Long Time Mocs Golf Coach Mark Guhne Announces His Retirement
(gomocs.com) CHATTANOOGA—Chattanooga Mocs Head Golf Coach Mark Guhne announced his retirement Thursday afternoon. He served 16+ seasons in the role building the program into a national power.
It’s not something lost on the 1984 UTC grad who amassed nearly 1,600 wins in 16+ seasons.
“It’s always an honor to lead a program at your alma mater,” Guhne reflected. “You rattle off those honors and wins and accomplishments and frankly, it’s very humbling. We had so many great players come through, but most importantly, great people. I have an immense pride in all we accomplished.
“Our goal was always to bring a national title to Chattanooga. I’m proud of every student-athlete and staff member we had here who fought to meet those expectations. This was an amazing journey for Kelly and me. I’m most thankful for her support through it all.
“I look back at our champions, all-conference, all-region and All-America performers, but especially our long list of Scholar All-Americans. There are too many people to name, but I appreciate all of them, and their commitment to our program.”
Prior to Mark Guhne’s tenure, the program won one conference championship, one league individual title and made two individual trips to the NCAA Tournament reaching the finals once. During Guhne’s tenure, the NCAA Tournament was an expectation with all nine of the program’s trips (2007-15) coming under his watch. His charges advance to the NCAA Championships twice – 2009 & 2012 – with Chris Robb moving forward as an individual in 2014.
The Mocs won 20 times as a team with 20 individual winners as well. That doesn’t count seven major individual wins outside collegiate play that his student-athletes accomplished while playing at Chattanooga. There’s 2012 U.S. Amateur Winner Steven Fox, 2014 Scottish Am Champ Robb, three Tennessee Am crowns – Derek Rende (2008), Fox (2013) & Wes Gosselin (2016) – as well as two Tennessee Match Play wins from Rende (2008) and Oliver Simonsen (2018).
There’s the 2012 NCAA Bowling Green Regionals win defeating the likes of Texas A&M, UCLA, Clemson, Northwestern and Arkansas along the way. The individual title came back to the Scenic City won by 2012 All-American Stephan Jaeger. It was a magical run.
But there were many magic moments in the former builder’s construction of the program. That list is above, but no listing of accomplishments for the Cleveland, Tenn., native properly expresses his impact nor the gratitude of a grateful campus.
“When you look at his body of work, it truly speaks for itself,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Mark Wharton began. “We congratulate him on his 16+ years leading our program and thank him for his efforts to make this a premier program both regionally and nationally.”
Assistant Coach Miles Moseley moves into the role of Interim Head Coach for the spring semester. The Mocs return to the course in February at the Nexus Collegiate. The event is Feb. 14-16 at Albany Golf Club in New Providence, The Bahamas. A national search for Guhne’s successor is planned at the end of the spring semester.
Guhne’s Notable UTC Accomplishments:
1 NCAA Team Regionals Championship
– 1 NCAA Team Regionals Individual Title
– 1 U.S. Amateur Champ
– 5 of the program’s six Southern Conference Crowns
– 3 All-Americans
– 1 of the program’s two SoCon Medalists
– 3 Trips to the NCAA Finals – 2 Team/1 Individual
– Twice ranked No. 1 in country
