Men’s Golf Associate HC Matt Clark Retires

Matt Clark, associate head coach of the Carolina men’s golf program and the 2022 Jan Strickland Award winner as the top assistant coach in the country, is retiring from college golf coaching to spend more time with his wife, Erica, and two young children.
 
Clark came to Chapel Hill six years ago after nine seasons as head coach at UNCW and teamed with head coach Andrew DiBitetto to lead the Tar Heels to an unprecedented run in the NCAA Championships and a thorough re-write of the UNC record book.
 
Under their direction Carolina has won 15 tournament titles, finished first in stroke play in two NCAA Championships and two Atlantic Coast Conference Championships, finished in the top five in each of the last three NCAA Championships and recruited and developed some of the top players in UNC men’s golf history. Carolina, Arizona State, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt are the only teams to finish in the top 20 in each NCAA Championship held during his tenure in Chapel Hill.
 
“Coach Clark is an amazing coach and, more importantly, an incredible person, mentor and friend,” says DiBitetto. “For six years he helped our guys develop on and off the course, with the latter being more significant. As coaches, we are expected to win tournaments but it’s also our responsibility to develop young men. Coach Clark was a champion at this. He had countless impactful conversations with our student-athletes about life and he’s phenomenal at knowing when to push someone and when to put an arm around them. Our successes would not have been the same without Clarkie. He and I talk often about leaving Carolina Golf better than we found it and, without a doubt, he has made Carolina Golf so much better. We thank him for his impact, passion, fire and love. We’ll miss interacting and competing with him on a daily basis.”
 
When Clark came to UNC the Tar Heels had advanced to the NCAA Championships just one time since 2007. In his six seasons Carolina finished 15^th, 19^th, tied for fifth, tied for fifth and third (there was no NCAA Championship in 2020 due to the pandemic). UNC was ranked No. 1 in the nation in the 2021-22 season and finished this past season ranked No. 2.
 
“It has been a tremendous privilege to work with young men chasing their dreams the past 26 years,” says Clark, who also was an assistant coach at his alma mater, Alabama, for six…