History of Cal Men's Golf
When you think about Cal men’s golf, you think about Steve Desimone. The team’s former head coach took over a program in 1979 that had just lost its varsity status and turned it into the elite power it is today. In honor of his 37-year run as head coach from 1979-2006 and more than a half-century associated with the school, here is a chronological look at the history of the program under Desimone along with some of program’s biggest accomplishments.
Desimone’s long tenure at Cal began when he arrived in Berkeley as an undergraduate and played men’s basketball for the Golden Bears from 1966-68. Desimone would serve in the Navy for two years at the conclusion of his playing days before returning to Cal in 1972 to complete a double major in physical education and history. He would later add a master’s in physical education. While Desimone was finishing his studies at Cal, he also worked full-time as the Director of Athletics at College Preparatory School in Oakland.
With Desimone still in the neighborhood working at College Prep, former Cal Director of Intramural Sports Bill Manning began to recruit him to return to his alma mater as the men’s golf head coach. Eventually, after much encouragement from Manning and a week to mull over a serious offer, Desimone said yes to an offer for the job he would hold for the next 37 years. Desimone pulled double duty for nearly the first decade of his tenure as he retained his position at College Prep until 1988 when he was promoted to full-time status at Cal.
One of the most critical steps of Desimone’s 37-year tenure as the head coach at Cal came early with the formation of the Cal Golf Committee in 1980. Desimone worked hand-in-hand with former Cal football player Frank Brunk to form the committee that helped return the program to varsity status in 1982 and has since been critical in the program’s continuing development as the its primary support group
When Desimone became the head coach at Cal in 1979, the program had just lost its varsity status and Desimone, along with the newly formed Cal Golf Committee, were focused on getting it back. After a series of meetings, some contentious, with campus and department officials, a tremendous amount of fundraising and enormous help from several key campus figures including vice chancellor Bob Kerley, Brunk and several members of the Cal Golf Committee, the team’s varsity status was finally restored in 1982 with the stipulation that the program would always be self-funded.
The 1986-87 season was a huge campaign in the development of the program as the Bears earned a top-25 ranking for the first time in school history and won their first major championship in 17 years at San Diego State’s Frank Scott Memorial Tournament by rallying from a 17-shot deficit on the final day of the event to defeat fourth-ranked Fresno State. The fact that the Bears were still a non-scholarship program made the accomplishments all the more impressive.
Another key first came in the spring of 1990 two years after the inception of NCAA Regional qualifying when Cal returned to the postseason for the first time in 26 years and qualified for the first time ever under Desimone. The Bears would play in NCAA Regionals 21 times over Desimone’s final 27 campaigns.
Cal began offering limited financial aid to incoming student-athletes for the first time in 15 years during the 1990-91 season with the effort led by the generous support of the Cal Golf Committee. The move made it clear that the Bears were ready to compete at the highest level of collegiate golf.
Cal qualified for the NCAA Championships via a performance at the NCAA Regionals for the first time ever in the spring of 1995 and posted a sixth-place finish at the NCAA’s that still ranks as the team’s fourth-best ever at the event.
Cal put together its second-longest run of consecutive appearances at the NCAA Championships with three straight trips to the final field of the event from 1998-2000.
After missing the NCAA Championships for three consecutive seasons following the earlier three-year run, the Bears would return to the event for arguably the greatest single accomplishment of the program. On June 4, 2004, Cal registered a magical final-round comeback rallying from eight shots behind third-round leader UCLA to win the lone national title in school history. The victory at the Homestead Resort’s Cascade Course in Hot Springs, Va., helped Desimone earn National Coach of the Year honors for the first time.
Although the greatest single accomplishment in the program’s history came in 2004, the best extended period of play was certainly throughout the golden era of the program from 2009-14 when Cal made a school-record five straight trips to the NCAA Championships. The combined accomplishments of the last three teams of the Golden Era were unprecedented not only at Cal but nationally 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. Cal reached two NCAA semifinals (2012, ’13) while winning a single-season NCAA record 12 stroke-play events in 2012-13, as well as both the first two NCAA Regional and Pac-12 titles in school history during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.
Desimone coached what is widely considered to be the best team in the history of college golf in 2012-13 when he was named the National Coach of the Year for the second time. Cal posted dominant numbers while winning an NCAA record 12 of its 14 stroke-play events. The Bears posted a 206-3-1 mark in stroke play with its three defeats coming by a total of five shots, were 8233 strokes better than their opponents, and became the first Pac-12 team in league history to be undefeated against conference foes. After the season, the national pollsters unanimously recognized Cal’s dominance by keeping the Bears in the No. 1 spot they had held since September despite being upset by Illinois at the NCAA Championships in the matchplay semifinals. Cal featured both the unanimous National Player of the Year in Michael Kim as well as the NCAA and Pac-12 individual champion Max Homa. The 2012-13 team also became the first in the history of collegiate golf to feature five All-Americans in first-teamers Homa, Kim and Michael Weaver, as well as second-teamers Brandon Hagy and Joël Stalter.
After seeing a school-record string of five straight appearances at the NCAA Championships end in 2014-15, Desimone took one more shot in 2015-16. Cal returned to the NCAA’s and finished tied for 10th with a lineup that included All-Americans in sophomore KK Limbhasut (secondteam) and freshman Collin Morikawa (third-team). Morikawa also became the first Cal player to earn a spot on the GCAA’s All-Freshman team and win Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors. Cal was ninth in the final Golfstat national poll.
Desimone was inducted into his beloved alma mater’s Cal Athletic Hall of Fame along with his former student-athlete Charlie Wi.