Wednesday
Jun272007
The Old Man And The Tee
Thanks to reader Kevin for this Josh Sens profile of Sandy Tatum in San Francisco Magazine, which gets into the politics behind the Harding Park redo as well as the chances of a Sharp Park restoration. A few highlights, though the entire piece is worth your time:
This vision has made Tatum a contentious figure. Some have hailed him as a selfless champion of public good. “The guy gets such a bad rap,” says Tom Hsieh, a San Francisco political consultant who leases Gleneagles from the city and operates the nine-hole course. “He could be out enjoying himself at Cypress Point. Instead, he’s totally committed to doing what he thinks is right for the city.” But Matt Smith, a columnist with the SF Weekly, has cast Tatum as a kind of robber baron, out to pluck from city coffers to provide for fat-cat friends. In this portrayal, golf takes shape as a hobby restricted to the upper crust, unworthy of extensive public investment, and Tatum as an enemy of the Everyman. Suspicion of Tatum is shared, though for different reasons, by some hard-core local golfers, who cherish outings on their low-priced munis, regardless of the shoddy conditions, and don’t see the need for manicured fairways if it means coughing up more green.And...
The political consensus is that the status quo isn’t working. But what, exactly, should be done? Whether or not Tatum has the right answers for San Francisco—the Board of Supervisors and the Recreation and Parks commissioners will decide that—he remains the only party to put forth a detailed plan.
“In the case of Harding,” Tatum says, “I didn’t see any way of salvaging the place other than the way that was ultimately taken. It’s a San Francisco asset, and something needed to be done. I can certainly understand the frustrations. But if it could have been done differently—and in a realistic fashion—boy, I wish someone had been there at the time to tell me.”
Now, with Sharp and Lincoln deteriorating, the city is again at a crossroads, and Tatum has again weighed in. His suggestion, which echoes the findings of a 179-page report by the National Golf Foundation (a study paid for with private donations raised by Tatum), is that the city lease its courses to a nonprofit organization. The nonprofit (and Tatum has established just such an organization for this purpose), in turn, would hire private companies to make improvements (new drainage systems, say) and run the courses day to day. It’s an arrangement not unlike the one the city has with the San Francisco Zoo. If such steps aren’t taken, the report concludes, the rising debt and declining conditions of the munis will at some point in the unspecified future cause both Lincoln and Sharp to simply fade away. The city’s own analysis, presented to supervisors in April, confirms that the courses will run deeper in the red if nothing is done.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 08:27 PM
Reader Comments (7)
Harding took ten years because the SF political machine is a joke.
The SF Weekly is an alternative paper that takes its stance on many issues out of rebellion. The last ten pages are devoted to ads for medicinal marijuana and escort services.
The Harding Mens Club still asks for sleeves of Prostaffs in the golf shop. Sorry you have to pay $13 more to play one of the top munis in the country where the best players in the world raved about a course that produced a winning score of 10 under. Daisies in the fairway = the good old days?
The Harding renovation was funded by state bonds. The cost was $16 million...the $7 million for the clubhouse was raised privately. SF residents are on the hook for nothing. It is privately run, except for the union backed Park & Rec. maintenance crew.
Cypress, Pine Valley. SFGC and St. Andrews have nothing to do with this.
Anybody who labels Olympic as 'uptight' has never spent any time there.
The 2005 AMEX was the best professional sporting event conducted in SF proper since the opening of Pac Bell Park...a project that was privately funded after years of similar apathy from City Hall. The 49ers have five Lombardi trophies but still play in a municipal stadium that is the worst in the league by miles. So let's take that City pride and apply the know how to the other courses. Wait, here's a better idea...flatten Lincoln Park in order to build soccer fields? That would generate as much revenue as a mini golf course on the roof of the Russian Tea Room.
Tatums biggest mistake was making a deal with the devil, Tim Fichem and using the PGA architectural services who are rank amateurs in architecture. As a result you have hacks rebuilding the golf course in exchange for the PGA bringing the tour to the golf course. Secondly, he couldn't shake the city workers as employees on the grounds crew and as a result you have gardners making $75,000 per year with benefits working on the golf course.
They didn't exactly steal $2.2 from the Open Space Fund, which exists for a reason.
The hacks actually did a good restoration job, or did you not hear the players rave about it (save a few grumblings about 18) during the '05 AMEX?
The deal was made with the devil as a last resort for Tatum after a decade of bureaucratic red tape. If it wasn't made, Harding would still be in disrepair and used as a parking lot for the 2012 US Open.
I have in fact spent time at the Olympic Club. On my first visits, many years ago, I felt the place to be off-puttingly stuffy. But on more recent visits, I admit that it seemed much more relaxed. Still more uptight than a lot of places, but not insufferable either. Maybe I'm just getting older and starchier myself, or maybe the club has changed. At any rate, in my original draft of the story, I simply referred generically to "scrappy munis and uptight country clubs", and the different ends of the golf spectrum they represent. No mention of specific locations. But my editors and I later decided we should cite specific local examples, given the local focus of the magazine. I chose the Olympic Club, but, in retrospect, I could have chosen more wisely. It's not the most inaccurate thing I've ever written, but I don't think my characterization of the club was entirely fair.
That said, last time I was there, just a few weeks ago, a marshal did upbraid me on the 10th tee when he saw that my shirt, on an incredibly windy day, had come only partially untucked in back. Whether that qualifies as uptight is, I suppose, a subjective matter. In a peripheral way, I guess it's also a reminder of the different ways different people perceive the game itself.