Demi Runas

Demi Runas begins her first season on The Farm in advance of the 2024-24 season.

Arguably the best golfer in the history of UC Davis, Runas spent the last two seasons leading the Aggies women’s golf program. Her impact in her return was felt immediately, vaulting UC Davis up the national rankings by nearly 100 spots. This past season, the Aggies finished fourth in the Big West and had four players named to the All-Big West team, which is tied for the most they’ve had in a single season since 2015.
 
UC Davis won the Coeur d’Alene Resort Collegiate Invitational in September, the program’s first win since 2021. Runas also coached an individual champion in 2023 when Abby Leighton won the Causeway Invitational.   
 
Runas went from having success at the collegiate level to the professional level immediately. She won her first professional title on the Cactus Tour in the summer of 2013, months after her graduation. She became the first former UC Davis golfer to earn her LPGA tour card when she did so in 2014, and eventually played eight seasons on the LPGA and Epson Tours prior to taking over the UC Davis program as its head coach.
 
Recruited to UC Davis by Walker, Runas is the Aggies career leader in scoring average, top-five finishes, and top-10 finishes. She helped lead UC Davis to the NCAA postseason in all four of her years, including two appearances in the NCAA Championship final site in 2011 and 2013.
 
The 2013 individual champion of the Big West and three-time Big West Player of the Year, Runas was inducted into the UC Davis Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020. A native of Torrance, Runas graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications from UC Davis in 2013.