Popular SF golf course turns into a public park amid shutdown

The Presidio Golf Course. The Presidio Golf Course. Photo: Mia C. / Yelp Photo: Mia C. / Yelp Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Popular SF golf course turns into a public park amid shutdown 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

While golf courses across San Francisco remain closed due to the current shelter-in-place order, one popular course opened itself as a public park over the weekend.

Presidio Golf Course’s 145 acres are now open for strolling, exercising and picnicking, allowing for plenty of social distancing throughout all that land.

Zach Klein, owner of the design website Dwell, tweeted photos from the course this past weekend, alerting many to its opening.

SF’s Presidio golf course is open as a park during the crisis. It was surreal to spend the day there. 150 acres of some of most gorgeous land on the peninsula: cypress groves, rolling hills and patches of nasturtium ... all usually too dangerous to walk through as a pedestrian. pic.twitter.com/VDERHLrowD — Zach Klein (@zachklein) April 26, 2020

Even author Malcolm Gladwell retweeted the tweet with his support.

If there is ONE good thing that could come from all this.... https://t.co/2GS7z0lNm8 — Malcolm Gladwell (@Gladwell) April 26, 2020

The course is not one of the city-owned courses. It's administered by the Presidio Trust, the federal agency that also oversees the Presidio National Park.

Just yesterday the city announced that starting Tuesday, JFK Drive will be closed from Kezar Drive to Transverse Drive throughout the duration of San Francisco’s stay-at-home order, in addition to the entire Shelley Drive loop in McLaren Park. This comes after the announcement of the "Slow Streets" program last week, with neighborhood street closures and in San Francisco and Oakland.

Tessa McLean is a digital editor with SFGATE. Email her at tessa.mclean@sfgate.com or follow her on Twitter @mcleantessa.