Club History

In the early days of the pro circuit, the Club played host to four San Francisco Open Match Play Championships which featured full fields and countless great players including Walter Hagen, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, Horton Smith, Tommy Armour, Lawson Little, Paul Runyan, Jimmy Demaret and many others.

Starting in 1941 with the San Francisco Women’s Open Match Play Championship won by Babe Zaharias, the greatest women golfers have competed on the fairways at Lake Merced. Since 2016, the Club has hosted an LPGA event yearly and the winners have included LPGA Major Champions Lydia Ko (three times) and Sei Young Kim.

The Club has hosted U.S.G.A. events since its founding. U.S. Open Sectional Qualifiers have been held at the Club since 1925 and Lake Merced was honored to host the USGA Jr. Boys and Girls Championships in 1990 and 2012 respectively. Mathew Todd won the U.S. Junior Amateur but the match play event is probably better remembered as the only match that Tiger Woods ever lost in the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship, as he would go on to win the next three U.S. Juniors. Minjee Lee bested Alison Lee in the finals of The U.S. Junior Amateur Girls Championship. Lydia Ko and Aria Jutanangarn lost in the semifinals.

The Club has hosted the Northern California Junior Golf Championship since 1930 and the prestigious event was won at Lake Merced by standouts including Eddie Fry, Ken Venturi, Bob Rosburg, Ray Leach, Michael Brannan, and Bobby Clampett. Countless junior Phenom’s have competed over the years including Johnny Miller and Scott McCarron. The girl’s division of the event commenced in 1982.

The current course record holders are Major Champions So Yeon Ryu and Collin Morikawa. Ryu shot 63 in the 2016 Swinging Skirts LPGA Classic and Morikawa carded a 62 also in 2016 while a student at University of California, Berkeley.