This feature originally appeared in the 2025 Summer edition of the Cal Sports Quarterly. The Cal Athletics flagship magazine features long-form sports journalism at its finest and provides in-depth coverage of the scholar-athlete experience in Berkeley. Printed copies are mailed four times a year to Bear Backers who give annually at the Bear Club level (currently $600 or more). For more information on how you can receive a printed version of the Cal Sports Quarterly at home, send an email to CalAthleticsFund@berkeley.edu or call (510) 642-2427.
Michael Kim lingered near the ropes following a runner-up finish at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, where a couple approached him – not for an autograph, but to thank him. Kim had offered free tickets to the tournament through a giveaway on his X account earlier that week, and the two fans won. Now they were face to face with the PGA Tour pro and California men’s golf alum who made it happen.
“It takes five, ten minutes for me to sort out,” Kim said. “But for them, it might be a memory they carry forever.”
The moment wasn’t about publicity. It was about connection – a small act that says plenty about the version of Kim now reemerging on Tour during an impressive 2025 season. After years of struggling to regain form, Kim isn’t just playing better golf. He’s giving fans – the new and the old, the nerds and the casuals – an inside look at his game and the Tour at large.
If you ask Kim when things started clicking on the golf course, he’ll take you back to the early 2010s in Berkeley. The 2011-12 season was his first year as a Golden Bear, and Kim was one of many confident underclassmen on the roster with something the prove. The Bears, led by then-junior Max Homa, reached the NCAA Championship semifinals before falling short of the ultimate goal of a national title.
“We felt like underdogs constantly,” Kim said. “We really worked at it to get better. I think we were all just hungrier to improve.”
That hunger turned into dominance the following season. The 2012-13 Cal men’s golf team became one of the most decorated in NCAA history, winning 12 tournaments – an NCAA record – and finishing the regular season as the nation’s top-ranked team. Kim was the No. 1-ranked college golfer in the country and won the prestigious Haskins Award, given annually to the national player of the year in the sport.
Despite falling short of an NCAA title again – Cal faltered in…
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