Bruce Heppler doesn’t need to win a NCAA team title to be considered among of the best coaches in college golf history. His record during his three decades overseeing the Georgia Tech men’s golf program speaks for itself—73 tournament wins, 25 All-Americans, 14 ACC titles, 27 straight NCAA regional appearances, 22 trips to the NCAA Championship and five national runner-up finishes.
Even so, there will be an underlying storyline playing out this spring after Friday’s announcement that Heppler would be retiring from his post with the Yellow Jackets after 31 years at the end of the 2025-26 season in May. Can the Hall of Fame coach finish things off by grabbing the one title that’s eluded him?
Heppler, 65, will do everything in his power not to make the rest of the season all about him, having already talked to his team, ranked 16th in the final GCAA Bushnell coaches’ poll of the fall, about what should be the focus in the upcoming spring season. In an interview on Friday with Golf Digest, Heppler said that he would have preferred to make the announcement after NCAA Championship, but needed to speed things up in fairness to future recruits and his current roster.
“This isn’t a year about me more than any other year. This should be about them and their goals and their accomplishments,” Heppler said. “They should focus on the things they can control every day and keep me out . … We don’t need to be doing anything for coach.”
Heppler said that the physical toll of coaching and recruiting had led him to begin thinking about calling it a career in recent years. He also acknowledged the changing landscape of college athletics played a role in his decision.
“I guess as this has become a little more about where is my money and where is my deal … the thing is slowly moving away from the reasons why I’ve gotten up to go to work,” he said.
Heppler was just the fourth golf coach at Georgia Tech since 1931-32, starting in 1995-96 season after working as an assistant under legendary coach Mike Holder at Oklahoma State (where they won the title in 1995). Quickly during his tenure, Heppler proved himself up to the challenge of recruiting the best golfers from around the country. His early rosters included Matt Kuchar (a U.S. Amateur champion), Bryce Molder (four-time first-team All-American), Troy Matteson (NCAA individual champion).
Those early teams nearly claimed that elusive national championship quickly, the Yellow Jackets finishing second to UNLV in 1998, losing in a playoff to Oklahoma State in 2000, then finishing second to Minnesota, a program that was being cut only to rally to win in 2002 and runner-up again in 2005 to Georgia. His team also lost in the final match of the 2023 NCAA Championship to Florida.