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 the 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—with recruits and current players inquiring about NIL opportunities—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 the 1995-96 season after working as an assistant under legendary coach Mike Holder at Oklahoma State (where he helped the Cowboys win the NCAA 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 in 1998), Bryce Molder (a four-time first-team All-American), Troy Matteson (a NCAA individual champion in 2022).
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.
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Besides recruiting top juniors, Heppler helped change the way golf programs fundraised, establishing a donor network and creating an endowment program that funds all of his team’s scholarships. His efforts also allowed him to build the Noonan Golf Facility, a 15-acre complex on the school’s midtown Atlanta campus that opened in 2017.
Not only were Heppler’s players successful on the course—he’s the only coach to have three players win the U.S. Amateur title, six players competing in the Walker Cup—they also stood out in the classroom. His teams have had a NCAA Academic Progress Rate score every season since the stat was introduced in 2023 and every senior who has been on his roster has graduated. All told, 28 players have been named All-America scholars by the Golf Coaches Association of America a total of 53 times and five—Matteson (2003), Roberto Castro (2007), James White (2012), Anders Albertson (2015) and Christo Lamprecht (2024)—won the Byron Nelson Award, which is given annually to college golf’s top senior scholar-athlete.
Heppler helped raise the funds to build the Noonan Golf Facility, a 15-acre complex on the school’s midtown Atlanta campus that opened in 2017. (Photo courtesy of Georgia Tech)
In a statement from the school, Heppler spoke about dedication of his players to more than just golf. “To the men that have come through our program: I’ve had the privilege of having a front-row seat to when many of your dreams came true, and to see the growth in each one of you. I hope that maybe we’ve altered your course in some small way—not just as golfers, but as people, husbands and fathers.”
Inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Georgia Golf Hall of Fame in 2022, Heppler has left a mark on college golf overall. He frequently was an outspoken advocate for the sport as the national championship transition into a match-play affair and gained more coverage on television.
“It’s impossible to put into words everything that Coach Heppler has meant to Georgia Tech and college golf,” Georgia Tech athletic director Ryan Alpert said in a release. “He’s built Georgia Tech golf into one of the nation’s premier programs, while developing some of golf’s premier players but, more importantly, developing men that have gone on to be successful in all walks of life. We couldn’t be more grateful for coach Heppler’s contributions to Georgia Tech and are excited to celebrate him through his final season on The Flats.”
Asked what he was most proud of accomplishing during his career, Heppler was a bit philosophical.
“I think we fulfilled the purpose of college athletics as well as we possible could,” he said. “We did it the way it was intended, and we followed the purpose of college sports. We tested them academically and athletically. To win a national championship, there is some fate there, some good fortune. But those other things, their grades, the academic All-Americans, those are all their choices. And they should be proud of them."
Heppler certainly is.