Longtime URI Golf Coach Tom Brennan to Retire Next Year

May 5, 2010 6:48 pm

URI release:

KINGSTON, R.I. — Tom Drennan, the longtime golf coach at the University of Rhode Island, has announced his retirement effective at the conclusion of the 2010-11 academic year.

Next year will mark Drennan's 50th year as a coach, at the high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I level.

“I am really looking forward to coaching my last season with the Rhode Island golf program. They are a special group and I am looking forward to working with them,” said Drennan. “It has been a great experience and I have nothing but praise for the people I have worked with over the years, especially at URI, but it is time to move on.”

Drennan, who was inducted into the Golf Coaches Association of American (GCAA) Hall of Fame in 2008, will have served as head coach of the Rhody golf program for 22 seasons.

During his tenure, the Rams qualified for NCAA Regional Championship play for 16 straight years, from 1992-2007. In 2004, URI finished eighth in the East Regional and advanced to the NCAA Championship – the first team from the Northeast to do so since the regional format was adopted in 1988.

“I would like to thank Tom for his many years of service to the University of Rhode Island and to the athletics department,” said Thorr Bjorn, URI's director of athletics. “His long list of accomplishments – from his numerous Coach of the Year awards at the Rhode Island, New England and Atlantic 10 levels, to his 2008 induction into the Golf Coaches Association of America Hall of Fame – are incredible.”

Drennan has been named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year twice, adding to his already impressive total of eight New England Coach of the Year awards (1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2007) and two Rhode Island Coach of the Year honors (1994, 1999).

“Tom has always been a terrific ambassador for the University of Rhode Island,” Bjorn added. “I would say that he will be sorely missed, but I know that Tom will continue to be a fixture at all of our athletic events and functions. It has been a true privilege and honor to have worked with him.”