Championships aren’t easy to come by. Winning one is typically a huge life event for most people.
But for BYU golfers Peter Kim, Simon Kwon and Tyson Shelley, it became a yearly tradition. Kim is a junior while Kwon and Shelley are seniors.
Kim, Kwon, and Shelley asserted their lasting dominance on the Skyline High School golf team, before heading to BYU, by winning five straight state championships from 2019 to 2023 and two national championships in 2020 and 2021.
“When we had our little group together, that’s when we were like, hey we’re going to definitely win a state championship, maybe even more. And that’s what we got done,” said Shelley.
Prior to the arrival of Kwon and Shelley, Skyline High School hadn’t won a state championship since 2006.
Skyline was led by Oliver Kwon, Simon’s older brother, who warned Skyline golf coach Kenny James of the talent that was coming.
“Oliver starts telling me about his little brother and he says, ‘Kenny he’s really good’ and I say ‘I know Oliver but you’re really good too’ and he’s like, ‘no Simon’s better,’” said James.
Then came Shelley.
Shelley had no idea he would be attending Skyline, nor that he would be playing golf.
“I started playing golf in the eighth grade so I was really new to the game and started playing golf with Simon at Bonneville because we lived really close to each other,” said Shelley. “He was actually the one that convinced me to come over to Skyline.”
The pieces were coming together in 2018 for coach James, but a major piece was added to the roster when Joseph Kim, Peter Kim’s older brother, joined Kwon and Shelley at Skyline.
Originally zoned for West High School, Joseph came to Skyline after issues with West’s golf program arose.
Kwon and Joseph first met playing in tournaments together at 13 years old and later started playing with Shelley as well.
Peter was zoned for Corner Canyon High School but the relationship that he had with his brother Joseph, Kwon, and Shelley is what brought him to Skyline.
“They’re all the same age and same graduation year,” said Peter Kim. “They would go out and play golf and then I would go out with my brother and they’d be there.”
With the squad set, practices began. But the practices of a dynasty are not common sight.
“Wow, that was some fun stuff. So here we had these young guys coming in and playing with us when they were in the seventh or eighth grade, along with their brothers and everything, and it was so fun and so awesome,” said James.
Eyes were turning and people began to notice that these boys were good.
“All three of those guys, they do things with a golf club in their hands that most people can’t do,” said James.
“Everything turned out really well in terms of timing,” said Kwon. “We had three kids from Salt Lake who were really really good and we also had some really solid golfers who were our four through eight.”
When Kwon and Shelley participated in the 5A boy’s golf state championship in 2019, they didn’t just win it. They obliterated their competition.
Skyline shot a score of 279 as a team the first day.
The next team behind Skyline finished at 291.
Obviously the roster was highly talented, but there were other factors that led to the championship streak.
“Those guys are all good teammates, they’re all good dudes, they wanted to win the team stuff, they wanted to do the individual stuff, all that was just amazing,” said James.
“We all loved each other and I think it’s kind of what we do now,” said Shelley. “We love to compete against each other, practice with each other, push each other and we were all really good junior golfers.”
Shelley was indeed a very good junior golfer, but golf wasn’t his only sport.
The 2021 Skyline athlete of the year award was given to Shelley after his dominant year in golf and with his performance as a guard on the varsity basketball team.
Shelley also broke the Utah high school record for lowest 36-hole score with a score of 128 or 16-under par.
That record has since been broken by his freshman teammate, Kihei Akina (127).
After Shelley and Kwon graduated from Skyline High School, colleges began seeing what the boys were capable of.
Teams like Pepperdine and Utah began recruiting Shelley and Kwon.
Once Todd Miller, BYU Director of Golf, entered the mix, Shelley committed to play for BYU.
But Kwon wasn’t as quick to make a decision.
“I committed to come to BYU before he committed to go play for school anywhere. So I was thinking in my head, ‘Hey, I’m going to go play with Simon’ and then he went to go play for Cal,” said Shelley.
Kwon committed to California Berkely coming out of high school, largely in part to the academic opportunities that were available.
“I grew up in a household where academics were super important and when Cal came knocking on the door it was a top five school in the country at the time and had a top five finance school,” said Kwon. “That was super attractive to me and my family.”
The dynasty that was started by Shelley and Kwon was heading separate ways.
“I was like, dang it’s kind of breaking up a brotherhood, so I was a little sad that that happened, but I was excited for me going into college and experiencing college golf,” said Shelley.
With Shelley at BYU, Kwon at Cal, and Kim at Skyline, the main roster was different.
However, the winning continued.
Kim led the Skyline Eagles to win two more state championships after the departure of Shelley and Kwon.
“His senior year, his first day of state was kind of rough, and he probably wasn’t going to win an individual now because he’s too far back. We’re in a tight one and he says to me, ‘Coach, don’t you worry. We’re going to win this,’” said James.
“I’ll make sure we do. We’re going to go win this team one. I got this,” said Kim. “We got it.”
The confidence of Kim led Skyline to win the 5A state championship in 2022 over Olympus High School.
He also finished second individually.
By Kim’s junior year of high school, he was already being recruited by BYU. But the Cougars were not his first choice.
“When Todd Miller called me for the first time, I kind of just brushed it off a little bit, not that I was, like, uninterested but I didn’t really give him a lot of attention and he still bugs me about that,” said Kim.
But eventually Kim would come around.
“I decided to come here because it was close to home and I knew a lot of the guys on the team and I wanted to come somewhere where I would be comfortable,” said Kim.
While Kim was finishing up his time at Skyline and approaching his time at BYU, Kwon was beginning to feel unhappy at Cal and wanted change.
“Within a couple of months [into sophomore year], I knew I was going to transfer. But I had one semester left and so I wanted to give everything left that I had; so I gave everything left that I had that last semester and decided to enter the transfer portal,” said Kwon.
Kwon had his eyes set on one school.
“When I entered the transfer portal, I knew where I wanted to go. It was kind of an easy decision but the main reasons were I wanted to be surrounded by coaches who were going to make me a better person,” said Kwon. “The other thing was just having teammates like Peter, Tyson, Zac Jones, Cole Ponich and all those kids, they have changed me in so many ways outside of golf that I will forever be grateful for.”
Thus, Kwon, Shelley, and Kim were reunited.
In their first season together at BYU, the Cougars won the NCAA Reno Regional Title and advanced to the NCAA finals.
But even with Kwon, Shelley, and Kim at BYU competing for national championships, they still have an impact on the Skyline High School golf team.
After losing the state championship the year after Kim left, the Shelley family decided to bring in the former Eagles to talk to the team in their home.
“They talked about the brotherhood and showed them all the stuff and they all got to share with the kids what the team was like and how it’s supposed to be, and each one of them said something to the team,” said James. “They said, ‘Okay we’re going to come back and win a title,’ and we did.”
Some members of the current Skyline team include BYU commits and Tyson Shelley’s younger brothers, Jackson and Austin.
“We were on a mission to win this thing and I think that the talks that they had with those younger guys steered those guys the right way and they were on a mission that year,” said James.
The theme for Skyline the following season was created by Kwon, Kim, and Shelley but was put into practice by the team.
"Back in Black" meant that each member of the team wore black throughout the season; a symbol of the team's preseason meeting.
“Those guys all got up and talked to the guys about what winning means and what being a part of Skyline golf means, and they set the example and what being a part of Skyline golf means,” said James. “They told them that nothing but a championship’s acceptable.”
Kwon, Kim, and Shelley created something at Skyline that will always be remembered and created a brotherhood that exists even outside of golf.
“They came here to do something special as a team and they wanted to play as a team and they wanted to be together,” said James. “I’ll always remember just the fun times but also the focus and them telling me ‘don’t you worry coach, we got this’ and they always did.”
But now, their eyes are set on a national championship.
With this season being the final one together before Kwon and Shelley graduate, the Cougars want to return to the NCAA finals and win one more championship together.
“We have big goals of winning a national championship,” said Kwon. “This team can absolutely do it.”
“Every tournament is a step towards a national championship,” said Kim.
BYU will compete in the NCAA Division I Men’s Golf Regional May 18-20.