South Carolina announces Bill McDonald no longer men's golf coach after 18 seasons

COLUMBIA — Bill McDonald will not return as coach of the South Carolina men's golf program after 18 seasons and a program-record 29 tournament wins, the university announced on Thursday.

McDonald was hired in the summer of 2007 and under his leadership, the Gamecocks had 34 individual tournament wins in addition to the 29 team wins. McDonald guided the Gamecocks to 15 NCAA Regional appearances, including this season, and seven NCAA Championship appearances (the last in 2019). He led the Gamecocks to the program’s only regional title at the 2007 NCAA West Regional.

McDonald coached 11 All-Americans and three PGA Tour players: Mark Anderson (2005-08), Wesley Bryan (2009-12) and Matt NeSmith (2012-16).

“I just had an incredible run,” McDonald told GolfChannel.com. “A lot of feeling good about the people you’re around, a family feel.”

The Gamecocks finished eighth on May 15 at the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional R3 (+11).

South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner announced that the search for a new head coach is now under way but associate head coach Brady Gregor will take over as interim head coach. Gregor was the coach at High Point for five seasons from 2017-22.

Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin