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see also: San Francisco City 2026 MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP, TPC Harding Park Golf Course

After a grueling two-stage qualifying process, the bracket is set and the Men’s Championship Flight opens Saturday
The longest qualifying road in the championship is over. Beginning Saturday, March 14, the San Francisco City Championship shifts into match play, where every hole matters and one of municipal golf’s oldest titles moves into its most compelling stage.
Now the real chess match begins.
On Saturday, March 14, the Men’s Championship Flight of the San Francisco City Championship opens at TPC Harding Park, marking the start of the bracket stage in one of the oldest and most demanding events in public-course golf. What began with a crowded field, a pre-qualifier, and two days of stroke-play attrition now becomes something more volatile and more personal: match play.
The field has already been reduced through one of the toughest qualifying structures in amateur golf. A full 168-player field contested a 36-hole qualifier across TPC Harding Park and Lincoln Park, with only 48 players advancing. The top 32 earned places in the Championship Flight, while the next 16 moved into the Venturi Flight.
That means the players arriving at Harding Park on Saturday have already survived the longest part of the journey. What remains is the most dramatic part of it. No more cumulative scoring. No more room to recover over another round. From here on, the task is simple and unforgiving: win your match and move on.
The beauty of the City’s men’s championship is that players must first prove they can survive a broad test before they ever get the chance to play head-to-head. The bracket is not handed out lightly. Competitors must handle a pre-qualifier if necessary, manage 36 holes over two different municipal venues, and then perform well enough to secure one of the most coveted spots in Bay Area amateur golf.
But once match play begins, the demands change completely. Medalist honors mean nothing on the first tee. Seeding matters, but only until the opening shot. The conversation shifts from totals and cut lines to pressure, momentum, and timing. Players no longer need to beat the field. They only need to beat the player standing across from them.
The men’s championship reached this point through a true March marathon.
The process began with a pre-qualifier at Lincoln Park, where players who entered after the main weekend field had filled were forced to fight for remaining places. That round sent 40 players through after a 5-for-4 playoff that was resolved in just one hole. Inho Park took medalist honors in the pre-qualifier with a brilliant 5-under 63, finishing five shots ahead of the field.
From there, the championship moved into its 36-hole qualifying stage, with one round at TPC Harding Park and one at Lincoln Park. The combined test required players to manage two very different public-course examinations: Harding’s fuller championship setup and Lincoln’s exposed, unsettled challenge.
Alexander Thu emerged as the top qualifier at 6-under total, fueled by a second-round 64 at Lincoln Park. The final places were no less dramatic, with 15 players battling for 10 remaining spots and the playoff effectively decided in one hole when 10 players made par or better to advance.
The format is part of what gives the men’s division its distinctive feel. Players must survive a wider funnel than almost any other bracket in the championship, then immediately shift gears into head-to-head golf. By the time the finalists reach Sunday, they will have earned it over multiple weekends, multiple formats, and two very different golf courses.
The San Francisco City Championship occupies rare ground in the game. Inaugurated in 1916 with the opening of Lincoln Park and later closely tied to Harding Park after its opening in 1925, “The City” has long been regarded as one of the great municipal championships in the world.
It has often been described as the oldest consecutively played competition in the world, continuing uninterrupted through eras that forced many larger championships to pause. That continuity is part of the event’s mystique. So is its democratic nature. The City has always reflected San Francisco itself, blending championship-level talent with the public-golf spirit that makes a municipal title feel bigger than just another tournament week.
The men’s championship, in particular, has long served as a proving ground. Bay Area greats and future major figures all came through its bracket, trying to win the same title on the same ground where generations before them had already built the legend.
For more than a century, the men’s division has produced an extraordinary list of champions and contenders. It is where many of Northern California’s best players sharpened their competitive edge, and where some nationally known names first became part of San Francisco golf lore.
The deeper honor roll is even richer. Ken Venturi, Johnny Miller, George Archer, and Bob Rosburg all took aim at the City Championship during their formative years. So did a young Tom Watson while he was at Stanford. Of those names, only Venturi and Archer were able to win the title, a reminder of just how difficult it has always been to close out this championship.
The event has also celebrated champions whose names are treasured deeply in Bay Area golf history even if they are less well known nationally: Charlie Ferrera, Jim Molinari, Bob Silvestri, Cy Pennel, Bill McCool, Frank Mazion, and John Susko, among many others.
Among modern greats, Gary Vanier stands tallest statistically. The former Stanford player won the men’s championship a record six times, setting the benchmark for excellence in the event’s modern era.
The men’s match play bracket belongs to TPC Harding Park. Once the championship reaches this phase, the course becomes more than a venue. It becomes the stage on which every decision sharpens.
Qualifying asked players to handle two environments. Harding asks something different. It demands patience, positional discipline, and the nerve to recover when a match starts to swing. In stroke play, a bad hole can be hidden inside a larger number. In match play, a single mistake can alter the entire day.
That is why Harding Park and the City fit each other so well. This is a course that rewards resilience, and this is a championship that has always required it.
By Saturday afternoon, half of the Championship Flight will be gone. By the end of Sunday, the bracket will already be down to eight. That is the cruelty and excitement of this phase: after all the buildup, the field starts disappearing fast.
But that is also what makes the men’s division so compelling. Every player in the bracket has already proved something. Starting tomorrow, the question becomes who can keep proving it when every hole has an opponent attached.
The long qualifying road is complete. The match-play stage is here. And at Harding Park, one of municipal golf’s great titles begins to narrow toward another champion.

>> 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...

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