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If a consistently high level of success over a long period of time is the measure of a great program, then Georgia Tech's golf program under Bruce Heppler would certainly meet the standard. One of the top coaches in collegiate golf, Heppler has guided the Yellow Jackets to six top-five NCAA finishes in the last 10 years, including three runner-up finishes.
His Jackets have made the NCAA Championship for the 10th straight year in 2007, a current string matched or surpassed by only three other Division I teams, and tied for eighth after beginning the spring ranked outside the top 20.
During his tenure, Tech has won five Atlantic Coast Conference titles, including a share of the 2006 and 2007 crowns, and finished second in the conference championship on three other occasions. The Yellow Jackets have captured or shared 28 team titles overall. All these accomplishments, and more, have factored into Tech's golf program being judged the best in the nation in the September, 2005, issue of Golf Digest magazine, and No. 2 in the 2006 edition.
Heppler has recruited and developed his share of star players as well. The Yellow Jackets have had at least a pair of All-Atlantic Coast Conference honorees for 10 consecutive years, including this year when Roberto Castro and Cameron Tringale -- made the team. For 10 straight years, Tech has had at least two players earn All-America honors, including Roberto Castro, Cameron Tringale and Chesson Hadley in 2007. Three of his players, Matt Kuchar, Bryce Molder and Troy Matteson, were named national player of the year.
Five of his Tech players, including PGA Tour members Matt Kuchar, Troy Matteson and Bryce Molder, as well at Nationwide Tour members Nicholas Thompson and Matt Weibring, are playing professionally in the United States.
During the summer of 2003, Heppler served as the head coach of the United States' Palmer Cup team, which faced off with a team of European collegiate players in Kiawah Island, S.C. Kuchar, Molder and Castro have all played for the USA in Palmer Cup competition.
On the conference level since 1985, when the Yellow Jackets won their first ACC Championship, Tech has earned more NCAA Championship berths than any team except Clemson. The Jackets have earned more top-10, more top-5 and more top-2 finishes in NCAA Championship competition than any other ACC team. Tech also has had more All-America selections (51) than any other ACC team during the same period except the Tigers.
Nationally, only Arizona State, Florida and Oklahoma State have had greater success in NCAA Championship competition and in All-America selections over the same period of time. Since 1997, however, when Heppler got the Tech program back on its feet, the Yellow Jackets have fared better head-to-head against all those teams in the NCAA Championship (7-3 vs. Arizona State, 6-4 vs. Oklahoma State, 6-4 vs. Florida).
It didn't take long for Heppler to restore the glory to Tech's golf program following a couple of lean years in the mid-1990s. After recruiting future All-Americans Matt Kuchar and Bryce Molder, Heppler had the Yellow Jackets back in the NCAA Tournament in his third season, where they finished third, just four shots off the lead. Tech also was ranked No. 1 in the nation during the course of the year and won the NCAA East Regional.
Even better things were to come as Tech captured the first of its five ACC titles under Heppler in 1999. In 2000 the Yellow Jackets came the closest to an NCAA Championship in their history, tying for first after 72 holes with Oklahoma State before losing a one-hole playoff. On the year, Tech captured four team titles and finished in the top four in each event it entered.
During the 2001 campaign, the Jackets won their second ACC crown in three years, the second under Heppler, captured a school-record-tying five tournament wins during the year and finished fourth in the NCAA Championship. For his efforts, Heppler was named ACC Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, and guided three All-Americans in Bryce Molder, who was also the consensus National Player of the Year, Troy Matteson and Kris Mikkelsen.
In 2002, Heppler led the Yellow Jackets to arguably the best season in school history, as Tech captured seven team titles and finished second at the NCAA Championship. In the process, Heppler earned National and ACC Coach of the Year honors. During the year, the Jackets won the school's eighth ACC title, while placing all five starters on GCAA All-America teams. Under Heppler's tutelage, junior Troy Matteson became the third Tech player to win the national individual title, the first player to win the event in its current team format.
A 47-year-old native of St. George, Utah, Heppler has demonstrated his strength as a recruiter by attracting both National Players of the Year during 1997-98 and the ACC Players of the Year for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. His first recruit at Tech was Kuchar, who won the 1997 U.S. Amateur Championship, was named the 1998 ACC Player of the Year and the Fred Haskins National Player of the Year. Molder was the Jack Nicklaus Player of the Year in 1998 and in 2001, along with being named the ACC Player of the Year in 1999, 2000 and 2001.
Heppler, a dean's list student at Brigham Young, earned his bachelor's degree in accounting from BYU in 1985, and later received his master's degree in sport management from Massachusetts in 1988. He played golf for one year at Dixie Junior College in St. George before transferring to Brigham Young.
He became a certified public accountant in 1985 and spent one year in the firm of Huber and Associates in Salt Lake City.
Heppler began his collegiate coaching career in 1987 as the men and women's golf coach at Amherst. He then spent two years as an administrative assistant at UNLV, becoming the assistant men's golf coach at UNLV in 1989. He spent two years in that role before moving to Oklahoma State in 1991.
"Georgia Tech is a great fit for me," said Heppler. "This is one of the five or six best programs right now if you look around at college golf's successful teams since the '90s.
"We have a lot of alumni on the PGA Tour, which is great for the school. Young people can see they have a chance to be player of the year or win a national championship here.
"It's a great school academically, which is a real draw with the general pool of talent out there interested in playing college golf."
Heppler is married to the former Traci Schull of Southbury, Conn., and they have a 12-year-old son, Zakary Bruce, and an 8-year-old daughter, Moriah Kate. Heppler is actively involved with Atlanta Alliance for Children and is a member of the Golf Coaches Association of America.
HEPPLER FILE
Name: Bruce Heppler
Post-Season Experience
Head Coach: 1998 NCAA Championship, third place; 2000 NCAA Championship, second place; 2001 NCAA Championship, fourth place; 2002 NCAA Championship, second place; 2004 NCAA Championship, fifth place; 2005 NCAA Championship, second place; 1998, 1999 & 2002 NCAA East Regional Champions; 1999, 2001, 2002 & 2006 ACC Champions; 2002 NCAA Individual Champion, Troy Matteson |
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