Robert Keilch of Newport Beach, Calif., and Luke Montoya of Arroyo Grande, Calif., both shot rounds of 6-under 66 in the first round of the 2025 San Francisco City Championship qualifying.
The qualifying stroke play is 36 holes, and competitors will play TPC Harding Park and Lincoln Park Golf Course. Lincoln Park is only a par 68 and 5,100 yards, but the par 3s are incredibly difficult, and the low score was 1-under 67 in the first round.
Players will play the course they did not play in the first round for the second round. After the two rounds this weekend, the top 64 players will be placed into a match-play bracket.
Keilch and Montoya both played Harding Park in the first round. Keilch recorded seven birdies and one bogey, while Montoya recorded six birdies and no bogeys. Montoya shot a 31 on the back nine with birdies on holes No. 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17.
Keilch won the 2024 Agave Amateur and finished T8 at the Los Angeles City Championship. He is a junior on the Sonoma State University golf team after spending two years at Colorado. Montoya, a freshman at Cal Poly, made the final 32 of the 2024 San Francisco City Championship.
Joey Hayden of Dublin, Calif, is in solo third place at 3-under. He also played TPC Harding Park in the first round.
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This is the 109th playing of the historic championship. This year, Lincoln Park Golf Course was brought back as a second course to the iconic TPC Harding Park. Lincoln Park is where the tournament was founded in 1916 and features unmatched views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay.
It also has one of the most scenic par-3s in the world, No. 17.
Past champions include 1964 US Open Champion Ken Venturi, 1999 US Women's Open Champion Julie Inkster, and 1969 Masters Champion George Archer. More recently, LPGA Tour player Dorothy Delasin* of Daly City (winner of the 1998 US Junior Girls Championship and 1999 US Women's Amateur) claimed the Women's City Championship in 1998.