Insider: Remembering a legend at TPC Harding Park

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Courtesy Tom Clark

A plaque on a bench off a TPC Harding Park practice green honors an amazing feat.

Here's a tip for the 30 Champions Tour players who will tee it up next week at the Charles Schwab Cup Championship at TPC Harding Park:

Take a moment on your way to the first tee from the putting green to pay homage to Ovid Seyler. Find the plaque commemorating Seyler's rare feat and maybe give it a tap with your putter.

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It never hurts to have a little bit of good karma on your side.

There are two concrete benches next to the practice putting green at Harding Park. On one is a plaque which celebrates Seyler's achievement of making eagle on every one of Harding Park's 18 holes. That's four holes-in-one, holing out in two shots on all 10 of the par-4 holes and eagle 3s on each of the par-5s. It reads:

In Memory of
Ovid Seyler
Who
Eagled Every Hole At
Harding Park S.F.

The message on the second bench reads, simply:

In Memory of Ovid Seyler
"The Institution"
Harding Park S.F.

Seyler was a San Francisco firefighter and outstanding golfer who had a proclivity for doing good deeds. He was a four-time club champion at Harding Park over a 25-year span -- 1942, 1954-55, 1967. He also reached the semifinals of the 1956 USGA Public Links Championship at Harding Park.

That's the year Ken Venturi defeated reigning U.S. Amateur and defending San Francisco City champion, Harvie Ward, 5 and 4, in the finals of the City Championship.

Venturi won the City Championship at Harding Park in 1952 and 1953; Seyler won it the following two years.

Venturi played his first round of golf at Harding Park at the age of 12 and at 17 became the youngest ever golfer to win the San Francisco City Championship, one of the most celebrated and difficult to win titles in amateur golf at the midpoint of the 20th Century.

Photos courtesy Tom Clark

Harding Park was best known throughout the country as Venturi's home course. He won two California State Amateur Championships and went on to win the 1964 U.S. Open in storybook fashion. The San Francisco native won 14 times on the PGA TOUR.

Venturi played many rounds with Seyler at Harding Park.

"If you wanted to win the city championship, Seyler was one of the players you'd have to beat," Venturi said. "He was a straight hitter, played fast and was always gracious. He was nice to everyone. In San Francisco, all the firemen and policemen were good golfers. The city took care of them (with minimal fees) and they had time to play."

Bo Links is a San Francisco-based attorney and golf historian who met Seyler but never saw him play.

"We used to call him Ovie," Links said. "He used to always be there at the first tee, along with Bill McCool, a policeman and city champion, when they played the City Championship. Ovie was like a legend there."

And remains so today. The Northern California Professional Firefighters' Invitational, an annual four-person scratch best-ball, is contested for the Ovid Seyler Memorial Trophy. The recognition is due not only for Seyler's exemplary golf but also for his benevolent nature.

"He was always a giver," Venturi said. "He always helped out with the kids. Ovid would go down to Lake Merced, find golf balls and give them to the kids. He was very nice in that way."

The plaque has always resonated among golfers who see it for the first time. They re-read it to make sure what they read the first time is correct.

Originally, the cement bench was located alongside the first tee. When Harding Park was renovated a few years ago, the bench disappeared, leaving many saddened that a piece of history was gone forever. There was considerable relief when it reappeared by the new practice green.