Comments (0) Best Underutilized Urban Park - 2000

McLaren Park

Just north of the Sunnydale housing projects and south of Bernal Heights is a huge, tree-studded, grassy-knolled -- and practically empty -- park. From the air, its rolling, forested hills appear to stretch across a quarter of the city, but on the ground it's a bit hard to find, though determined people will get there. One of the (until this very moment) best-kept secrets in San Francisco concerns the existence of a beautiful nine-hole golf course on the edge of the park that abuts the housing projects. The hidden Glen Eagle course features a clubhouse with some of the oldest Scotch whisky anywhere in the city enshrined behind the bar, while a flag waving over the club sports a martini glass emblem. The somewhat sullen golfers who frequent the club removed the entrance sign long ago, and they absolutely frown on strangers. Still, one can only wonder why more people don't frolic here.