Despite worries voiced by the Parking and Transportation Department in a mass e-mail sent the week before the competition, the 2009 President's Cup did not affect student parking the way it had been predicted to.

From Oct. 6-9, 115 spaces in Lot 20 and 100 spaces in Lot 25 were taken up by golf fans attending Harding Park Golf Course behind campus. In total, the two lots have 1,951 spots available to students and the public.

On Oct. 8, the first day of competition at Harding Park, senior Farita Toney had no problem finding parking before her class at 2 p.m.

The 24-year-old added that parking has been unusually easy this semester.

"Nearly every week this semester, it's taken me less than a minute to find parking."

Toney has attended SF State since 2003. In 2004 she started driving to school from her home in Oakland.

"I used to have to leave an hour before my first class so I had time to get here with 15 minutes left to find parking," said the women and gender studies major.

According to Lily Gee, SF State's parking coordinator, the 215 spaces reserved for the competition are usually empty during the week anyway.

The University rented these spots to the President's Cup at the standard day rate of $5 a day, according to Leroy Morishita, SF State's vice president and chief financial officer.

The President's Cup then rented out the spots for $120 for the week at Lot 25 or for $20 a day.

On Sept. 30, the Parking and Transportation Department sent an e-mail to warn students that parking would most likely be impacted by this "large and very popular event." The e-mail informed students that they would have to show SF State identification at the parking areas to confirm that they were students.

However, the competition may not have affected many students because of the high number of people who find their parking off-campus.

According to a report put out in 2008 by Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates, a firm working with transportation issues, and SF State, approximately 54 percent of students take advantage of free parking around the University. Most students take spots on Junipero Serra Boulevard or 19th Avenue to avoid paying for campus parking.

Meanwhile, the study also found that approximately 22 percent or 6,500 students, drove to school that year. Of this, only 2,100 students paid for parking. According to the Parking and Transportation Department there are 2,800 parking spaces on campus, not including motorcycle spots or blue zones.

This worked out well for those attending the President's Cup and willing to pay the parking fee at Lot 25. Other lots for the attendees in the area, including spaces at Stonestown Galleria and Lowell High School, only sold parking spots by the week.

Rudy Manfredi, who owns Medic Ambulance in Solano County, parked in Lot 25 for his first day at Harding Park.

"It was the only space I could find. Everything else is prepaid," said the 57-year-old.

Wally Samuelson, 51, and Larry Bonincontri, 57, didn't have trouble finding parking either. They parked in a residential area near Stonestown Galleria to avoid paying a parking fee.

"I parked in one of the lots yesterday but it wasn't full," Bonincontri said.

The President's Cup is a men's golf competition between a U.S. team and an international team, sponsored by the Professional Golfers Association. This year the international team consists of players from eight different countries. This is the first year that the event has been held in San Francisco. The U.S. team won this year.