San Francisco Golf Club

Tillinghast course in the city's southwest corner. The club dates to 1895; the course on the present property began with a member-routed layout in 1918 and took its defining form in Tillinghast's 1923 redesign. The listed back-tee scorecard is 6,716 yards, par 71.

Can the public play San Francisco Golf Club?

San Francisco Golf Club does not offer public tee times. Golf access is reserved for members and their accompanied guests, so a normal online booking search will not produce a legitimate public reservation. The club's official website provides the authoritative destination for current club information.

San Francisco Golf Club scorecard at a glance

Course history: from the 1895 club to Tillinghast's redesign

The club was founded in 1895. According to Golf Digest's course history, three club members laid out the original course on the current property in 1918. A.W. Tillinghast remodeled it in 1923, establishing the greens, bunkering and strategic identity associated with San Francisco Golf Club today.

Three holes were replaced in 1950 in anticipation of a street-widening project that never happened. In 2006, Tom Doak and Jim Urbina re-established the original holes, reconnecting the modern routing with Tillinghast's plan.

Design and architecture

The course rewards placement, angles and controlled approaches into defended greens. A.W. Tillinghast used the rolling ground for varied stances and strategic bunkering rather than relying on length alone. The result is a compact Golden Age course where the preferred side of a fairway often matters as much as distance from the tee.

The Duel Hole

The par-3 seventh is the course's signature hole. It overlooks the site of the 1859 duel between U.S. Senator David Broderick and California Supreme Court Justice David Terry, with granite markers identifying the historic ground. The hole joins a precise one-shot test with a piece of California history found nowhere else on the course.

National ranking

In its 2025–26 rankings, Golf Digest ranks San Francisco Golf Club No. 33 among America's 100 Greatest Courses and No. 5 in California. The publication says the club has appeared in its national top 100 continuously since 1971. Rankings change over time, but that long run explains why the course remains a reference point for Tillinghast architecture in the West.

Know before you go

• Access is private; there is no public tee-time inventory.

• The listed course record is 18 holes, par 71, at 6,716 yards from the back tees.

• The club is at 1310 Junipero Serra Blvd., San Francisco, CA 94132.

• The club's listed main phone number is (415) 469-4100.

• The par-3 seventh, known as the Duel Hole, is the course's defining historic landmark.