San Francisco, California
September 25, 2006
If you happen to make it out to San Francisco and are looking for a nice round of golf at an unusually affordable price, I suggest your consider this golf course. At the time of this review the City of San Francisco had recently invested six million dollars upgrading their Harding Park Golf Course. That upgrade brought with it an increase in green fees for visitors to the tune of $135.00. Contrast that with $31 at Lincoln Park. Lincoln Park also has beautiful San Francisco Bay and Golden Gate bridge views.
This is a par 68 golf courses but don't pass it up. It is a hilly course with lots of blind tee shots. I noticed that unlike many courses, it is friendlier to golfers who hook or draw their shots. Most courses I have played tend to favor fades and slices. However, the fairways are friendly to either a draw or a fade, since they are plenty wide. There is only one five par that measures 486 yards from the white, or middle, tees. There were five three pars, two of which are over 200 yards. The greens putted true, but they were the slowest I have ever putted on all year.
On the negative side, there are no tee markers. The city could class up this course by just investing in some nice tee signs. The course would also be friendlier if it had distance markers that could be easily identified. You have to guess at yardage even though there are some in-the-ground red, white (although I did not find any) and blue markers, that were mostly overgrown with grass. I rented a cart, $20, and it did not have any sand containers to replace divots and the ball washers on the tees were not filled with enough water and Handi-wipe towels were missing on some holes. Bottom line is that the course maintenance was not up to par with average municipal courses around the country. Don't let that deter you from playing. The course is a real treat.
Now all this may sound negative, but the trees and views are a definite plus and the design of the course is stimulating. It's not an especially easy course, since there are numerous blind shots off tees. You will enjoy your day better if you can join with someone who has played the course before. However, the scorecards do have schematics that will give you some guidance. I was fortunate to join two local young musicians, Erik Schramm and Mils Erickson. They were a pleasure to play with even though they were better at the game than I. I hope they might some day come through Colorado Springs and join me in a round at our famous 100-year-old Patty Jewett golf course. It's about the same age as Lincoln Park.
Click here for a hole by hole slide show around the Lincoln Park golf course.
(be patient... this may take a while to load!)
