Watching the trophy presentation today, it was announced the CSC would be moving to Harding Park for two years starting next year. Somebody said something, interrupting the speaker, followed by a little nervous laughter as he continued through the awkward moment. The players praised Sonoma for it's superb condition with greens running at 12 and I couldn't help but think Harding has a tough act to follow. At one time, Sonoma was public, then went upscale public and is now private. I called for membership info a couple of years ago and was told initiation was six figures!

I don't know honestly. I have never been to either place so I am only going off of TV, but I thought Harding Park seemed great at The President's Cup. All the players seemed happy with it too. I mean Johnny Miller loves the place so how could you go wrong having a tournament there, haha?

I think the players really feel good about playing Sonoma,
the condition, the hospitality, the weather, its all there for
them. Jay Haas remarked that Harding Park was a great course,
but didn't think they would be playing in short sleeves there.
Loren Roberts asked that Sonoma please leave the welcome mat out
for them.

If I was a Senior Tour player I'd rather spend my week in Sonoma than San Francisco with all that comes with it (traffic, proximity of hotels, crime, etc.).

As far as the golf, I've enjoyed both places, but would rather play Sonoma because of the atmosphere.

I have played both courses, and although my preferences lean towards parkland layouts like Harding, I nonetheless slightly prefer Sonoma...mostly because the holes are a bit more interesting, with a bit more character to them. Unless you play it in July/August, the Sonoma/Napa area has wonderful weather year round. Summertime can get warm.

If they can keep up the conditioning at Harding Park, it will be a great venue. If they don't, you will hear players wishing for Sonoma.

It sounded to me like the main reason for the move was to get more fans to attend than they have been getting at Sonoma...

Somewhere behind the scenes there were some issues for not staying with the Sonoma Golf Club. Schwab being based in San Francisco, probably wanted the venue closer to the city, especially as part of their marketing strategy. I do think you can attract more fans not to mention people can come for a few hours or after work and not have to take the day off to attend. And there are more hotel choices in the city as well. Sonoma is close to SF but it does take time to get there.

Sure would be great if this and other venues help to get Harding back into a top golf course.

Sonoma is a nice course and they pamper the players as only a top CC can. But, other than the TV audience, nobody showed up and nobody cared. Harding will probably have at least 3X the crowd turnout every day and to hope to remain relevant the Senior Tour has to draw bigger crowds. Of course if Tiger plays the Senior Tour their marketing problems will be over. The question is whether they can tread water until then.

Harding is absolutely a step down from Sonoma. Sonoma is a great traditional layout. Harding lost a lot of its design characteristics when the Tour renovated it. The Tour also added that gimmick of an 18th hole. I'm not saying the renovations were not necessary, but the Tour Design staff really stripped out a lot of the original design to make it more vanila. As for the CSC, I think the sponsor probably prefers the City location to attract more clients, etc.

Sonoma absolutely does pamper the players...but apparently some appreciate it more than others. Grapevine has it that after winning $442,000, winner JC left $300 in the jar for private locker/bar staff. Sorry, but after winning nearly half a million dollars for 4 rounds of golf, seems like you could do a little better than that. A lot of work goes into making sure everything is perfect for these guys at every tour stop- why not show some class/generosity and be remembered for all the right reasons...not for having short arms and deep pockets. I don't know if this is typical for tour players- I would hope not. Having been close to top level competition in other sports where 10% rule is standard, this just seems weak.