TPC Harding Park

The course occupies a spit of land between Lake Merced and the Pacific, and the setting shapes every round. Towering cypress and eucalyptus corridor the fairways, fog rolls in off the ocean, and the marine layer keeps temperatures cool and the turf firm even in summer. San Francisco's golf scene has long centered on this stretch of the city's southwestern edge, where Harding Park anchors a cluster of storied layouts.

Walking the back nine along the lake, with the closing holes tightening under those cypress canopies, gives even casual municipal play a championship atmosphere rarely found outside private gates.