2) and Kyreece Romero (No. 6) are the only single-digit seeds remaining in the men's championship bracket and could potentially square off in one semifinal match on Saturday afternoon.

A native of Novato, Watkins, who played collegiately at the Academy of the Arts in San Francisco, will face former Buschnell University golfer Michael Carrillo (Chualar) with the winner advancing to the semis against either Romero or Foothill High School senior Brandon Knight (Pleasanton).

Knight won last year's CIF State Championship and has signed a letter of intent to play his collegiate golf at Colorado next year while Romero is the brother of two golfing sisters, Kaleiya, who is a junior at Pepperdine and Kiara, who is currently ranked ninth nationally by the American Junior Golf Association and will play collegiately at Oregon.

In the top half of the bracket, No. 16 Mitchell Hoey, a sophomore at Saint Mary's College, earned a spot in the quarterfinals after handily dispatching No. 1 seed Grant Yerger, 5 and 4, in the Round of 16. His path doesn't get easier, as he will square off against Joshua Wang, a sophomore at Palo Alto High School who recently finished third in the Pacific Grove City Championships, in the quarters.

The winner of the Hoey-Wang match will advance to the semifinals against either Vijay Srinivasan, a graduate student at San Jose State, or San Francisco resident Nic Neinken.

Neinken, 35, is the oldest player remaining in the field. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 2011 and currently serves as shopping ads solutions architect at Google. He also co-runs the Google Golf Club, which brings together local coworkers through golf and provides motivation to keep (or start) competing in friendly tournaments.

Quarterfinals; March 25
No. 16 Mitchell Hoey (Alamo, Calif.) vs. No. 25 Joshua Wang (Palo Alto, Calif.); 7:20 a.m.
No. 20 Vijay Srinivasan (Fremont, Calif.) vs. No. 44 Nic Neinken (San Francisco); 7:20 a.m.
No. 2 Matthew Watkins (Novato, Calif.) vs. No. 10 Michael Carrillo (Chualar, Calif.); 7:30 a.m.
No. 14 Brandon Knight (Pleasanton, Calif.) vs. No. 6 Kyreece Romero (San Jose); 7:30 a.m.

Semifinals; March 25
TBA

Championship Match (36 holes)
Sunday, March 26; 7:10 a.m.

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

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Women's Championship Division

Four of the Bay Area's top high school golfers will square off to decide the women's championship.

In the top half of the bracket, Emily Luo, the ninth-seed who is a junior at Monte Vista High School, will meet 13-seed Olivia Duan, a junior at Cupertino High School who has verbally committed to play her collegiate golf at Princeton.

The winner of the Luo-Duan match will advance to Sunday's 36-hole final against either No. 7-seeded Camille Tha, a sophomore at Los Altos High School, or 14-seed Michelle Ho, a sophomore at Dougherty Valley High School.

Duan had a strong showing at the Fortinet Girls' Championship two months ago at Stanford Golf Course, where she tied for 10th in a field that featured some of the top juniors on the west coast.

Semifinals; March 25
No. 9 Emily Luo (Danville, Calif.) vs. No. 13 Olivia Duan (Cupertino, Calif.); 8:00 a.m.
No. 7 Camille Thai (Los Altos, Calif.) vs. No. 14 Michelle Ho (San Ramon, Calif.); 8:00 a.m.

Championship Match (36 holes)
Sunday, March 26; 7:20 a.m.

• • • • •

Senior Division

The quarterfinal matches of the senior division were not completed on Sunday. Next weekend's schedule is TBA.

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Super Senior Division

Semifinals; March 25
No. 9 Jim Himler (San Rafael, Calif.) vs. No. 4 Matt Vukicevich (Kenwood, Calif.); 7:40 a.m.
No. 10 Sunil Bhalla (Fremont, Calif.) vs. No. 3 Jim Williams (Orinda, Calif.); 7:40 a.m.

Championship Match
Sunday, March 26; 10:10 a.m.

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

Crowning weekend ahead at San Francisco City Golf Championships

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