Harding Park Golf Course was opened on July 18, 1925 along the shores of Lake Merced, in San Francisco's southwest corner. The initial 18-hole, 163-acre course was designed by Willie Watson and Sam Whiting, who also designed the nearby Olympic Club Lake Course.
Harding Park began hosting major amateur tournaments soon after opening–most notably, the USGA National Public Links Championship, and the San Francisco City Championship, the oldest consecutively played competition in the world.
In 1944, the course began hosting PGA TOUR tournaments with the Victory Open. Shortly after, the course established itself as one of the top golf courses on the West Coast; where it became a regular stop for PGA TOUR events up until the end of the decade, when budgetary cuts caused the course to fall into poor conditions. The course further deteriorated, reaching its lowest point in 1998, when it was used as a parking lot during the U.S. Open at Olympic Club.
