News

December Volunteer Spotlight: Eric ‘Doc’ Iverson

By Megan Terry, Programs Administrator

Each month, the UGA spotlights one of our devoted volunteers to express our deep appreciation for all they do and to help you, our loyal members, become well acquainted with them. The month of December features one of the UGA’s most passionate and talented rules officials, Eric ‘Doc’ Iverson.

Although he considers himself a Californian, Doc was born in Salt Lake City in 1955 before moving to Reno, Nevada, when he was two years old. At the age of seven, Doc and his family moved to San Francisco, California, for a short time before relocating to San Jose.

Throughout high school, Iverson was a cross country and track athlete. After graduating from Del Mar High School in Central San Jose in 1973, Doc attended San Jose State University and received his undergraduate degree in political science in 1978.

While working on his master’s degree in business administration at San Jose State, Iverson got a job as a substitute math teacher at Del Mar High School. This eventually led to a full-time position as Del Mar’s track and cross country coach and director of student activities, which Doc explained was “the best job I’ve ever had.”

Iverson remained coach and director for 20 years until he was hired principal of Del Mar High School. 

“I never had the desire to be an educator,” admitted Doc. “I just kind of fell into it when I was hired as a substitute. It was definitely a challenge, but the students and activities made it a blast.”

Doc was exposed to golf as a freshman at San Jose State. He took the golf class and was immediately hooked, even though his instructor prohibited him from hitting anything but a 7 iron. Until he mastered the 7, Doc took one club to class.

After completing the golf class, Iverson adopted golf as a new hobby and played a few times each month with his college buddies.

In 2009, one day after retiring as principal of Del Mar High School, Doc moved back to Utah to be near his mother and sister in Orem. Shortly after moving, Doc became a member of the Utah Golf Association and received his first issue of Fairways Magazine, which included a segment calling for volunteers to help run the 87th U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship (APL) at Soldier Hollow Golf Course in 2012.

Doc jumped at the opportunity to become involved in the Utah golf community, and the UGA added Eric Iverson to its 87th APL volunteer list.

One of Doc’s APL responsibilities was managing the player registration table. This is where he met UGA past president, USGA Girls’ Junior Committee member, and longtime UGA rules official Judy Allem.

“Judy told me I needed to become more involved with the UGA and told me to take the Rules of Golf Workshop,” stated Iverson. “That fall, I got an email from former UGA Rules and Competitions Director Mike Branca about the workshop. I signed up, and the rest is history!”

“I’m always sad when tournament season is over,” expressed Doc. “I can’t wait for it to start again. I don’t know what I’d do if I wouldn’t have started volunteering for the UGA. The only people I knew in Utah were my family and one friend in Park City. Now I have friends all over the state!”

The Utah Golf Association thanks its volunteers for sacrificing their time and energy to help the UGA fulfill its mission to promote interest in the game of golf by encouraging, organizing, supporting, sponsoring, and administering golfing activities and programs. If you are interested in volunteering for the UGA, contact Rules and Competitions Director Jacob Miller at [email protected] or 801-563-0400.