Complete Bio in PDF Format
One of Todd McCorkle's favorite stories about his tenure at the University of Georgia involves a meeting of all the school's head coaches during his first year in Athens. "We're in this conference room and (then Athletic Director) Coach (Vince) Dooley asked everyone to give a quick update on how our seasons were going," McCorkle said. "We start going around and here's (swimming and diving coach) Jack Bauerle talking about a potential third straight national title and (men's tennis coach) Manuel Diaz saying his team was ranked No. 2 but they should be moving up to No. 1 soon and (women's gymnastics coach) Suzanne Yoculan saying she thought they had a pretty good shot at their sixth national title and (women's basketball coach) Andy Landers talking about Kelly Miller's shot at the buzzer to win the SEC Tournament. "I'm sitting there as they went around the room thinking to myself, `Dang, we're ranked No. 7 in the nation, and I'm almost ashamed of myself,'" McCorkle laughed. Lucky for him, McCorkle proved his worth later that spring when he led the Bulldogs to their first-ever NCAA Championship with a dramatic fourth-round rally which saw Georgia erase a four-stroke deficit entering the day to win by three shots over the field. McCorkle's 2001 national title was even more impressive considering it came in his initial campaign at Georgia. A year earlier, he led Arizona to the NCAA Championship as well, making McCorkle only the second head coach in Division I history to win back-to-back NCAA titles at two different schools. In his eight full years as a collegiate head coach at the major college level, McCorkle has accomplished a career's-worth of success. Ask any coach in any sport at any level if two national championships and four additional top-11 finishes at the NCAA Championships would fulfill their desire to succeed, and you'd probably receive a hearty and positive reply. That's exactly what McCorkle has done to date. However, there's no end in sight. Many of the nation's top junior golfers - nine AJGA Rolex Golf All-Americans in the last six years for those of you counting at home - have made a beeline to Athens since McCorkle took the helms of the Bulldogs in June 2000. Ask about his record, and McCorkle is quick to deflect any attention from himself, attributing a great deal of the credit to his employers and golfers. "More than anything, I've been at very good places," McCorkle said. "I've been very fortunate to be at the University of Georgia and the University of Arizona, places I believe are the top two women's golf programs in the entire country. If you do your job adequately, you should be very successful there. "The thing that I like to think about our teams is that no one is going to outwork us," McCorkle continued. "I feel we're always going to be prepared. It comes from hard work and the desire to be the best. It burns in me and I hope it burns in my teams." While McCorkle has enjoyed stellar success at every stop during his career, his amazing current coaching streak at the national level began with the 1997-98 season when he served as associate head coach for both the women's and men's teams at Arizona. The Wildcat women finished third at the NCAAs that year. The following season, McCorkle took over as head coach of the women's team and Arizona placed fourth at nationals. A year later, Arizona's Jenna Daniels and Julia Kraschinski finished 1-2 individually as the Wildcats blew away the field by 21 strokes to capture the 2000 national title. Arizona's success during McCorkle's three years there wasn't limited to the NCAA Championships. The Wildcats also captured Pac-10 titles in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and won the 1998 and 2000 NCAA West Regionals. After leading Arizona to the 2000 NCAA title, McCorkle shocked everyone in the golf world later that summer when he departed Arizona for Athens. Golfweek's 2000 National Coach of the Year seemed to have everything he could want in Tucson. But after a trip McCorkle originally thought was to just "take a look" at Athens, he knew the pieces were in place for greatness at Georgia. "I feel like this is an incredible opportunity to join one of the nation's premier programs, which features possibly the best practice facilities of any school in the nation," McCorkle said when he was hired on June 28, 2000. McCorkle hit the ground running when he took over at Georgia, eager to spread the word in golf circles from coast-to-coast and even beyond about the same features which changed his mind so dramatically. Everyone is listening now. In the spring of 2001, McCorkle simply put the puzzle together much faster than anyone would have dreamed when he led the Bulldogs to their first national championship in women's golf. In the process, McCorkle joined Richard Quick as only the second coach in Division I history in any sport to lead two different schools to national titles in successive years. Quick led Texas and Stanford to the women's swimming and diving titles in 1987 and 1988, respectively. He also became just the fourth Division women's coach to win national titles at different schools. In his first year at Georgia, a consistent Bulldog squad established a new school record for team stroke average of 298.03 per round but posted just two team wins. Those titles, however, were at the two biggest events of the year - the SEC Championships and NCAA Championships. Since then, Georgia has bettered that school stroke average mark two more times and has recorded NCAA finishes of fifth in 2002, 11th in 2003 and ninth in 2004. In 2005, the Dogs and Auburn were tied atop the leader-board after 54 holes at the SEC Championships before the Tigers captured the conference title on the second hole of a playoff. Prior to his stint at Arizona, McCorkle was head men's and women's golf coach at Coastal Carolina University in 1996-97, where he led the men to their first Big South Conference Championship in nine years and he was honored as the Big South's Coach of the Year. McCorkle's collegiate coaching career began in the SEC at Florida, where he served as an assistant with the men's team from 1993-96 and also was the interim women's head coach in 1994. McCorkle helped the men's team to the 1994 SEC Championship and third- and sixth-place NCAA showings in 1994 and 1996. McCorkle played collegiately at UNC-Charlotte where he won three individual titles and was an All-Sun Belt Conference performer. He received a degree in psychology in 1986. McCorkle worked as a teaching pro at the Grand Cypress, the International and the Lake Nona Golf Clubs in Orlando before joining the college coaching ranks. McCorkle, who has been an instructor at the Golfweek Academy, also played on Florida mini-tours and caddied for Russ Cochran on the PGA Tour before gaining his exempt status on the Ben Hogan Tour (now the Nationwide Tour) in 1991 and 1992. He married LPGA Tour member Jenna Daniels on Jan. 14, 2004.
McCorkle At-a-Glance Personal:
Coaching:
McCorkle's Milestones '94, Florida Men, 3rd '95, Florida Men, t-6th '98, Arizona Women, 3rd '99, Arizona Women, 4th '00, Arizona Women, 1st '01, Georgia Women, 1st '02, Georgia Women, 5th '04, Georgia Women, 9th '94, Florida Men, SEC '97, Coastal Carolina, BSC '98, Arizona Women, Pac-10 '90, Arizona Women, Pac-10 '00, Arizona Women, Pac-10 '01, Georgia Women, SEC |
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