S.F. native Charles Porter chases golf dreams despite myriad obstacles

PEBBLE BEACH — Beware the young golfer with lots of ability, little money and the resourcefulness to pull one over on adults.

As a kid, Charles Porter occasionally spent summer days at Harding Park in San Francisco. His parents typically dropped him off with enough cash to play the nine-hole Fleming course and maybe buy a small snack. Family finances were tight.

Porter, age 10 to 12 at the time, often spent $5 to tee off at Fleming, on discounted youth green fees through the Northern California Golf Association’s Youth on Course program. Then he purposely shanked his tee shot off No. 1 and bet his playing companions $1 per hole. He invariably won, sometimes as much as $15.

That’s how Porter earned enough to play Harding and sharpen his game.

Fast forward to Thursday’s scene at Spyglass Hill, in the opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. Lush course, sizable crowd, sweeping views of the Pacific. See the tall, slender, 23-year-old pro playing in his first PGA Tour event? And wearing a Lincoln Park hat, a nod to the scruffy San Francisco public course he also played as a kid?

Yep, that’s Charles Porter.

He shot 3-over-par 75, an incidental number in the bigger picture. Porter grew up poor in the Outer Sunset, the youngest of seven kids. The family got evicted from one house, later lived in government-subsidized housing and also spent time in a hotel and briefly with relatives in Los Angeles.

Charles’ dad Greg worked multiple jobs, waiting tables and as a professor’s assistant at San Francisco State. His mom Elizabeth worked as a doula (and still does). They considered leaving the city, given the high cost of living, but they wanted to give their kids the opportunities attached to life in San Francisco.

One son (Jerome), for instance, participated in the San Francisco Boys Chorus and sang in President Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009. Even so, it was a stressful existence.

“In retrospect, it’s ridiculous: Why choose to continue to live in a place that’s exorbitantly expensive?” said Ray Porter, another of Charles’ brothers. “Food scarcity was very real. It might be rare for most people in San Francisco, but that was our reality.”

All seven kids were home schooled, at least until high school. Charles was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and struggled with academics, eventually taking his GED test and dropping out of Gateway High.

Along the way, he kept playing golf. He didn’t enter many junior tournaments, given the cost, but he played enough to improve. Porter bounced to a few community colleges around California before ultimately dropping out to get a job and play in amateur events.

That’s not exactly the conventional path for a professional golfer, to say the least.

“I never felt limited at all — I just kind of rolled with the punches and figured it was normal,” Porter said after Thursday’s round at Spyglass. “Looking back on it, it was definitely different than most golfers.”

He became more serious about chasing a career on the course when he won the San Francisco City Championship in 2020 (yes, at Harding Park). Soon thereafter, Porter turned pro.

But golf at the highest level is even more expensive than taking up the game as a kid. Porter tried to help pay for his dreams by working at Lincoln Park and Baylands Golf Links in Palo Alto, and he also worked in sales for an energy-drink company and at the Golf Mart in South San Francisco.

Porter nearly took a big step last fall, when he advanced to the final stage of Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school. But he didn’t earn a spot on tour for 2023 — Korn Ferry is one step below the PGA Tour — leaving him without a place to play regularly.

So he’s entering Monday qualifying events at some PGA Tour stops, and writing letters to other tournament directors seeking sponsor exemptions. Steve John, CEO of the Monterey Peninsula Foundation, called last week to tell Porter he had a spot in the field; Porter answered only after dashing to his car to plug in his cell phone, which had 1% life left on its battery.

He spoke of his gratitude for playing in the AT&T, and to the Youth on Course and First Tee programs for creating a pathway for kids to take up golf. The NCGA created YOC and turned it into a nationwide program, with corporate support making tee times available to kids for a nominal fee.

Porter wore a YOC patch on his sleeve Thursday.

“Charles is a living, breathing example of the power of Youth on Course,” said Moe Melhart, the program’s director of alumni relations. “He makes no excuses — he just continues to find a way.”

Ray Porter described Charles’ swing as “organically good” from a young age. The whole family is athletic, but when Charles was about 11, their dad declared, “I think this is the kid who has a chance to be a pro athlete one day.”

Then, after high school, Charles grew to 6-foot-7. He crushes tee shots, routinely hitting the ball more than 325 yards. His drives at Spyglass weren’t always straight, but they sailed far into the distance.

Now, as he seeks a sponsor to help finance his career, Porter tries to become acclimated to the distinctive challenges of a PGA Tour event. He will play Monterey Peninsula on Friday and Pebble Beach on Saturday.

“It’s just a completely different atmosphere than what I’m used to,” Porter said. “The crowds, the courses, all of the above.”

Still, he has come a long way since those money games at Fleming.

Ron Kroichick covers golf for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: rkroichick@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ronkroichick