Gallery

Eight and a half acres, in pictures.

Every photograph here was taken at Presidio Hills. The album grows as the story does, starting with the course as we found it, in all its stubborn beauty.

The Landscape

Phone photos from years of rounds with family and friends. No filters. The light here really does this.

A jacaranda in full purple bloom over a green fairway under a dramatic sky — Jacaranda season over the front nine.

A red flag on a green backed by a golden hillside and eucalyptus — A flag against the Presidio hillside: the view from 1932, unchanged.

The stone Presidio Hills welcome sign with the Casa de Carrillo state landmark plaque — The welcome sign, and the plaque for Casa de Carrillo, California Historical Landmark No. 74.

The 1821 adobe clubhouse beneath a giant shade tree near the second hole marker, jacaranda blooming — The second hole, the great tree, and a clubhouse older than California.

The green Presidio Hills Golf Course Par 3, 18 Holes sign under a moody sky — Par 3. Eighteen holes. Est. 1932.

A golfer's follow-through beneath the row of old trees along the fence line — The tee line under the old trees.

A golfer punching out from beneath low branches — Every lie here teaches you something.

A red flag glimpsed through a dark canopy of trees — A flag through the canopy. Bell hid his trouble on purpose.

The fence line and tree row beside a practice mat and dry turf — The honest part: mats and dust where grass should be. This is why we're here.

From above

Three springs, twenty-five years apart, from the same patch of sky.

Satellite view of Presidio Hills in April 2000: mowed, textured, green fairways in the last years of the Abrego era

Satellite view of Presidio Hills in April 2015: browning fairways and fading definition

Satellite view of Presidio Hills in April 2025: the course pale and losing its texture even in spring

April 2000

All three frames are April. The course has always greened up in winter and browned in summer, so spring is the fair test, and spring is what you're looking at in every frame. Watch what disappears anyway: the mowing lines, the edges, the texture of a cared-for course. That isn't the season. Imagery: Google Earth.

History

The course in its prime, shared from the family albums of Donna Abrego, whose family ran Presidio Hills from 1945 into the 2000s, and Doug Broadley, its longtime greenskeeper. Scanned straight from the shoeboxes, tape marks and all.

Black and white photograph of a greenskeeper hand-mowing a green at Presidio Hills — A green mowed by hand. For decades, care here was daily work.

A greenskeeper in a sun hat riding an orange greens mower under the trees — The mower, mid-round. The old crew cut in season like clockwork.

A dog leaping through a running sprinkler on a watered fairway — The sprinklers ran, and everybody loved them. Including the dog.

The course wall-to-wall green beneath the wooded Presidio hillside — The course as it was: green to the fence line, under the same hillside.

Two golfers practicing at Presidio Hills, with a handwritten album note reading Lon Hinkle at Presidio 86 — "Lon Hinkle at Presidio, '86," reads the album note. Tour pros found their way here.

A golfer at the top of his backswing while another watches, on healthy turf — Mid-swing under the big trees, on turf you could land a wedge on.

The wooden Presidio Hills Golf Course sign surrounded by green fairway and old trees — The old sign, surrounded by fairway instead of dust.

Phil Mickelson posing with three visitors at the clubhouse door beneath the Presidio Hills sign — Phil Mickelson at the clubhouse door. His first Junior World trophies came off these greens, and the champions have a way of coming back.

A tournament gallery of spectators lining a fairway under the trees — Tournament day: a gallery lining the fairway, at a pitch and putt.

A junior clinic in progress, kids in caps hitting balls down the range — Junior golf in full flight. This is what the tee sheet looked like.

The Presidio Hills Golf Course sign on the adobe wall reading Open To The Public Since 1932, with flowers below — On the adobe, in hand-painted letters: Open to the Public Since 1932.

The Casa de Carrillo patio with tables and chairs looking out over a green course — The Casa patio, green as far as the gate.

Small children hitting balls at the driving range beneath a Pepsi-Cola billboard reading Don and Al Abrego, Presidio Hills, Tiny Tots Golf School — The Tiny Tots Golf School, up on the billboard: "DON and AL ABREGO — PRESIDIO HILLS." Kids barely taller than their clubs, learning the game at the range. The junior-golf mission was the sign out front.

Coming to the album

In progress

The Honest Record

The course as it is: brown fairways, broken irrigation, the disrepair worth documenting before it becomes a before-photo.

Planned

The Course, Properly Shot

A professional photo and film session capturing the course's light, its quirks, and its people.

Old photos of Presidio Hills (tournaments, lessons, family rounds, any decade) are treasure to this project. Write us: hello@findingpresidiohills.org.