101“I don’t know what I would have done without them,” he says.
In those early years, Bryant often crossed paths with the future
Masters champion George Archer, who lived across the street from
Lincoln and is honored with a plaque beside the same putting green
where he practiced, playing money games that have since become
ingrained in local sporting lore.
That’s another thing about San Francisco. Throughout its history,
the city has lived up to many labels: boom town, Beatnik town, hippie
town, tech town. Here’s another: golf town. Packed with the munis
into the city’s compact seven-by-seven-mile frame are three respected
private courses, the Olympic Club, Lake Merced and San Francisco
Golf Club, as well as the Presidio, once strictly military, now high-
end daily fee. Then there’s the list of players. Not just Archer but
Bob Rosburg, Johnny Miller and Ken Venturi. All major champions.
All born here and raised on the munis. Tony Lema lived just east in
Oakland, but he crossed the bay to test himself again the competition.
Harvey Ward, the amateur great, hailed from North Carolina but
made San Francisco his adoptive home.
Ward’s pal, Venturi, was a blue-collar kid whose parents ran the
pro shop at Harding Park, a city-owned course that’s long been the
least muni-like of the local munis. Grand and tree-lined, Harding was
a Tour stop throughout the 1960s before suffering decades of neglect,
only to bounce back by way of a 2003 renovation that restored it as a
big-time tournament stage, now operated by the Tour as a TPC, or
Tournament Players Club. The course hosted the Presidents Cup
in 2009 and will do the same for the PGA Championship next year.
Popular as it was in most discerning golf circles, Harding’s