The Other Gleneagles: "The Speakeasy Of Golf Courses"

While the world watches the lush Gleneagles Centenary course hosting the Ryder Cup, John Branch of the New York Times heads a world away to “the speakeasy of golf courses,” according to its operator Tom Hsieh. Gleneagles of San Francisco is a 3,000 yard gem home to an eccentric crowd and known for its money games.

And it could really use some rain.

Gleneagles has never received the attention of other San Francisco courses, including the city-owned Harding Park, a longtime stop on the PGA Tour and the site of the 2009 Presidents Cup, and the Olympic Club, the site of the 2012 United States Open. And it never did what it was intended to do — improve the neighborhood struggling at the base of its slope.

By at least one count, there were 10 homicides in the Gleneagles area in 2012. Two murders occurred in the neighborhood within a week this summer.

But most of the course feels like a world away. The neighborhood is visible only along a couple of holes through the trees and across a chain-link fence. Crime has rarely entered, and even de Lambert once noted that he always kept the flags in the holes overnight without anyone stealing them.