Women's Golf
- Title:
- Lyons Family Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- potterrm@wfu.edu
- Phone:
- 336-758-5619
Ryan Potter has spent eight seasons on the coaching staff of the Wake Forest women's golf program, joining the program in January, 2017. After serving as an assistant coach in 2017-18, he was promoted to associate head coach in the summer of 2018.
Alongside Tony and Vi Golding head coach Kim Lewellen, Potter coached Wake Forest to three team wins during the 2024-25 season, including a regional victory at the NCAA Lubbock Regional, their first as a coaching duo. This past year saw two Deacs earn All-American accolades and three All-ACC nods under Potter, as well as the Deacs’ seventh consecutive NCAA Championship appearance.
Along with Pate, Rachel Kuehn, Carolina Chacarra and Mimi Rhodes all earned spots on the All-ACC Team. 2023-24 marked the third-consecutive year Wake Forest had four or more players earn All-League honors. Kuehn became a four-time All-ACC selection, and Chacarra and Rhodes are three-time selections.
Pate was also named to the watch list for the Women’s Golf Coaches Association for Freshman of the Year. Pate, Kuehn and Chacarra all earned WGCA All-America honors at the conclusion of the championship while Rhodes earned NCAA All-America honors by finishing inside the top 15 at the Championships.
In his sixth season with the Demon Deacons, Potter worked with 2023 WGCA National Coach of the Year Kim Lewellen to lead Wake Forest to the first national title in women's golf program history. En Route to becoming the 2023 champs, the Deacs also won a program-record five regular-season titles and had a program-record five All-ACC selections. Potter also coached four All-Americans and three Arnold Palmer Cup selections on the 2022-23 squad, along with the program's first-ever back-to-back ACC Player of the Year in Rachel Kuehn.
For the first time in his career, Potter earned WGCA National Assistant Coach of the year honors in May 2022. During the 2021-22 season, Potter coached alongside ACC Coach of the Year Kim Lewellen to lead the Deacs’ to their second ACC title in four years and make an appearance at the NCAA Championships for the fourth year in a row. Including the ACC title, Wake Forest won a program-record five team titles this season and remained in the top-five of the Mizuno WGCA Coaches Poll for the entirety of the spring season.
Potter coached ACC Player of the Year Rachel Kuehn and ACC Freshman of the Year Carolina Chacarra, both of which earned WGCA All-America accolades for the 2021-22 season. Wake Forest also had a program-record four players earn All-ACC recognition at the conclusion of the 2022 spring season
During the 2021 spring season, Potter helped coach three All-ACC selections and two All-Americans on the programs way to their third appearance in four years at the NCAA Championships in Scottsdale, Arizona. Under the guidance of coach Potter, 2021 All-Americans Rachel Kuehn and Lauren Walsh have dropped full strokes off their season averages since arriving on campus in 2019. Senior Vanessa Knecht has dropped three strokes off her average since arriving on campus in 2018.
Over his first four seasons on the Wake Forest staff, Potter also helped the Deacons win the 2019 ACC Championship, win 13 individual titles, nine team titles and reach the championship match of the 2019 NCAA Championship. He has coached five All-Americans, including 2018 NCAA Champion and 2019 Augusta National Women's Amateur Champion Jennifer Kupcho and 2019 ACC Individual Champion Emilia Migliaccio.
Potter came to Wake Forest from Charlotte where he was the first assistant coach in program history as the 49ers prepared to begin competing in women's golf in 2017-18. He helped sign six players to National Letters of Intent to form the program's first recruiting class.
For two seasons, 2014-15 and 2015-16, Potter was an assistant women's golf coach at UNLV, helping the Running Rebels to a pair of Top 25 national rankings. During his time in Las Vegas, UNLV posted four team and five individual victories, including the 2016 Mountain West Conference title, and made its first NCAA Championship appearance in seven years.
Prior to moving to the women's side of the game, Potter was an assistant men's golf coach for seven seasons. He was an assistant coach at Ohio State for four seasons from 2010-11 to 2013-14, highlighted by the Buckeyes' fifth place finish at the 2011 NCAA Championships. From 2008-09 to 2009-10, Potter was an assistant coach at Mississippi as the Rebels finished the 2008-09 season ranked in the top 30 nationally. He began his collegiate coaching career in 2007-08 as a volunteer assistant coach at Alabama.
Potter also gained experience by serving as the Assistant Director of the First Tee of Tuscaloosa and as an operations intern with the American Junior Golf Association prior to beginning his collegiate coaching career.
Potter was a four-year letterwinner at Furman, graduating in 2005 with a degree in History. He received a master's in Sport Management from Alabama in 2008.
