San Francisco’s Golf Courses Ran a $4.9 Million Deficit Last Year

San Francisco’s Recreation and Parks Department is reviewing how it manages the city’s municipal golf courses after years of budget shortfalls, according to reporting by the San Francisco Standard and Hoodline this month. The department’s golf operations ran a $4.9 million deficit in the 2026-27 fiscal year, up from about $1.5 million annually in 2008.

The city operates five golf courses within San Francisco through Recreation and Parks: Lincoln Park (18 holes, 99 acres), TPC Harding Park and the adjoining nine-hole Fleming course (170 acres combined), Golden Gate Park Golf Course (9 holes, 20 acres), and Gleneagles (9 holes, 56 acres). The department also manages a sixth course, Sharp Park, an 18-hole course in Pacifica outside city limits. Together, golf accounts for roughly 1,000 acres, about 10 percent of the department’s total parkland and close to 3 percent of the city’s total land area.

How Much the Courses Are Used

Play has declined across the municipal system. The Standard reports municipal courses saw about 199,000 rounds in 2023-24, down 10 percent from 2005-06, and that citywide utilization sits below 50 percent against an industry standard of about 70 percent. Lincoln Park is the busiest, averaging around 90 rounds a day and operating above 70 percent capacity on weekends. Gleneagles sees fewer than 50 rounds a day, down from about 100 two decades ago.

By comparison, Golden Gate Park as a whole draws about 25 million visits a year across its 1,017 acres. The Standard’s analysis puts golf’s visitation at roughly 600 visits per acre annually, well below the park’s overall average.

What the City Has Tried

Recreation and Parks raised green fees in 2025, adding a $6 surcharge on 18-hole rounds and $4 on 9-hole rounds at municipal courses, according to Hoodline. A 2008 consulting report by Pros Consulting had already recommended converting part of Lincoln Park to other public uses and restructuring management contracts so the courses break even. Leon Younger, the report’s lead author and president of Pros Consulting, told the Standard that “most public courses are between 90 percent and 100 percent self-supporting” and that “something else is going on there” at San Francisco’s courses.

A Recreation and Parks spokesperson told the Standard the department is reviewing resource allocation across all of its programs, including golf, to “understand what’s working, where there are opportunities to improve operations,” and pointed to youth programs such as First Tee that use the municipal courses. The review is expected to take several months. The department has not proposed closing or privatizing any course.

What Comes Next

No decision has been made on the courses’ future. The Standard’s report raises alternative uses that have been floated for underused course acreage, including housing near Gleneagles and McLaren Park, community gardens, hiking trails, and pickleball courts, citing conversions at Rancho Cañada Golf Club in Monterey County and San Geronimo Commons in Marin County as precedents elsewhere in California. None of those alternatives has been formally proposed for San Francisco’s courses.

For now, all five municipal courses remain open to the public at their current green fees.

Sources: San Francisco Standard, Hoodline.

Photo: Andreas Praefcke, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.