Bill McDonald out as South Carolina men’s golf coach after 18 seasons
South Carolina will be searching for a new men’s golf coach.
Head coach Bill McDonald “will not return as the Gamecocks’ head coach,” athletic director Ray Tanner announced on Thursday afternoon via a press release.
It wasn’t immediately clear if McDonald had been fired or his contract had expired. McDonald had been USC’s men’s golf coach for 18 years dating back to 2007 — the university’s second-longest tenured head coach behind Shelley Smith of women’s soccer.
In 18 seasons, McDonald led South Carolina to 15 NCAA regionals (including an appearance this season) and the program’s only regional title in 2007. USC also advanced to seven NCAA championships under McDonald, but the last of those came in 2019.
McDonald, known as “Billy Mack,” was the winningest coach in program history. He coached 11 different All Americans and three PGA TOUR golfers (Mark Anderson, Wesley Bryan and Matt NeSmith) during his nearly two decades in Columbia.
According to South Carolina, current associate head coach Brady Gregor will take over as interim head coach of the program while the school conducts a national search for its next head coach.
McDonald is the first coaching departure at USC since equestrian coach Boo Major retired in April after 26 seasons. Longtime track and field coach Curtis Frye also retired from the university last summer after 27 years.
Accounting for those three departures, the three longest tenured coaches at South Carolina among its 21 varsity sports as of Thursday are: women’s soccer coach Smith (24 years), women’s golf coach Kalen Anderson (17 years) and women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley (16 years).
All three of those coaches — especially Staley, a three-time national champion and one of the faces of her sport — have been highly successful.
The longest tenured men’s sport coach at South Carolina following McDonald’s departure is now men’s tennis coach Josh Goffi (14 seasons).
