Cal Names New Men's Golf Coach

BERKELEY, CA — Walter Chun has agreed to become the Cal men's golf head coach the university announced Monday. Chun has been associated with the Golden Bears' program for the last 19 seasons most recently as the team's associate head coach for the past seven campaigns after previous roles as an assistant coach and an administrative assistant following his playing career.

"It's absolutely a thrill for me to be named the head coach at Cal," Chun said. "It's been an amazing journey over nearly two decades going from student-athlete at Cal to head coach. It's certainly a dream come true. I worked hard to put myself in a position to earn this job and thankfully it's worked out in my favor."
"Walter Chun is the ideal selection to become our next head men's golf coach at the University of California, and he has the full support of our community," Director of Athletics Michael Williams said. "We have a long history as one of the nation's elite programs on the course as well as in the classroom and in the community. Walter has played a major role in our success during his nearly two decades in Berkeley. He took full advantage of the opportunity he had to learn the coaching profession under Steve Desimone and now is his chance to apply those lessons. Walter has also developed and cultivated key relationships that will help our program continue to thrive under his leadership. Walter loves and appreciates Cal, he understands what it takes to be successful here and has the skill set to make it happen."

Chun helped lead the Bears to new heights during his seven seasons as the program's associate head coach from 2009-16 as Cal reached the NCAA Championships in six of those campaigns after a previous five-year absence. GCAA All-Americans KK Limbhaust (second-team) and Colin Morikawa (third-team) led Cal to a tied for 10th-place NCAA finish in its most recent NCAA trip with Morikawa tying for 10th and Limbhasut tying for 17th. Morikawa had the best freshman season in Cal history and was the first Cal player to be selected to the GCAA's All-Freshman team while he was also named Division I PING All-West Region, Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, first-team All-Pac-12, Co-Team MVP and Cal's Newcomer of the Year. Limbhasut also earned Division I PING All-West Region, first-team All-Pac-12 and Co-Team MVP recognition while finishing the season as Cal's top-ranked player (No. 11 Golfstat, No. 19 Golfweek/Sagarin).

Chun was instrumental in the team's recruiting efforts to restock the roster at the end of the golden era of the program (2009-14) with highly-ranked recruiting 2014 and 2015 classes led by Limbhasut and Morikawa, respectively.

Limbhasut was a 2014-15 freshmen for a team that established a new school record with a ninth straight NCAA Regional appearance but came up just short of a sixth straight trip to the NCAA Championship. Limbhasut tied for fourth at the NCAA Lubbock Regional and tied for sixth at the Pac-12 Championship to equal the best showing ever by a Cal freshman at both events while also becoming only the third player in school history to finish in the top 10 at both. He earned Division I PING All-West Region, honorable mention All-Pac-12, Pac-12 All-Freshman and Cal Newcomer of the Year selections.

The last two recruiting classes join a long list of players Chun has helped recruit and develop with several playing at the highest levels of amateur golf and now in the professional ranks including Byeong-Hun An (youngest to ever win U.S. Amateur at age of 17, 2016 Olympian); Brandon Hagy (All-America Scholar, All-Nicklaus Team, Ben Hogan Award Semifinalist, Byron Nelson Trophy, First-Team Academic All-American®, First-Team All-American, Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Palmer Cup); Max Homa (First-Team All-American, NCAA Champion, Pac-12 Champion, U.S. Open, Walker Cup); Michael Kim (All-Nicklaus Team, First-Team All-American, Palmer Cup, Unanimous National Player of the Year, U.S. Open, Walker Cup); Joël Stalter (All-America Scholar, All-Nicklaus Team, First-Team All-American, Palmer Cup); and Michael Weaver (All-America Scholar, First-Team All-American, Masters, Palmer Cup, Walker Cup).

In addition to his recruiting prowess, Chun played a huge role in the golden era of the program from 2009-14 with the last three teams of the era putting up numbers that were unprecedented not only at Cal but on a national level as the Bears won 24 of 40 stroke-play events and were in the top five on 38 occasions as well as each of their four match-play tournaments during the period. The final stretch of the era also included two appearances in the national semifinals to wrap the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, a single-season NCAA-record 12 stroke-play victories in 2012-13 when the Bears were widely considered to have registered the best season in the history of college golf, and both the first two NCAA Regional and Pac-12 titles in school history during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 campaigns. Cal spent nearly the entire 2012-13 season as the nation's top-ranked team and despite a second straight defeat in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships, remained No. 1 in all three final national polls.

Prior to his role as associate head coach, Chun spent five seasons with the Bears as an assistant coach (2004-09) and two as an administrative assistant (2002-04) including the team's lone national title in 2004.

Chun began his affiliation with Cal as a player in 1997 and was a two-time team captain while competing on three occasions at the NCAA West Regional (2000-02) and once at the NCAA Championship (2000). He also qualified for two U.S. Amateur Championships in 1999 and 2002. Ironically, he was cut from the school's golf team three times before eventually establishing himself as one of the program's top players during his playing career.

Chun received a pair of Cal degrees with a bachelor's from the Haas School of Business in 2001 and his master's from the Graduate School of Education in 2003. He was a three-time Pac-10 All-Academic selection (2000, 2001, 2002) and a two-time All-America Scholar (2001, 2002).

Chun replaces Steve Desimone, who retired as Cal's head coach at the end of last season following after 37 campaigns in the role. Desimone's long list of accomplishments earned him spots in the Hall of Fame of both the GCAA and the NCGA.

--Announcement from Cal Athletics; Image via Cal Athletics