ANNE WALKER AND THE MAN SHE WILL MARRY NEXT AUGUST

THE HAPPY COUPLE: Chris Gundling and Anne Walker, to be married in California next August. 

By COLIN FARQUHARSON
Colin@scottishgolfview.com
Anne Walker’s success at head coach the University of California-Davis women’s golf team is amazing when you discover that unlike her counterparts at the major American colleges, she does not the budget at her disposal to recruit the top amateurs from home or abroad with offers of full scholarships.
Every year at the British girls championship, I see as many as a dozen US golf coaches or their talent-spotters running the rule over the next crop of potential recruits from British, Ireland and the Continent. But, sadly, Anne tells me she will never be one of them.
“I would love to travel to the British girls championship and recruit players from there and from Scotland, etc. However, we have an extremely small budget here at UC-Davis and recruiting internationally is not an option.
“We are always open to players who may be willing to contribute financially, but we do not offer full international scholarships, which most British players are looking for. Unfortunately, that means no trips home for me!”
Anne Walker was a junior member at Strathaven Golf Club but she actually grew up on a farm near Stonehouse, just outside of Larkhall.
In her time she won the Welsh women’s open amateur stroke-play championship and, of course, lost to her great golfing chum, Vikki Laing, in the final of the 1997 Scottish girls’ championship. That was in the middle of Vikki’s record-setting run of winning the Under-18s title four years in a row: 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999.
Both Anne and Vikki played for Scotland as girls and they went over to the University of California-Berkeley and had four good years there.
Anne stayed on to join the back-up team. Her big break came four years ago when she was head-hunted by UC-Davis to be its women’s head golf coach.
“We now have eight team wins in my 3 ½ years at UC-Davis - quite exciting when I think of it like that! We haven't dropped outside the top-30 in a couple of years now and reached as high as #14 in the country last year,” said Anne.
“I think when the Golfstat rankings come out this week we will hopefully once again be top 20. We have three players ranked inside the top 100 in the country - two juniors and a freshman. We have no players graduating next year but we are adding three, so hopefully we will have continued success.
“There are 65,000 people living in the California city of Davis. It is known for being the most bike-friendly city in the United States with over 60 miles of bike paths and trails.
“The city is located about 10 miles from Sacramento, the capital of California, and is about a 45min drive from the San Francisco Bay area.
“The weather is very temperate with an annual average of 74 degrees. I would compare Davis to Perth or Stirling; perhaps more Stirling because the University is truly the centrepiece of life in Davis.
“The University is a large one with 32,000 students and is currently ranked the #8 public institution in the United States.
“As I told you earlier, on a personal level, things are going very well for me over here. I recently got engaged to a guy I met backpacking in the Sierra Nevada mountains a couple of years ago.
“His name is Chris Gundling. He is from Half Moon Bay, Californiaand is currently finishing up his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering with his emphasis being in wind energy. He does play golf, of course that was a pre-requisite!
“We will be married next August close to where we met (I'm bugging Vikki on a weekly basis about winning a tournament on the LET so that she can get over here for the wedding!).
“We are extremely excited about our future and all that it may have in store. In the meantime, I am trying to convince him to wear a kilt on our wedding day!”

+As Anne Walker says, the University of California-Davis cannot afford to offer international scholarships to recruit the best teenage golfers in Europe but she is interested in any good young golfers who want to go to university in America and play golf as well – low handicaps and Under-18 international class almost a necessity. You need to think a year or two in advance. If you want to be put in touch with her, send your E-mail address to Colin@scottishgolfview.com and it will be passed on to Anne in California.