Announcement.

Georgia Tech golf head coach Bruce Heppler has officially signed a five-year contract extension, and the Yellow Jackets have appointed Jeff Paton and Evan Smith as assistant coaches, as announced by Tech on Monday.

Heppler’s contract extension will last until the 2028-29 season. Now in his 30th year as head coach, he has led the Yellow Jackets to 14 Atlantic Coast Conference championships, 21 appearances in the NCAA Championship finals, and four national runner-up finishes—achievements that are unmatched by any program at Georgia Tech. He has successfully guided the Jackets to 26 consecutive NCAA regionals and a total of 72 tournament wins. In the past two years, Tech finished as runners-up in the 2023 NCAA Championship and tied for third in 2024.

On an individual level, Heppler has coached three U.S. Amateur champions (Matt Kuchar in 1997, Andy Ogletree in 2019, and Tyler Strafaci in 2020), a British Amateur champion (Christo Lamprecht in 2023), and two NCAA individual champions (Troy Matteson in 2002 and Hiroshi Tai in 2024).

“Bruce Heppler stands out as one of the most accomplished and successful head coaches in Georgia Tech athletics history,” said athletic director J Batt. “His program has only strengthened in recent years, achieving back-to-back top-three finishes at the last two NCAA Championships, along with three amateur major champions and an NCAA individual champion in the past six years. We are excited for him to continue elevating our golf program.”

Alongside extending Heppler’s contract, Georgia Tech has also brought in two new assistant coaches, Paton and Smith.

Paton, who has been a volunteer coach at Tech since 2021, has been a self-employed PGA Tour coach since 2015, training elite amateur athletes and touring professionals at various levels. His extensive experience includes a 32-year career as a golf professional at different clubs, including two terms as the director of golf at the Golf Club of Georgia in Alpharetta, which serves as the home course for the Yellow Jackets. Originally from Lowell, Massachusetts, Paton has been recognized as the Georgia Section PGA Teacher of the Year and has won the Georgia Section PGA Merchandiser of the Year award twice. He has held leadership positions as past president of the Georgia PGA Assistants division, the Georgia PGA North Chapter, and the Georgia Golf Course Owners Association, and has been a member of the board of directors for the Georgia Section PGA. He is also a certified PGA Tour instructor.

“Jeff has been involved with our program in some capacity for nearly 30 years and played a vital role in securing a team membership at the Golf Club of Georgia in 1996,” Heppler stated. “He has worked with many of our most accomplished alumni over the years. Having his teaching expertise available to our players full-time will be incredibly valuable.”

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With ten years of experience in the golf industry, Smith previously held the position of head coach for both the men’s and women’s golf teams at St. Andrews University in Laurinburg, N.C. during the 2018-19 season. Before that, he spent two years as an assistant coach at Point University in West Point, Ga., and served as the director of golf at Point University Golf Club from 2016 to 2018. Between his coaching roles and joining Tech, the Kennesaw, Ga. native enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 2019, where he graduated from the Army School of Infantry, taking on the role of class first sergeant and overseeing the training and welfare of fellow recruits. At Georgia Tech, he will focus on coaching and recruiting, developing fitness during competitions, assisting with practice design and setup, managing technology at the Noonan Practice Facility, helping with fundraising, and handling daily compliance and reporting duties.

“Evan brings tremendous energy and experience to the program as a former collegiate player and coach,” Heppler stated. “His background as a head coach will be incredibly useful in managing the daily administrative tasks of the program and our fundraising initiatives. His five years in the military will also greatly aid us in organizing our coaching efforts.”

Georgia Tech golf kicked off its 2024-25 season last weekend, finishing eighth in a highly competitive field at the Visit Knoxville Collegiate. The 11th-ranked Yellow Jackets are set to return six letterwinners for the 2024-25 season, including defending NCAA champion Hiroshi Tai and three other players who represented the Yellow Jackets at the 2024 NCAA Championship, where they advanced to the national semifinals.