History
The University of California Golf Club is an Associate Club of the Northern California Golf Association. It was the first associate club founded in the
NCGA. The U.C. Golf Club has over 130 members. The club has no set home course, but instead arranges tournaments by selecting from the abundance of fine courses in the San Francisco Bay Area and
beyond.
It could be argued that the club became an official entity
on July 16, 1976, when members of the campus golfing community placed
their names on the Initial
Roster. The Initial Roster is one of the club's most sacred documents.
It is maintained in an airless and vacuum environment. Only a select few
are granted access and know its location. At the initial signing, dues for joining the club were $2. Members who
signed the Initial Roster are said to be "Charter Members".
Eddie Reed, for instance signed up in the #19 slot. He's one of our few
remaining charter members, along with Jack King(#47).
Prior to 1976, the UC Golf Club existed only as a nomadic
band of primitive hackers. They're clubs were of a very crude design and
their swings had more in common with braining wild caribou or chopping
lumber than with anything approaching grace. The group was loosely formed
and organized by it's tribal leader, Kooman
Boycheff, Director of Recreational Sports at UC Berkeley for many years.
Kooman formed the loose-knit band in the late 1950's or early 1960's.
There was as yet no written history, as such advancements had not evolved.
This history has been acquired through the verbal tradition. Kooman and
his nomadic band of unshaven club-wielders would gather a few times a year
and hold early tournaments. These early events were based on the blind
bogey scoring system. Handicaps were too difficult to maintain and these
primitive golfers were mostly out to have a good time. The Faculty/Staff
tournament was the earliest annual event. Family members attended and a
large picnic or barbeque was usually held after the event.
The Faculty/Staff tournament was run by Kooman Boycheff.
The band became a club with the signing of the Initial Roster in 1976. In 1979 the club became the first
Associate Club of the NCGA,
doing so on a pilot program which went on to successfully become what is
today the NCGA's Associate Club Program, which consists of over 600 clubs. Steve
Desimone became the club's manager in 1979 and has managed the club ever
since. Kooman Boycheff, the founder of the club, died an untimely death at
the age of 62 on January 30th 1978. The club holds the Annual Kooman
Boycheff Memorial Tournament in his honor.
The University of California Golf Club now has five Major
tournaments.
We are working to gather more information about the U.C.
Golf Club in it's pre-NCGA days. Jack King, one of the original members of
the club, provided the following photograph of himself taken in 1976 after
he won the Faculty/Staff Tournament.
In March of 2002 Walburg had completed an 18-month project
of building the club Archives and compiling
all flight results ever recorded since the club
began in 1976. This data was mined from all the old scoring sheets and
club documents Steve Desimone had diligently saved.
In the early part of 2003 the NCGA announced that in
December 2003 it would be charging extra for club who were still using the
paper handicapping option. As a result the UCGC migrated over to the
electronic option. Handicapping services were installed on the same
machine (Walburg's home PC) that has been serving up the web site since
its inception in May 2000. The switch to electronic handicapping occurred
on August 20, 2003.
Jack King in the bicentennial year of 1976. Jack had a big
year, winning the Faculty/Staff tournament as well as a Berkeley
softball championship.
In 1988 the club traveled to Hawaii. Pictured above are Mike
Armstrong, Jim Peretti, and Steve Desimone. Steve shot a net 220
over three days and finished in third behind Paul Zingg and Paul
Witkay. With shorts that short these fellas would not be able to get
on many courses these days.
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Visit our Pre-1999 Photos page for more
photos of members wearing goofy cloths. One thing you have to give him
credit for, is if there is a goofy trend, Mike Armstrong is always on
top of it.
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Can you guess which former United States
President is currently a member of the UC Golf Club? Answer
Past Champions
See the Past Champions
section for a list of all winners of our major events and awards.
Club Records
There are many interesting record held by our members.
Visit the Club Records page for a summary.
Statistics
The entire history of club results have been compiled and
the Statistics page provides a thorough analysis
of these results.
Past Club Officers and Board Members All of what is
currently researched is available in the Board
Members section. This page details Officers and Board Members dating
back to 1976.
Archives Sought by Members - Please Help Fill
Historical Voids
A Wish List has
been created which notes those documents we are missing. If anyone has saved
old club documents please go through this checklist and see if you have
any of the missing files. We'd like to borrow and scan them for the site.
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