Lake Merced

The Lucky International Open was a PGA Tour event in the 1960s in San Francisco, California. It was played at Harding Park Golf Club, a public course across Lake Merced from the more glamorous Olympic Club. One of the founders and sponsors of the Lucky International Open was Eugene Selvage, owner of the Lucky Lager Brewing Company. Following surgery on his hands the previous summer, San Francisco native Ken Venturi won his 14th and final PGA Tour event here in January 1966, taking the first prize of $8,500 with his parents in the gallery. The deteriorating conditions and antiquated facilities at Harding Park caused the PGA Tour to leave at the end of the decade. The final edition in 1969 was played in late October without the Lucky name and had a winner's share of $20,000. Steve Spray gained his only tour victory, one stroke ahead of runner-up Chi-Chi Rodríguez, the playoff winner in January 1964.For its first six years, it was played in late January, the week after the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am at Pebble Beach. Not played in 1967, it was held in mid-autumn in 1968 and 1969. Of the eight winners, six were major champions; five already and George Archer (1965) won his at the 1969 Masters.

TPC Harding Park, formerly Harding Park Golf Club and commonly known as Harding Park, is a municipal golf course on the West Coast of the United States, located in western San Francisco, California. It is owned by the city and county of San Francisco. It is now a part of the PGA Tour's Tournament Players Club (TPC) network of courses, following an agreement between the tour and the city that was announced on November 3, 2010. It is located in the southwest area of San Francisco, on the west side of San Francisco State University, and surrounded by Lake Merced on its other three sides. The entrance is at Harding Road, which connects to Skyline Boulevard on the east.

The 2020 PGA Championship was the 102nd edition of the PGA Championship, and the first of golf's three major championships played in 2020. It was held August 6–9 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California, having originally been scheduled for May 14–17. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was the first major played in over a year, and had no spectators in attendance. It was the first major held at Harding Park, which had previously hosted World Golf Championship events in 2005 and 2015, and the 2009 Presidents Cup. Collin Morikawa won in his PGA Championship debut, and second major appearance, by two strokes ahead of runners-up Paul Casey and Dustin Johnson. The tournament had multiple players competing for the lead in the final round, and it was only after a birdie on the 14th, and an eagle on the short par-4 16th that Morikawa was able to break away from the field. At age 23, he became the third youngest PGA Championship winner since World War II, behind Rory McIlroy and Jack Nicklaus, and rose from 12th to 5th in the Official World Golf Ranking. Morikawa also set a new PGA Championship scoring record for the final 36-holes of the tournament with 129 strokes (65-64). Casey's second place was his best finish in his 64 career major starts, the most by any player since 2002 without a victory. Johnson repeated his second place standing from the previous edition. Brooks Koepka entered the tournament as two-time defending champion and looking to become the second player after Walter Hagen to win three straight titles; tied for fourth place after round three, and only two shots behind the leader, he was expected to challenge for the title, but struggled in the final round and finished in a tie for 29th place. The top three players in the world rankings heading into the tournament were Justin Thomas (winner of a WGC event the previous week), Jon Rahm, and Rory McIlroy, but none of them were able to contend for the title.

The 8th Presidents Cup was held October 8–11, 2009 at the Harding Park Golf Club in San Francisco, California. The United States team won the golf competition by a margin of 191⁄2–141⁄2, their second consecutive win by that exact score and third in a row overall. This was also the sixth outright win for the U.S. Team in eight meetings, with one International win in 1998 and one tied match in 2003.

The 2015 WGC-Cadillac Match Play was the 17th WGC-Cadillac Match Play Championship, played April 29 – May 3 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California. It was the second of four World Golf Championships in 2015. Top-ranked Rory McIlroy defeated Gary Woodland 4 & 2 in the final, for his second win in a WGC event, after his win in the 2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.On September 30, 2014, Cadillac was announced as the new title sponsor.

The 2023 Hanwha LifePlus International Crown was a women's golf team event organized by the LPGA, played May 4–7 at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco, California. This was the fourth International Crown, a biennial match play event contested between teams of four players representing eight countries. The winning team earn $500,000, or $125,000 per player.

Rancho Laguna de la Merced (also known as the Galindo ranch) was a 2,219-acre (8.98 km2) Mexican land grant, in present-day southwestern San Francisco and northwestern San Mateo County, California. It was given in 1835 by Governor José Castro to José Antonio Galindo.The grant encompassed the area around Lake Merced in San Francisco and the present day Daly City neighborhoods of Westlake, and Serramonte.

The 2005 WGC-American Express Championship was a professional golf tournament held October 6–9 at Harding Park Golf Course in San Francisco, California. It was the sixth WGC-American Express Championship tournament, and the third of three World Golf Championships events held in 2005. World number 1 Tiger Woods won the tournament to capture his fourth WGC-American Express Championship and his tenth World Golf Championships title. Woods defeated John Daly on the second hole of a playoff when Daly missed a two-foot (0.6 m) putt for par.

The WGC Match Play, currently titled as the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play for sponsorship reasons, is a professional men's golf tournament that has been held since 1999. It is the only one of the World Golf Championships to have been contested using the match play format. Since 2016, it has been held at the Austin Country Club in Austin, Texas, United States. Previous names include WGC-Dell Match Play (2015), WGC-Cadillac Match Play (2014), WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship (2001–2013), and WGC-Andersen Consulting Match Play Championship (1999–2000). Before moving to Austin it had been hosted in Arizona eight times, California eight times, and Australia once. It is sanctioned and organized by the International Federation of PGA Tours and the prize money is official money on the PGA Tour, the European Tour and the Japan Golf Tour. Tiger Woods has the record number of wins with three. The winner receives a Wedgwood trophy named the Walter Hagen Cup.

Fort Funston is a former harbor defense installation located in the southwestern corner of San Francisco. Formerly known as the Lake Merced Military Reservation, the fort is now a protected area within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). It was named in honor of Frederick N. Funston (1865–1917), a Major General in the United States Army with strong connections to San Francisco, and included several artillery batteries. The fort is located on Skyline Boulevard at John Muir Drive, west of Lake Merced. The Fort was constructed upon windswept headlands along the Pacific coast and Ocean Beach below, above steep sandstone cliffs that provide a nesting habitat for a colony of bank swallows (Riparia riparia). The last remnants of a sand dune ecosystem that once covered the western half of San Francisco grows along the top of the headlands, with trailheads forming part of the California Coastal Trail that runs through San Francisco County.

The 1955 U.S. Open was the 55th U.S. Open, held June 16–19 at the Lake Course of the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California. In one of the greatest upsets in golf history, Jack Fleck, a municipal course pro from Iowa, prevailed in an 18-hole playoff to win his only major title and denied Ben Hogan a record fifth U.S. Open.Fleck, 32, won two more titles on the PGA Tour and later won the Senior PGA Championship in 1979. He won the U.S. Open with clubs manufactured by Hogan's company.Hogan, 42, never did win his fifth U.S. Open or a tenth major; he won just one more tour event the rest of his career, in 1959. It was his fourth and final playoff in a major championship, all at 18 holes. Hogan won at the U.S. Open in 1950 but lost twice by a stroke at the Masters, to Byron Nelson in 1942 and Sam Snead in 1954. He repeated as runner-up at the U.S. Open in 1956, and had top ten finishes in 1958, 1959, and 1960. (A pre-tournament favorite in 1957, he withdrew due to a back ailment before teeing off.) When the U.S. Open returned to Olympic in 1966, Hogan finished twelfth at age 53 and received a standing ovation at the 72nd green.Byron Nelson came out of semi-retirement to play in his final U.S. Open and finished in 28th place. Arnold Palmer made the cut for the first time at the U.S. Open and finished in 21st. For the first time since 1919, Gene Sarazen did not play in the U.S. Open, ending a streak of 31 consecutive appearances. This was the first U.S. Open at the Lake Course of the Olympic Club; it returned in 1966, 1987, 1998, and 2012.

The 2012 United States Open Championship was the 112th U.S. Open, played June 14–17 at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, California. Webb Simpson won his first major title, one stroke ahead of runners-up Graeme McDowell and Michael Thompson.