Counting Down Cal's Top-50 Transfer Athletes: No. 7 Charlie Wi

We rank the mid-career arrivals in Berkeley who have had the greatest impact on the Golden Bears

Charlie Wi | Photo courtesy of Cal Athletics

The transfer portal era in college athletics seems like it’s been with us forever. Likewise, most fans can recall less turbulent times when transfers happened, they simply didn’t look like a stampede to the 1849 California Gold Rush.

We thought it was time to rank the best transfers Cal teams have attracted, most of them in recent seasons but also including a few OGs from yesteryear. 

We limited our ranking to transfers from four-year colleges.

Here is the next athlete in our countdown: 

7. Charlie Wi

Sport: Golf

Arrival year at Cal: 1993-94

Previous school: Nevada (1991-92 & 1992-93, was the team’s scoring leader as a freshman)

Contributions at Cal: 

— Born in South Korea, Wi and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 10. In 1990, at age 17, he became the second-youngest player ever to win the California State Amateur. He enrolled at Nevada and spent two seasons with the Wolf Pack before moving on to Berkeley.

— Wi played two seasons at Cal and as a senior he posted the third-lowest collegiate stroke average in the country, behind only Stanford’s Tiger Woods and Georgia Tech’s Stewart Cink.

— Also in his senior season of 1995, Wi became Cal’s first All-America golfer.

— He turned pro in ’95 and earned his PGA Tour card in 2002. He produced 21 top-10 finishes and earned nine international tournament victories. He represented South Korea on its national team five times.

— Wi was inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame in 2002, in a class that included football players Mike Pawlawski and Perry Schwartz, baseball player Rod Booker and basketball player Al Buch.

Standout performance: Wi became the first Cal golfer to win individual medalist honors at the Pac-10 championship, winning as a senior in 1995. Playing at Meadow Springs Golf Club in Richland, Wash., Wi shot a five-under 279. He carded a final-round 67 to overcome a two-stroke deficit to Arizona State’s Scott Johnson entering the day.

Impact on his team: Besides winning the individual title in ’95, Wi helped the Bears to a runnerup finish behind Arizona State in the team competition at the Pac-12 championship. Wi and the Bears then placed sixth at the NCAA tournament.

Previously on our list: 

No. 8: Davis Webb

No. 9: Hezekiah Masses

No. 10: Ioanna Krimili

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