Brad Rickel is in his 20th year leading the Gonzaga women’s golf program in 2025-26.
Under Rickel, the Bulldogs have emerged as a power in the West Coast Conference and regular in the NCAA Tournament, earning team bids to an NCAA Regional three times and qualifying a player to compete in the NCAA Championships for the first time ever in 2016 and 2017. The women’s golf program earned three consecutive at-large bids to NCAA competition, a first in GU history. In 2021, the Bulldogs won their first ever West Coast Conference Championship.
Since Rickel re-joined Gonzaga before the 2007-08 season, the Bulldogs have seen unprecedented success. They’ve won 15 team tournament titles, four of which came during the 2012-13 season for a new school best. They’ve continued to lower the team score average, with an all-time low in 2019-20, and their four top-two and five top-three finishes at the WCC Championships in the last 10 years mark the best stretch the Zags have seen in conference action. Also under Rickel, three Bulldogs have won the conference’s individual title (Victoria Fallgren, 2012; Alice Kim, 2014; Ciera Min; 2016), the first individual WCC titles for Gonzaga golf, men’s or women’s.
Also a first in Gonzaga golf, Rickel coached Bianca Pagdanganan to the NCAA Championships during the 2015-16 season. The freshman earned an individual berth to the NCAA’s Bryan Regional, where Rickel helped her finish in a tie for eighth and in position to compete for a national title. She returned in 2016-17, earning a bid after finishing fourth at the Albuquerque, N.M. Regional. She set a school record at the NCAA Championships in Sugar Grove, Ill., finishing 66th. She highlighted the season by tying the NCAA single-round record with a 61 in her March tournament win at the Pizza Hut Lady Thunderbird Classic, where she also set a new school 36-hole record at 14-under.
Continuing with the individual accomplishments under Rickel, 22 Zags have earned All-WCC honors since 2007, accounting for over 80 percent of the program’s total All-Conference honorees. Additionally, a Bulldog has claimed medalist honors in 16 events since the 2007-08 season. In 2013, Rickel helped Raychelle Santos earn WCC Freshman of the Year honors, Pagdanganan earned a share of the same award in 2016, and Quynn Duong was the most recent to take home the honor in 2019. He’s been recognized as the WCC’s top coach five times, including each year from 2011 to 2014 and again 2021.
The Zags have excelled in the classroom under Rickel, earning Academic All-American honors 22 times and boasting 26 Academic All-Conference honorees.
Rickel has re-written the Gonzaga record books during his time in Spokane. The school’s 14 lowest season individual scoring averages have come while he’s been the head coach, as have the 25 best one-round, two-round, and three-round individual scores. The team scoring records have similarly been changed; the 23 lowest individual team rounds have come from a Rickel-led squad, as did the lowest 22 two- and three-round scores.
Others are starting to take notice of the Gonzaga women’s golf’s rise to NCAA contention. During the 2013-14, the Zags earned Top 50 spots in both the GolfWeek and Golfstat polls before finishing the season ranked 49th by GolfWeek. In September 2014, Gonzaga saw its highest-ever ranking when GolfWeek tabbed them as No. 21 after the second tournament of the season.
Prior to his second stint at Gonzaga, Rickel built the Idaho golf programs into a Big West contender with the men winning the conference title in 2000 and the women the following year and in 2007. The Vandals had two individual conference champions under Rickel. He took four teams to NCAA Regionals and saw either a team or individual qualify for NCAA Regional action in seven of his eight years in Moscow. He led three individuals to the NCAA Regionals and one to the NCAA finals. He also had 29 players earn First- or Second-Team All-Big West honors and five receive Academic All-American while coaching Idaho. Rickel was named the Big West Conference Coach of the Year twice and the Western Athletic Conference Coach of the Year once. Under Rickel, Idaho had 27 team tournament victories (19 women, 8 men), and 15 individual tournament victories.
During the 1998-99 season, Rickel began his collegiate coaching career at Gonzaga. He headed both the men’s and women’s programs during his first stint at GU.
Rickel has also coached at the pro level, serving as the instructor for Spokane-born Ryan Benzel at the PGA Championship from 2007-10. Rickel attended four PGA Championships as Coach for Benzel. Rickel holds Class A PGA Professional status and has worked at both Manito Golf and Country Club and the Creek at Qualchan in Spokane.
His wife, Karen, is an associate professor and department chair in the Department of Sport and Physical Education at Gonzaga. They are the parents of Darby (2002) and Madison (2005).
