BC's Cooper Humphreys Loving Life In San Diego
BC's Cooper Humphreys In The 2023 BC Amateur At Morningstar GC - BC Golf Photo/Bryan Outram
By Brad Ziemer, British Columbia Golf
(March 3, 2025) - Cooper Humphreys has that laid-back, California surfer-dude persona and has always seemed like the kind of guy who would feel right at home in shorts, shades and flip-flops.
So it should come as no surprise that the two-time B.C. Amateur champion is loving life playing collegiate golf for the University of San Diego. “It has been awesome,” the Kelowna native said in a telephone interview.
“After growing up with snowy winters, it’s so nice to wake up to 70 degrees and sunshine pretty much every single day. I can remember one day where it has rained a little bit and a couple of days where it has been cloudy. The weather has been awesome.”
So has the golf. Humphreys has registered two top-10s in the first two spring events of his freshman year and his team has taken home titles in three of its last four starts.
“We have got a really strong team, pretty much our whole team is really good, especially our top five,” Humphreys said. Humphreys’ San Diego team, nicknamed the Toreros — which means bullfighters in Spanish — are currently ranked 35th in the NCAA.
He likes to think they can make a run and play their way into the NCAA Championship tourney in May. “I don’t want to speak too soon, but that is our end goal, to make it to Natties (nationals) and I think we can do it,” he said.
“We’ve got a good squad. I am excited about the rest of the season.” Humphreys is pleased with the trajectory of his game.
He finished 10th at the recent Nick Watney Invitational in Fresno, Calif., and tied for seventh at his team’s spring opener, The Prestige Invitational, last month at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif.
“I am feeling better about my game,” Humphreys said.
Humphreys Is Seen Here En Route To His Second BC Amateur Triumph At Ledgeview GC Last Summer - Image Credit Bryan Outram/BC Golf
“My first (fall) semester I didn’t play too well, I wasn’t really feeling like myself with the whole transition to living on my own and everything. But I am starting to feel more like myself.
“I think I had a good chance to win the last two tourneys, individually. I had a few mistakes I need to clean up. I feel like the game is getting better which is nice.
"Competition-wise, the level of golf is pretty much everything I thought it would be. But it’s nice to know I can hang with some of these top guys. It’s nice to realize that.”
Humphreys acknowledges balancing golf with academics can be a challenge.
“It was kind of a weird transition after I took a gap year and I had three years of online high school before that, so it was kind of strange going back to actual classrooms, but I have enjoyed it. There has definitely been a lot of late nights completing papers because I keep procrastinating. I have to work on that.”
About the only thing Humphreys doesn’t like about San Diego is the traffic. “Driving in San Diego is insane,” he said.
Next up for Humphreys and his San Diego teammates is the annual event they host, the R.E.L. Invitational, which goes March 10-11 at San Diego Country Club.