Ken Venturi: From Harding Park to the 1964 U.S. Open
No golfer is more completely a product of San Francisco's municipal golf than Ken Venturi (1931–2013). He was born in the city, played his first round at Harding Park at 12, and his father Fred later ran Harding's pro shop for years (Golf.com). When Venturi won the U.S. Open, the wire photo that mattered most showed Fred reading the news at the Harding Park counter.
The City's champion
Venturi won the San Francisco City Championship at 19 in 1950, again in 1953, and a third time in 1956 — the final that defines the event. His opponent was Harvie Ward, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion; an estimated 10,000 spectators ringed Harding's fairways; and Venturi announced on the first tee, "I've come to get my title back." He won 5&4 (SF Public Golf). Months earlier the two had teamed against Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson in the fabled Cypress Point four-ball told in Mark Frost's The Match.
As an amateur he nearly won the 1956 Masters — a record opening 66, then a final-round 80 in bad wind, losing by one to Jackie Burke (ESPN). He turned professional later that year.
Congressional, 1964
Venturi's game collapsed in the early 1960s, and by June 1964 he needed sponsor exemptions. What followed is one of the sport's great comebacks. In the last year the U.S. Open finished with a 36-hole Saturday, in an oppressive Washington heat wave, Venturi became so dehydrated between rounds that Dr. John Everett advised him to withdraw — warning that playing could kill him. Venturi played. Everett walked every hole of the afternoon round with him administering salt tablets; Venturi lost eight pounds, shot 70, and won by four (USGA). Sports Illustrated named him Sportsman of the Year.
The voice
Hand problems ended his playing career by 1967, after 14 Tour wins. In 1968 he joined CBS and stayed 35 years — for generations of viewers, the sound of Sunday golf (CBS Sports). He never stopped advocating for the munis that made him; his story anchors the history of golf in San Francisco.
