Cal parts ways with Walter Chun after nearly three decades with school

Cal head men’s golf coach Walter Chun, who has been with the program in some capacity for nearly three decades, has been relieved of his duties.

The school announced the change in leadership on Tuesday evening, adding that assistant Peter Ireland will serve as interim head coach while a national search for a replacement begins immediately.

Chun had spent the last eight seasons as director of golf. Prior to that he served 12 years under legendary Cal head coach Steve Desimone. Chun also played on Cal’s golf team and got two degrees from the school, a bachelor’s in business (2001) and master’s in education (2003). Before he joined the coaching staff, he worked as an administrative assistant.

“We’d like to thank Walter for his contributions to Cal as a head coach, assistant coach and student-athlete,” Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton said. “Walter always represented our department and university in the right way, but we felt it was necessary to move in a different direction at this time.”

Cal was coming off a bounce-back season in which it finished 24th at the NCAA Championship and ended up No. 21 in the final national ranking. The Bears, however, had just seen two of its top returners, rising sophomore Eric Lee and Ethan Fang, transfer to Oklahoma State. Lee was the 2022 AJGA Rolex Junior Player of the Year.

Chun was a part of nine of Cal’s 16 NCAA Championship appearances to date. He also coached two-time major winner Collin Morikawa.