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In any other year, Cal rugby would have taken the spot as the best Cal sport. It’s hard to argue with a track record that includes 26 championships since 1980.

But not this year.

The Cal men’s golf team had one of the greatest seasons of all time. In any sport. Ever.

The team’s 11 tournament wins are the most in collegiate golf history, breaking a record that has stood since the 1970s. There are only 13 tournaments in the entire year. The team dominated the rankings, remaining at the No. 1 spot in the country for nearly the entire season.

It’s hard to even fathom those numbers, much less argue against them.

And the squad was loaded with star power. Michael Kim won the Haskins award and the Jack Nicklaus award, each naming him the top golfer in the country. The rising junior was also ranked at the top spot by Golfweek and had the lowest stroke average in the country heading into the NCAA championship.

Then there are Michael Weaver, Joel Stalter and Max Homa — who rank at No. 11, No. 12 and No. 13, respectively. And let’s not forget Brandon Hagy at No. 19. Rankings aren’t everything, of course, but that kind of depth is unbelievable. Only Alabama can come close in numbers, and the Crimson Tide went 0-4 against the Bears in the regular season.

The only black mark on the team, of course, was the NCAA Championship. The Bears were the overwhelming favorite going into the title event but ended with just a fourth-place finish.

Tears were shed. Ultimately, a historic season ended with an equally historic upset.

Often, that is the way sports go. Upsets happen. It might sound like a cliche, but that is why they play the games.

But this is not the same. The men’s golf team did not get upset — they got screwed.

The golf team’s season is not analogous to the season of the 2007 Patriots, who went undefeated in the regular season only to lose the Super Bowl. Nor is it similar to the season of the 2001 Seattle Mariners, who won as many games as any baseball team ever only to be upended by the Yankees in the ALCS.

Those teams lost fair and square, but the Cal men’s golf team suffered their fate due to an unfair system. Though the regular season for golf uses stroke-play events, the NCAA Championship switches to match-play. Match-play events can, ultimately, be more exciting to watch by leading to improbable upsets. But those upsets come at the integrity of the game, which should be designed to reward those teams that are the best.

And the men’s golf squad was undeniably that — the best. Why else would awards, like coach Steve Desimone’s coach of the year award, keep flooding in even after they lost at the NCAAs?

So screw the NCAAs. The Cal men’s golf team is already looking to the future, confident in the knowledge that the team’s 2013 effort was one of the best ever.

Sure, losing Homa, the team’s only senior, will hurt. He is a tough piece to replace. But the team last year was already so far above its competitors that there is no reason next year can’t result in the capture of that elusive championship.

Contact Riley McAtee at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

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In mid-June, three Cal players took part in the U.S. Open. Michael Kim was able to shine not just among the Bears competing but among the entire field as a whole when he shot up to a tie for third place on Saturday. He finished the tournament at 10 over, making him the low amatuer. Kim spoke to The Daily Californian about his experience at the U.S. Open and about the Cal men’s golf team’s season in general.

On his goals going into the U.S. Open:

My goal was to just make the cut. Merion is a tough course, so I was hoping to just be able to play on Saturday. So I didn’t have a big goal like winning or anything like that. I just wanted to make the cut. And yeah, it felt great once I made it.

On whether nerves affected his play:

Not really. Mostly, I was just focused on my game. I was trying to just have fun and play it like I would any other course. I didn’t feel nervous at the time, but looking back on it now, I probably was. I was trying to just be patient and play well, and I don’t think nerves really had a huge impact.

On his thoughts when he saw his name in a tie for third on the leaderboard:

It was really cool. I just remember thinking that it was really cool. I looked up and saw my name with Mickelson and Donald and other great golfers. And yeah, I don’t know what else to say, except it was just really cool.

On the difficulty of Merion:

I remember thinking in the practice rounds, “Wow, this course is tough.” It might be shorter, but the fairways are narrow, and it’s just hard. And then I got out there on Thursday and was hitting the right shots. But it was always tough. Merion is tough. So it was challenging, but it was also a lot of fun.

On being paired with Rickie Fowler, a golfer who also burst onto the national scene at a young age, on Sunday:

Rickie was focused on his own game, and so was I. We talked a little but not too much. He didn’t really offer any amazing advice.

On the Cal men’s golf team’s season being cut short:

The NCAAs were a disappointment for us, but we still had a great season. It isn’t a huge takeaway from what we accomplished because we know that we were the best team.

On his goals for the future:

The NCAA Championship. We are losing Max (Homa), but I think we can still do it. Definitely the NCAAs.

Contact Riley McAtee at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

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For coach Steve Desimone, there is no question about it — the Cal men’s golf team had the greatest season in collegiate golf history.

So what if the Bears tied for third at the NCAA championships? Can a team be the best without even winning the ultimate prize? Desimone thinks so.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Desimone said, “the only reason this team didn’t win is because the format was different from ’04.”

The Cal team had 11 victories in just 14 stroke-play events, breaking a record that has stood since the 1970s. However, the NCAA tournament is not a stroke-play event but a match-play one, a format that is much more suspenseful for fans but that Desimone calls “a crapshoot.”

“Anything can happen in a round of match play,” he said.

And what happened was a historic upset. Cal lost to Illinois on June 1, ending the Bears’ NCAA run and giving them a third-place finish.

Although their finish was a disappointment for Desimone and the Bears, it didn’t take away from what the team, which the coach calls the “best in the country,” accomplished.

“Nothing diminishes what we did this year,” Desimone said, dismissing the idea that the loss in the NCAAs changes his perspective on the season.

Cal’s accomplishments include more than just its record-breaking number of victories. The Bears, who were ranked No. 1 with all 20 first-place votes for nearly the entire season, outscored their opponents by a combined 7,000 shots. To put that number into perspective, the three tournaments that Cal lost were by five shots. Combined.

The team also sent three players to the U.S. Open — another record for a collegiate golf team.

And what about the team that eventually ended up winning the NCAA tournament? Although Alabama took home the crown, it was 0-4 against the Bears in the regular season. Cal outscored the Crimson Tide by a combined 35 shots on the year.

“The numbers are so overwhelming it’s hard to argue against,” says Desimone. “There has never been a run like this in the history of college golf.”

And Desimone would know if there had been a run as impressive. He has been coaching the Cal men’s golf team for 35 years and recently won the Dave Williams Award, naming him the top college golf coach in the country. He also was named the coach of the year by Golfweek magazine.

“It’s a team award, not an individual one,” Desimone said of the accolades. “As a team, we had an incredibly great season.”

While their results at the NCAAs still sting, coach Desimone and the team are already looking toward the future. The main challenge will be replacing star Max Homa — the only senior on the squad. That’s a task that Desimone says “is going to be difficult.”

But despite that task ahead of him, Desimone is nothing but optimistic about next year.

“Next season is going to top this season,” Desimone said. “Every player believes it. We’re going to win an NCAA championship.”

Contact Riley McAtee at rmcatee@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @riley_mcatee

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As Michael Kim stood on the 15th green at the U.S. Open on Saturday, the Cal men’s golfer glanced up at the leaderboard and smiled.

The 19-year-old rising junior wasn’t looking to see where his four birdies in the past six holes put him up on the board. He wasn’t grinning because he was tied at third place among a 156-player field and had a legitimate chance at contention.

“I kept looking at the leaderboard — not because I wanted to know how I was doing in the tournament, but it was so cool to see my name next to those names, like Mickelson, Donald, Schwartzel,” Kim said in a post-round interview with Bob Costas. “It was just an incredible feeling.”

The humble amateur golfer completed an impressive run at the 2013 U.S. Open this past weekend at the Merion Golf Club near Ardmore, Pa. Kim finished the tournament at No. 17 and as the low amateur after reaching as high as third place on the overall leaderboard on Saturday.

After a respectable first two days of the major tournament, Kim made the cut tied for No. 8 on the scoreboard, while Cal teammate Michael Weaver barely passed the cut line at eight over to enter the third round.

While Weaver struggled with several bogeys on Saturday, Kim peaked in his third round, shooting one bogey but later consistently hitting par.

After the ninth hole, Kim shot four birdies in a six-hole stretch to take him to even par in the overall tournament. Just one shot back of the lead, Kim was momentarily near the top of the U.S. Open leaderboard.

But his position atop the board was short-lived — the Southern California native snap-hooked his tee shot on No. 16 to the left, finding the rough and making a bogey. Kim then accumulated a double bogey on the 17th hole and another bogey on the last hole to end the third round.

Kim slipped from third place to 10th place to complete the third day, shooting one over to sit at five shots behind leading pro Phil Mickelson.

“I didn’t feel that nervous, but I think I was, looking back on it,” Kim said. “I kind of went through that what-if situation in my head. What if I won, or what if I did this. I tried to snap back out of it, but I hit an awful tee shot on the next hole.”

On the last day, although Kim managed to post two birdies, he struggled with his tee shots and hit several in the rough to garner four bogeys and two double bogeys throughout round four. But the rising Cal junior is ultimately proud of his overall No. 17 performance at the major tournament — the third-best finish by an amateur in the last 30 years.

“I had a difficult ending, but the overall week, it’s just been an unbelievable experience,” Kim said. “I think I gained a lot of confidence from that. I met a ton of great players out here, and (I’m) just looking forward to what my future holds. It’s just an experience I’ll never forget.”

Contact Janice Chua at jchua@dailycal.org.

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The Cal men’s golf team will send an unprecedented three players to the U.S. Open this weekend.

Michael Kim, Max Homa and Michael Weaver will represent the Bears in the prestigious tournament at the Merion Golf Club in Pennsylvania, where they will play alongside the best golfers in the world. Kim and Homa earned their spots in the sectional qualifying rounds, while Weaver was previouly guaranteed a spot as the 2012 U.S. Amateur runner-up. This is the first time in U.S. Open history that a single college has sent three players to the tournament.

The Merion Golf Club features the shortest course for the U.S. Open in more than a decade. But that does not make it easy.

“During the practice round, all I could think was how hard this course is,” Kim said. “But everybody is playing the same golf course. And I don’t think (the scores) will be as low as everyone is thinking.”

The short course could actually help Kim, who says that hitting fairways and greens is his strong point. Meanwhile Weaver, who played in the Masters earlier this year, echoed Kim’s concerns about the difficulty of the course.

“I know it will be difficult,” Weaver said. “So I just want to go out there and enjoy the experience.”

All three will play in the first two rounds on Thursday and Friday. After that, it remains to be seen whether their scores will make the cut to play on the final two days.

Regardless of what happens, all three Bears are excited to be in the field at one of golf’s most exclusive tournaments.

“Tomorrow will be a blast and a dream come true,” Homa said. “I can’t wait to get out there.”

The tournament will be broadcast on ESPN each day from 6 a.m. to noon and on NBC from noon to 2 p.m.

Contact Riley McAtee at rmcatee@dailycal.org

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Kore Chan/Staff

Cal men’s golf superstar Michael Kim has done it again.

The sophomore can now add “winner of the Haskins award” to the hefty list of achievements he has garnered throughout the season.

The Haskins Award — college golf’s most coveted accolade — is voted on by college golfers, coaches and members of the national media and given to the national player of the year in men’s collegiate golf. The Fred Haskins Commission announced on Tuesday that Kim was the 43rd recipient of the award and the first Cal men’s golfer to ever achieve such an honor.

“Voters have once again recognized an outstanding golfer and an equally impressive young man,” said J. Madden Hatcher, the commission president. “Michael Kim was the No. 1 player on the nation’s No. 1 team and certainly deserves to have his name added to the Haskins Award’s legendary list of past winners.”

Previous recipients of the Haskins Award have collectively won 28 of the elite Major Championships and more than 260 professional tournaments held around the world. Kim joins a list of top-notch golfers that includes Tiger Woods, Matt Kuchar and Phil Mickelson — all now immensely successful professional golfers.

Along with the award, Kim earned a sponsor’s exemption to play in the 2013 Greenbrier Classic, a tournament stop in the PGA Tour, from July 4 to July 7 in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.

“It’s unbelievable to think my name will be on the same trophy as Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and many others,” Kim said. “I can’t wait for the opportunity to play at the Greenbrier Classic with the very best players in the world.”

The Southern California native will add to a list of achievements that includes two other previously earned national player-of-the-year awards. Having consistently topped the Golfweek/Sagarin college rankings, Kim was named the Golfweek/Sagarin Player of the Year for 2013. He later picked up the Jack Nicklaus Award — presented by the Golf Coaches Association of America — which recognizes the top players at the Division I, II, III, NAIA and NJCAA levels.

But to Kim, the Haskins Award isn’t just another one of the many honors he has received throughout the year.

“I did win the Jack Nicklaus Award, but the Fred Haskins Award is different and unique in its own right because it’s voted by my peers, my coaches, the players and a few of the media people that follow college golf,” Kim said. “To be voted by your peers as having the best collegiate season is pretty special.”

According to Golfweek, the highly accomplished golfer boasts a No. 1 ranking to end his season. Kim’s consistency throughout the season with an unparalleled stroke average of 70.73 — the lowest in Cal history — ultimately led Kim to develop into this year’s top contender for the Haskins Award.

“This is further recognition of Michael’s tremendous season,” said Cal coach Steve Desimone. “I don’t think there’s anything question Michael has won this award, because they know he was the best player in college golf this year.”

Contact Janice Chua at jchua@dailycal.org.

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Max Homa stood just seven feet away from the 20th hole, but to the senior golfer, the cup seemed a light-year’s length away.

As Homa readied himself to putt the ball, his mind raced, and pressure came flooding in. While serene in his exterior appearance, Homa was under siege inside.

The Cal men’s golf team’s season — the historic campaign in which the Bears won a record 11 tournaments — stood on the brink on Saturday. Homa needed to make this putt to push the NCAA Championship semifinal match against Illinois to the 21st hole.

Homa putted the ball. It creept slowly toward the hole. But the ball never landed inside the cup.

Homa stood frozen in disbelief, his head bent to his stomach and face cupped in his hands.

In a dramatic stunner, No. 5 seed Illinois toppled No. 1 Cal, 3-2.

Minutes later after missing the putt in the 20th hole, Homa faced reporters at the Crabapple Course in Milton, Ga., for the last press conference of his Cal career. At the thought of his teammates, his second family, Homa struggled to hold back his tears.

“I let my whole family down,” Homa said. “It sucks not being the one to move us on to tomorrow.”

Cal coach Steve Desimone, like Homa, couldn’t believe the season’s premature end.

“It’s hard to believe it’s over,” Desimone said. “To have a season like this — I just don’t know the next time a season like this is going to happen.”

And thus, Cal’s season, arguably the greatest season in collegiate men’s golf history, ended without a national trophy. The NCAA title went to No. 3 Alabama on Sunday, who defeated Illinois, 4-1.

Unlike most tournaments Cal participated in and won this season, the NCAAs were run on a match-play format in which five players from each team play a counterpart from another team.

In contrast to the usual stroke play, which aggregates the players’ scores over the course of many days into one team score, the match-play format emphasizes individual performance on a day-to-day basis.

Cal struggled in the new change of scenery. The Bears edged past Arizona State, 3-2, in Friday’s quarterfinals. Saturday was no different.

“It’s not beneficial to finding the best teams,” Homa said. “The match-play format is more exciting, though.”

The battle between Homa and Illinois’ Thomas Pieters was neck-to-neck from the first hole and eventually needed two extra holes to finish. Until the 20th hole, Homa never trailed behind Pieters. At the end of the ninth hole, Homa had a three-stroke lead, but the match was back to square one by the 12th hole.

Pieters had a chance to win the match in the 18th hole, but his four-foot birdie attempt barely missed, sending the match to extra holes.

Starting back from the No. 1 green for the 19th hole, Homa nearly had a chance to win on a chipped shot 20 yards off the green. The ball stopped a few inches from the hole.

In the 20th hole, both Pieters and Homa, who were the 2012 and 2013 NCAA individual medalists respectively, missed their chances to win. Homa missed a long birdie attempt by about seven feet, and Pieters failed to seize the chance at a birdie and settled on a par.

Despite finishing first in 11 of 14 competitions this season, the lack of the grand prize in the Bears’ decorated trophy cabinet leaves some space to debate on whether this team is the greatest of all time.

However to Homa, there is very little doubt.

“If it leaves a dent, it should be a very, very small one,” Homa said. “We should be considered the best team of all time.”

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org Follow him on Twitter @sngyn92.

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This past weekend the Bears’ winning streak was snapped, coming in second to UNLV in the ASU Thunderbird Invitational. This was an unexpected result; No. 1 Cal defeated UNLV in the former’s own tournament almost a month ago in Las Vegas.

The Bears finished both Friday and Saturday in the fourth spot, finding it difficult to find any sense of rhythm. The team normally gets off to a slow start, rallying the into the top rank in the subsequent days, but this weekend Cal could not recover in such a fashion.

Max Homa started off Friday shooting four-under par on the first 14 holes. The 15th hole was the beginning of his problems, where he scored a bogey. On the par-three 16th hole, Homa shot a quadruple bogey, accumulating seven strokes. The poor shooting performance damaged the Bears’ scoring; Homa eventually finished with two-over par.

No. 1 Michael Kim ended the first day of the tournament ranked sixth, five shots behind the leader Nick Chianello of Oregon State. He only scored two bogeys, but his six pars and single birdie were not enough to propel him into the top five.

Freshman James Yoon, playing in his first competitive tournament at Cal, ended Friday ranked 28th with a score of one over par.  He had two birdies on holes 10 and 14, but his three bogies held him back.

Some of the Bears’ best performances of the weekend came on Saturday, but they were only able to climb to 4th place.

Brandon Hagy showed up for Cal, finishing the day six under-par. This marked the best of the best round of the day for an individual, as well as his second-best career performance. His bogey free execution moved him up a total of nine spots to third place overall, just three shots shy of the leader.

However, Hagy’s glimmer of light was not enough to pull Cal up out of the rut.

Michael Kim fell back two spots from sixth to eighth. His three birdies were cancelled out by an equal amount of bogies, leaving him with an even score. Yoon and Joel Stalter also fell back multiple spots, ending day two on a negative note for the Bears.

Going into Sunday, Cal was tied for fourth with UNLV. Unfortunately, the Bears would not be able to surpass their competitors from Las Vegas. UNLV finished the tournament in first place, Cal trailing by a single point.

UNLV closed the nail-biter tournament with a score of 843. Cal finished just one stroke behind.

No. 30 Brandon Hagy tied for second place with No. 31 Scott Fernandez with a score of 203, just one point behind the constant individual leader Nick Chianello.

Just two victories short of stealing the unofficial NCAA record of 10 tournament wins in a season from Oklahoma State, the Bears were disappointed by their loss. However, they still have four opportunities to claim this title.

Overall, Cal has won 14 of its last 23 tournaments dating back to the 2011-12 season.  The Bears have placed in the top five of all 23.

Alexa Cammarano covers men’s golf. Contact her at acammarano@dailycal.org

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After a long four week break since their last win at the Southern Highlands Collegiate Masters in Las Vegas, Cal is headed to the Karsten Golf Course starting on Friday.

“There’s always a little edge after taking a break like this.  They know what they need to do.  We aren’t concerned about that at all; we think they’ll be absolutely ready,” Coach Steve Desimone commented regarding the long break between tournaments.

But Desimone is not too worried of the month-long rust that may have piled.

“We are the reigning champions.  I like the way we set up the golf course with our experience,” Desimone said. “If we make good decisions on the golf course and stay with the game plan we should be fine.”

The team will be one short of its usual line up this weekend.  Michael Weaver will be absent from the two remaining events of the regular season because he was invited to play in the Masters as one of six amateurs invited to the tournament.

Freshmen James Yoon will be taking his place in his very first competition.

“To be very honest, of course I’m worried.  When we have all five together, we are the best team in the country.  James is a freshman and has no experience in competition but he has played very well,” Desimone said.

After horrible weather conditions at the last tournaments in Hawaii and Las Vegas, the Bears are excited to about the forecast for this weekend.  During the days, it will be in the low 90s with some wind and no chance of rain.

With the weather at ease, it would be easier for top players like Michael Kim, ranked no. 1 by Golfweek and Golfstat, to be effectively.  Kim this season has been consistently on the top of the Haskins Award watch list. Nicknamed the Heisman of golf, the Haskins Award is an honor that is granted to the nation’s most outstanding player in men’s collegiate golf.

“Some of the names that have won that award are Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson,” Kim said.  “Just to have my name on that list with them would be a huge honor.

With only five events remaining, the Bears will try to make every event count.  From here on out, they have their eyes set on the ultimate prize.

“The big prize is the NCAA championship,” Desimone said. “If we win that on June 2nd, everything else pales in comparison.”

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In the three-day tournament last weekend, Kim had a total of 14 birdies on Saturday, moving him from being tied at 51st to being tied for seventh.  Ranked No. 1 in the nation by Golfweek, he broke a school record for the number of consecutive wins, finishing the tournament in a four-way tie for first place.

“The course really fit our games well,” said coach Steve Desimone. “We felt comfortable about it.”

No. 1 Cal closed the tournament in first place with a 13-stroke lead. This was its eighth of nine away tournament victories.

“I’m running out of superlatives for these guys,” Desimone said. “It’s really the best problem to have.”

UNLV hosted 13 of the top 14 collegiate golf teams this weekend, including Cal’s Bay Area rival, Stanford. The Cardinal were the only team that was able to keep up with the Bears’ talented players.

Stanford was one shot behind Cal on Friday and was the only other team to break par due to unfriendly weather conditions. The tournament was put on hold for 90 minutes because of the severity of the storm.

“We got slammed by rain,” Desimone said. “It was just coming down in buckets. It was a merciful delay.I’m not sure any of us would be alive if they hadn’t called us off the field.”

Rain or shine, all five of Cal’s players finished the tournament in the top 11. Max Homa finished in a four-way tie for seventh, while Brandon Hagy, Joel Stalter and Michael Weaver finished in a five-way tie for 11th.

On Friday and Saturday, Homa had even par rounds, evening out his multiple birdies and bogeys. Homa moved up five positions on Sunday, boasting an eagle on a 40-foot putt on the 13th hole.

Hagy started the team off strong on Friday, playing impressively under the harsh weather conditions. He began with a three-under-par round of 69. With a total of 11 birdies, split up by two pars, and one lone bogey at the end, Hagy finished tied for third on Friday.

Hagy fell nine spots on Saturday to 12th. But on Sunday, Hagy climbed up one spot and played the best of the three Bears tied for 11th..

The Bears claimed their 14th of 22 wins since last fall with this tournament. Cal will take a break until April for the Arizona State Thunderbird Invitational.

Alexa Cammarano covers men’s golf. Contact her at acammarano@dailycal.org

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