Jack Fleming: The Irishman Who Built San Francisco's Municipal Golf
Most golfers know the Fleming 9 — the friendly short course tucked inside TPC Harding Park — without knowing the man. Jack Fleming was Alister MacKenzie's construction man in America, and then, for decades, the keeper of San Francisco's public golf (ForeTee architect bio).
MacKenzie's foreman
An Irishman who studied landscaping in England, Fleming met MacKenzie in 1919 and worked in his organization until the architect's death in 1934 — timekeeper, paymaster and construction foreman on projects across England, Scotland, France and Ireland (ForeTee). In 1926 MacKenzie's group sent him to California to supervise construction of the Meadow Club in Fairfax. He came on a two-year visa; it would be roughly forty years before he returned to Ireland.
Working alongside MacKenzie associate Robert Hunter, Fleming helped build an astonishing run of California courses: Cypress Point, the Valley Club of Montecito, Green Hills in Millbrae, Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz, and San Francisco's own Sharp Park in Pacifica (ForeTee, Golf Club Atlas).
The city's golf keeper
When Sharp Park was finished in 1932, Fleming joined San Francisco's Parks and Recreation department to maintain the city's courses — and kept designing on the side (ForeTee). His most charming solo work is the all-par-3 Golden Gate Park Golf Course, opened in 1951 among the dunes near Ocean Beach, and reborn in 2023 under a Jay Blasi renovation (Golf Club Atlas).
In 1961 the city added a nine-hole course inside Harding Park's perimeter and named it for its longtime golf caretaker (Golf.com). Sixty years on, the Fleming 9 is First Tee San Francisco's home — the next generation of San Francisco golf learning the game on holes named for the man who built the city's courses.
