Jimmy Thompson

Karl Tucker, through his highly successful coaching career at Brigham Young University, has had an indelible impact on golf in Utah.

He became golf coach at BYU in 1961 and since then has established a program that has continually ranked among the nation’s very best. His teams have dominated the Western Athletic Conference for the past two decades, having won 16 conference championships.

His team won the NCAA Championship in 1981, finished second twice, and has finished in the top five 12 times.

Many of the players he has coached have gone on to national achievement in professional golf, including U.S. Open and British Open champion Johnny Miller and World Series of Golf champion Mike Reid.

Tucker was inducted into the NCAA Golf Coaches Hall of Fame in 1983, and was the 1976 recipient of the Dale Rex Award. He has been an active member of the Utah State Junior Golf Association Board of Directors for many years, and has been instrumental in the growth and success of the University Hospital Utah Open.

Wherever his players are competing he is there watching, encouraging, and giving counsel. His players have returned the friendship and loyalty.

The achievements of the BYU golf program have focused praise and attention on golf in Utah and have enriched the quality of competition and raised the level of excellence for all amateur golfers in the state. Karl Tucker was born and raised in Orem, graduated from BYU in 1952, and received a Masters Degree in 1964. He married Joanne Eliason and they have four children Jackie, Shellie, Larry, and Phillip.