FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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SAN FRANCISCO (July 20, 2021) — The Board of Directors of San Francisco Pride are pleased to announce that registration is now open for the third annual San Francisco Pride Golf Tournament on Friday and Saturday, Oct. 8-9.
Held at San Francisco’s world-renowned TPC Harding Park — home to the 2020 PGA Championship — this tournament was the first-ever LGBTQ+ sporting event to be endorsed by the PGA. Since its inception in 2019, it has been a potent symbol of increased LGBTQ+ representation in the realm of professional athletics. Breaking barriers in sports has been a point of focus for SF Pride, which also produced “Movie Nights at Oracle Park” (June 11-12, 2021) in collaboration with Giants Enterprises and the long-running LGBTQ+ film festival Frameline.
Last year’s SF Pride Golf Tournament saw 150 players, competing under full COVID restrictions, raise approximately $35,000 for the organization, a globally recognized LGBTQ+ nonprofit that, in a typical year, produces a Parade and Celebration that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to San Francisco.
For 2021, SF Pride is thrilled to offer an expanded playing field with two teams per hole. In this Pro-Am tournament, each group of golfers is paired with a local golf professional, in a "scramble" format. Once again, the organization has chosen to work with First Tee of San Francisco, a youth development organization broadening and diversifying golf’s reach among younger generations.
New this year is a Pride Golf Award Reception, to be held on Friday, Oct. 8 at Beaux, an LGBTQ+ venue in San Francisco’s Castro District. The organizers will bestow the inaugural SF Pride Leadership in Golf award to a a recipient who has expanded LGBTQ+ inclusion in the golfing world.
“This tournament is a major fundraiser for SF Pride, and previous years have been nothing short of magical,” says Suzanne Ford, Vice President of SF Pride’s Board of Directors and an avid golfer. “So we’d love for the LGBTQ+ community to be there on the course with us once again. No one ever leaves TPC Harding Park without having a wonderful experience.”
"Since we founded the event in 2019, the SF Pride Golf Tournament has made remarkable strides for the LGBTQ+ community in a space that had largely been unavailable to us,” says Nguyen Pham, Board Secretary of SF Pride and a member of the Tournament’s Core Planning Team. “As a golf outsider, I've felt truly welcomed into this space each year, and I'm thrilled for our historic event to continue building inclusion in the sports world."
“In our third year now, the San Francisco Pride Pro-Am continues to be a groundbreaking event for visibility of our LGBTQ+ community in golf, while raising funds for the SF Pride Community Partners Program,” says Greg Fitzgerald, Head Golf Professional at the Institute Golf Club in Morgan Hill, Calif. and an NCPGA member.
“We are elated to host the golf world's biggest and best LGBTQ+ golf event at TPC Harding Park, especially knowing what pride means to our community,” says Tom Smith, TPC Harding Park’s general manager. “As stewards of the game, we’re proud to be a small part of such an important movement within the golf industry. The San Francisco Pride Golf Tournament is the perfect example of how golf can bring people together, while simultaneously expanding inclusivity and diversity within the sport.”
“Whether professional or amateur, on a public course or a private course, the game of golf should be welcoming and comfortable for all,” says Michelle Wie, a member of the LPGA Tour. “The SF Pride Pro-Am at TPC Harding Park — which brings the LGBTQ+ community and its allies together with professionals for a fun day — is fantastic and something I wholeheartedly support.”
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About San Francisco Pride
The San Francisco Pride Celebration Committee is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded to produce the San Francisco Pride Celebration and Parade. The mission of the organization is to educate the world on LGBTQ+ issues, as well as to commemorate the heritage, celebrate the culture, and liberate the people of all LGBTQ+ communities. As a world leader in the Pride movement, San Francisco Pride is also a grant-giving organization through its Community Partners Program. Since 1997, San Francisco Pride has granted more than $3 million in proceeds to local nonprofit LGBTQ+ organizations as well as to organizations working on issues related to HIV/AIDS, cancer, homelessness, housing rights, and animal welfare.
Website: sfpride.org
Twitter: @sfpride
Facebook: @sanfranciscopride
Instagram: @sanfranciscopride
#sfpride2021 #sfpridegolf #allinthistogether
About TPC Harding Park
TPC Harding Park – part of the TPC Network and the only city-owned public course managed by the PGA TOUR - features 27 holes of championship golf designed by Willie Watson, architect of the nearby Olympic Club. Known as Harding Park Golf Club when it opened in 1925, the course was named after avid golfer and former President Warren G. Harding. Over the course of its history, golf legends such as Ken Venturi, Billy Casper and Gary Player all walked its fairways. The course underwent a major renovation project 2002 to restore the fairways to their original glory, concluding just in time to test the skills of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson in the 2005 WGC-American Express Championship and later in the 2009 Presidents Cup. TPC Harding Park also hosted PGA TOUR Champions’ Charles Schwab Cup Championship in 2010, 2011 and 2013, as well as the PGA Championship in 2020. To learn more about TPC Harding Park, please visit www.tpc.com/hardingpark.
